What is the name of the tune at the beginning of "Kung Fu Fighting"?

May 7, 2005 1:45 PM

What is the name of the tune at the beginning of Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting"? In that song it is played on a recorder or something, but I have heard it elsewhere played on stringed instruments, etc. I know the tune predates that song because I heard it as a child in old cartoons. Whenever a character was from or sent to a generic Asian destination, they would play that tune to set the location. I have googled every combination of terms I can think of to narrow this down, but come up with nothing. I want it for a ringtone.
posted by Brian James to society & culture (4 comments total)

Ask MetaFilter's take on this is inconclusive.
posted by majick at 1:56 PM on May 7, 2005

How badly do you want this ringtone? It's probable that you could obtain a version of 'Kung Fu Fighting' in .wav format, crop the segment you need, then convert it to an appropriate format and send it to your phone. That's what I did, anyway, and now my ringtone is the introduction to LL Cool J's 'Goin' Back to Cali.'
posted by box at 2:37 PM on May 7, 2005

A more recent (but still inconclusive) AskMe on the subject.
posted by obloquy at 3:32 PM on May 7, 2005

(semi-tangential) Although it did not work for my phone / provider combination, see if smashthetones can help you implement box's suggestion.
posted by omnidrew at 3:48 PM on May 7, 2005