Who recorded it first
Land of 1000 Dances
Not a Wilson Pickett original — a 1962 Chris Kenner single on Instant
Wilson Pickett’s 1966 Atlantic recording is so definitive that most people assume he originated it. He did not: the song was written and first recorded by New Orleans R&B singer Chris Kenner, released as a single on Instant Records in 1962. Kenner wrote it himself — reportedly building it on an old spiritual — and his record only crept to No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100. Even the chanted hook everyone sings belongs to neither man: Cannibal & the Headhunters added it on their 1965 Rampart single.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Issued in 1962 as a 7-inch single on Instant Records, backed with “That’s My Girl.” An eighteen-second gospel-influenced a cappella opening was trimmed from the released single to help radio play it.
Charted Reached No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 — a minor showing for what became one of the most-covered songs of the era.
How the song travelled
1962 — Chris Kenner writes and cuts it for Instant, which issues the single in October; it peaks at No. 77 on the Hot 100 in 1963, per Wikipedia’s account of the song ↗.
1965 — Cannibal & the Headhunters ↗ reach No. 30 on Rampart and introduce the chanted hook.
1966 — Wilson Pickett ↗ records it at FAME for Atlantic and takes it to No. 6 pop and No. 1 R&B.
1983 — The J. Geils Band returns a live version to the Hot 100 at No. 60, one of dozens of revivals.
Wikipedia: Land of a Thousand Dances — originals and coversKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
Setting the record straight
Three separate acts have a claim on why you know this song, and the one most people name is the last of them.
Wilson Pickett
His Atlantic single, cut at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals in May 1966, hit No. 6 pop and No. 1 R&B and became the definitive version — but it is a cover, four years after the fact.
Chris Kenner
Kenner recorded the song first and Instant issued it as a single in 1962, backed with “That’s My Girl.” It reached only No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Chris Kenner
Kenner wrote it himself, reportedly adapting an old spiritual — the writer and the first recording artist are the same person here. Labels and the copyright registration nonetheless read “C. Kenner – A. Domino”: Kenner gave Antoine “Fats” Domino a half-share of the credit and royalties in exchange for Domino recording the song, which he did in 1963.
Cannibal & the Headhunters
The chanted vocal figure everyone associates with the song is not on Kenner’s record. Frankie “Cannibal” Garcia improvised it in 1965 after forgetting the words; Pickett kept it.
Written and first recorded by Chris Kenner, 1962, Instant Records. Wilson Pickett’s 1966 Atlantic version is the famous one, not the first one.
Context
Why the cover ate the original
Kenner’s record is a list song — a roll-call of roughly sixteen dance crazes of the early 1960s, from the Pony to the Mashed Potato to the Watusi. It was built for a moment, and the moment moved on. His original take even opened with an eighteen-second gospel-flavoured a cappella passage, which was cut from the single so radio would play it. A No. 77 peak meant most of America never heard it at all.
What turned a period novelty into a permanent standard was an accident in East Los Angeles. Cannibal & the Headhunters cut a version that Rampart released in February 1965, and when Frankie “Cannibal” Garcia lost his place in the words he filled the gap with a chanted vocal figure. That hook — not in Kenner’s record — is what everyone now thinks the song is. Pickett kept it, put the Muscle Shoals rhythm section and the Memphis Horns behind it, and made the definitive record of a song he neither wrote nor first sang.
The chronology, step by step
- 1962 — Chris Kenner writes and records the song; Instant Records issues it as a single in October, backed with “That’s My Girl.” It reaches No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.
- 1963 — Fats Domino records it for ABC-Paramount, released on the album “Here Comes… Fats Domino”; his version flops, but it is why his name sits on the composer credit.
- 1965 — Cannibal & the Headhunters release their version on Rampart in February; the improvised chanted hook is added here. It reaches No. 30 on the Hot 100, and the group goes on to open for the Beatles at Shea Stadium and the Hollywood Bowl.
- 1965 — Thee Midniters, also from East Los Angeles, chart with their own reading, reaching No. 27 in Canada.
- 1966 — Wilson Pickett records it at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals on 11 May; Atlantic releases it in July. No. 6 pop, No. 1 R&B, No. 22 UK.
- 1983 — The J. Geils Band takes a live version to No. 60, one of many later revivals.
The hook everyone knows was a lyric someone forgot.