The White Stripes’ Jack White and Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo have teamed together to record a cover of the 1970’s camp disco classic “Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting” for the soundtrack to the upcoming animated Dreamworks film “Kung Fu Panda.”
Written and performed by Carl Douglas, the song became an instant chart hit, and shot to #1 in both the U.K. and U.S. in 1974. The new collaborative cover will contain new lyrics and will be the first single off the soundtrack due May 27 digitally. The track was produced by The Underdogs, whose credits include Chris Brown, Marques Houston, and Beyonce.
Voiced by portly comedian Jack Black ‘Panda’ tells the story of… A bear that loves bamboo? A mammal that won’t fuck to save its own species? Who knows what this thing is about. [ed. A slacker panda who must somehow become a Kung Fu Master in order to save his valley from a villainous Snow Leopard].
The rest of the soundtrack is a score courtesy of the great Hans Zimmer and up-and-comer John Powell who seems to be scoring everything under the sun of late (“Stop-Loss,” “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “Hancock,” “Horton Hears A Who,” etc.) Their soundtrack – which includes the single – score comes out June 3, while the film itself comes out in theaters June 6.
How did the Cee-lo, J. White collabo come about? They both loved the song of course (and Dreamworks drove a dump truck full of cash up to their front lawns driven by Playboy Bunnies). “It was inspiring and an honor to have the opportunity to reintroduce the record to a brand new audience sprinkled with a little of me on top,” Cee-Lo said in a statement.
We wish we had something witty to end this with, but we kind of don’t care.
Watch: “Kung Fu Panda” trailer
Watch: Carl Douglas – “Kung Fu Fighting”
