Land of 1000 Dances

The lyrics are mostly a list of dances that were popular at the time. The title does not appear in the lyrics. Kenner was inspired by an old spiritual song that was sung in the American South called "Children Go Where I Send Thee." It is a song where the narrator enumerates all the places where he can "send thee": "Children go where I send thee, how shall I send thee," except of course, Kenner names all the different dances people were doing at the time.

Fats Domino got a composer credit even though he had nothing to do with writing it. Kenner offered him the credit and half the royalties if he would record it. He did, but Domino's version flopped and Kenner's version ended up being a bigger hit. Domino had previously charted with Kenner's song "Sick and Tired," and Kenner had a big hit in 1961 with his song "I Like It Like That," which went to #2 in the US.

In 1964, two years after Kenner and Domino recorded the song, it was covered by the Mexican-American Los Angeles rock band Cannibal And The Headhunters, who took it to #30 in the US. This was the first version of the song to include the primal "na na na na na na" chant, which the group came up with when the lead singer forgot the lyrics. The song quickly became very popular among bar bands, who would often sing the "na na"s instead of actual words. The original version has lyrics all the way through, but that's not how most people know the song.