"Chicken Is Nice" was recorded in the late 1940s by its composer, the blind Liberian pianist Howard B. Hayes, and released on a 78 album called (as I remember) Cafe and Cabaret Music from Liberia, or something of that sort, which is where Dave learned it. This was reissued last year, along with a lot of similar material, on "Songs of the African Coast: Café Music of Liberia and Ghana," and there is more info at http://www.geocities.com/africancafemusic/yarngo.html It is a wonderful album, with quite a few songs that should be more widely known.
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