Jeff Davis heard the song from his brother Hardin, who learned it from the "early 20th-century" country music performer "Uncle Dave" Macon. Kathy Kallick combined versions learned from the McGee Brothers, Red Clay Ramblers, and Jody Stecher.

C-H-I-C-K-E-N

In a little country school house where the children used to go,
There lived a little red-haired boy by the name of Ragtime Joe.
One day the teacher called on the class to spell a certain sort of a bird,
The kind of bird it was a chicken, and they could not spell that word.
So the teacher called on Ragtime Joe to spell that word for them,
He did not hesitate a bit, and this is the way that he went:

C - that's the way to begin
H - that's the next letter in
I - that is the third
C - time to season up the bird
K - I'm fitting in
E - Igetting near to the end
C-H-I-C-K-E-N, that is the way to spell chicken.

Parson Johnson gave a concert in the old school house one night,
He hired a lot of fellers that could sing and could recite;
But when they pulled the curtain back, everything went wrong, you know,
Until the children loudly called, "Let's hear from Ragtime Joe."

He sang a ragtime jukin' tune, but it did not go so well,
He said, "I went across on that, so I guess I'll have to spell,"
Then he told the audience he had composed this chicken song
And when he sang these words to them, you know, he took the house by storm.
[Chorus]^^