[3] It was released in 1974 as the first single from his debut album, Kung Fu Fighting and Other Great Love Songs (1974), on the cusp of a chopsocky film craze and rose to the top of the British, Australian, Canadian, and American charts, in addition to reaching the top of the Soul Singles chart.

[6][dubious – discuss] It eventually went on to sell eleven million records worldwide,[2][6] making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.

The song was covered by CeeLo Green with Jack Black[7] and The Vamps for the first and third films of the Kung Fu Panda franchise respectively.

[8] The song was originally meant to be a B-side to "I Want to Give You My Everything" (written by Brooklyn songwriter Larry Weiss and sung by Carl Douglas).

Douglas showed several, out of which Biddu chose the one that would later be called "Kung Fu Fighting" and worked out a melody for it without taking it too seriously.