The nonsensical lyrics were written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor; the music was written by Philip Pope, who also produced the song, with Michael Fenton Stevens & Kate Robbins as vocalists.

The song featured heavily during the 1986 series of Spitting Image, playing recurrently in the background, and being hummed by characters; at one stage, the puppet of Pope John Paul II played it on a banjolele.

[1] On the Spit in Your Ear album, the "Celebrity Mega Mix" version of "The Chicken Song" was included, which features vocal impressions of celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Tina Turner singing the lyrics.

[citation needed] On the second B-side (the single was released as a "double B-side") of the 7" and 12" singles was another popular song from Spitting Image, "I've Never Met a Nice South African", which mocked the apartheid-era nation's white people.

The 12" single also contained "Hello, You Must Be Going", a parody of Phil Collins who seems as much concerned about his receding hairline as his failed relationship, and "We're Scared of Bob", a parody of the Band Aid / USA for Africa charity records with the various artists suggesting they were only making the record because they were too afraid to say no when Bob Geldof asked them.