"One Pound Fish", often stylised as "£1 Fish", is a

novelty song A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and w ...

performed by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

-based

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

fish trader and recording artist Muhammad Shahid Nazir, credited as One Pound Fish Man. It was released on 7 December 2012 for

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in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, reaching number 28 in the UK Singles Chart, number 4 in the

UK Dance Singles Chart The Dance Singles Chart and the Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synth-pop) in record stores ...

, and number 1 in the UK Asian Chart.

Background

Following brief employment at a pound shop, Muhammad Shahid Nazir, a Pakistani immigrant to UK, originating from the town of

Pattoki Pattoki () is a city in the Kasur District of the Punjab province of Pakistan.Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, who had settled in

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

, began work on a fish stall at Queen's Market, Upton Park where his employer instructed him to use a trader's call to attract customers. He soon composed the song "One Pound Fish". It became a

viral video Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...

after passing customers uploaded videos of Nazir performing his song onto

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. A music video to accompany the release of "One Pound Fish" was first released on 10 December 2012 at a total length of two minutes and thirty-six seconds. It featured

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

-style dancers and an appearance from former

weather forecaster A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

Michael Fish Michael Fish (born 27 April 1944) is a British weather forecasting, weather forecaster. From 1974 to 2004, he was a television presenter for BBC Weather. Career Fish was born on 27 April 1944 in Eastbourne, Sussex. Educated at Osmington Sch ...

. In 2012 it was rumoured that Nazir had been deported to Pakistan after his

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had expired, although this was not the case.

Covers and remixes

The song has since been covered by many artists including

Alesha Dixon Alesha Anjanette Dixon (born 7 October 1978) is an English singer, rapper, dancer, television personality, and author. She rose to prominence in the early 2000s as a member of the R&B / UK Garage group Mis-Teeq, who had seven UK top 10 hits, ...

Mindless Behavior Mindless Behavior was an American boy band who were best known for the singles " My Girl" and " Mrs. Right", produced by Walter Millsap. The band was put together in Los Angeles in 2008, by Keisha Gamble, Vincent Herbert and Walter Millsap. The ba ...

performed it live on the

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts Black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been ...

Breakfast Show, and

Timbaland Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer and rapper. Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, he is widely acclaimed for his distinctive production work and "stuttering" rhythm ...

Boy Better Know Boy Better Know, often abbreviated as BBK, is a British grime collective and record label. The collective was founded in North London in 2005 as an independent record label by brothers Jamie and Joseph Adenuga, better known as Jme and Skepta, ...

and

the Kiffness David Scott (born 11 February 1988), also known by his stage name the Kiffness, is a South African musician, producer, and parody artist who is the founder and lead singer of the band the Kiffness. Despite the band's name, Scott is referred to ...

made remixes sampling from the song.

Charts

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:One Pound Fish 2012 debut singles Warner Music Group singles Novelty songs Songs based on jingles Songs about fish 2012 songs Internet memes introduced from the United Kingdom Advertising in the United Kingdom