The Twist was a dance that was made popular in the early 1960s, and is named after the rock and roll song that originated it. Unlike most dances before it, The Twist was unique in that it required that partners did not touch each other. In Chubby Checker’s own words, “Imagine you’ve just stepped out of the shower and you’re drying your back with a big towel. At the same time, you’re stubbing out a cigarette with your foot.”
In 1959, Detroit R&B singer Hank Ballard wrote and recorded a song called “The Twist” as the B-side of “Teardrops on Your Letter.” “The Twist” was a song to accompany the twisting dance movements of his backing band, The Midnighters. The song was successful, but not a huge hit. Hank Ballard& The Midnighters were labeled as as one of the most risqué groups of the time, due to songs such as “Work With Me, Annie,” and “Sexy Ways.”
Dick Clark heard The Twist, and wanted to help promote the song, but didn’t want to have Hank Ballard as the singer, since he was an R&B artist associated with a lewd stage act. A 19 year old performer named Ernest Evans (aka “Chubby Checker”) was hand picked by Clark to do the song, because he was not an R&B act and was not associated with black popular music. In the summer of 1960, Checker made a recording of the song and performed it on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Clark began heavily promoting the song and it hit number one on the charts. The single and accompanying album were million-selling records and established Chubby Checker as the undisputed king of ’60s dance music. His single became a smash hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in September of 1960. The Twist became the most popular dance craze of the decade, and stores were flooded with Chubby Checker shoes, ties, belts, towels, and even instructional records teaching the listener how to Twist.
Chubby Checker became the first black teen-age idol, a clean-cut image for white kids. For a few years, Chubby Checker was one of the most powerful integrative forces in American popular music. White girls loved him, and the public did not see this as a threat. Besides “The Twist,” some of Chubby Checker’s songs include “Pony Time,” “The Fly,” and “Limbo Rock.” At one point, Chubby had five albums in the Top 20. “The Twist” set a record, being the only single to reach number one in two different chart runs (first in 1960, and then again in 1962).
Here is Chubby Checker performing “The Twist” on TV in the early 60’s:
A wave of dance albums featuring endless variations on The Twist soon flooded the market: The Frug, The Jerk, The Swim, The Monkey, The Pony, The Shake, the Mashed Potato, The Watusi, The Hully Gully, etc., and boys and girls learned to dance without making physical contact. Even The Addams Family butler had a dance - The Lurch - named after him. Checker also recorded variations on The Twist theme, such as “Let’s Twist Again (Like We Did Last Summer),” “Lose Your Inhibition Twist,” “Slow Twistin’,” and “Twisting U.S.A.,” to further cash in on the craze.
The Twist inspired several films about frustrated youth who just wanted to Twist. The adults in the films never got it – until the final reel - when everyone, including grandma and grandpa, ended up twisting uncontrollably. The best known and most successful of these twistploitation flicks were Don’t Knock the Twist, and Twist Around the Clock, both featuring Chubby Checker.
The Twist gave birth to the discotheque, nightclubs where dancing was the focus. Twist records quickly became a musical sub-genre of their own, spawning numerous hits such as Peppermint Twist, Twist and Shout, Twistin’ The Night Away, Twist Twist Senorita and numerous others.
But, just like the twistploitation films, not everybody was twisting. In 1962, Bishop Burke of the Catholic diocese in Buffalo, New York, banned The Twist for being too lewd, and many other communities soon followed their example. The lack of touching should have been popular among adults, but what today seems like a tame and simple dance movement drew hellfire and brimstone from some quarters in the early ’60s. Many adults condemned The Twist as “jungle dancing.”
The Twist became the focal point of a new lifestyle, much in the same way as disco was in the ’70s. The Twist dance craze led to the production of magazines, clothing styles, movies, and the inevitable Twist lessons. The influence of The Twist is still visible in most modern dances. Virtually all subsequent free form rock & roll writhing is descended from The Twist.
Chubby Checker moved to the nightclub circuit after the original Twist craze died down. He reissued “The Twist” in 1975, and the song once again hit the Top Ten. He experienced yet another wave of popularity when he re-recorded the song in 1988 with The Fat Boys. Here is the Fat Boys version:
Mark Anthony was a rockabilly singer who released a few singles in the late 50’s and early 60’s, mainly for Porter Records, and he even had a minor hit with a song called “Wolf Call.” In 1962, as Mark Anthony & The Elfs, during the height of The Twist craze he released a Twistmas song called “Mama’s Twistin’ With Santa,” with crammed in bits of “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” as well as a quick “Deck the Halls” intro. The desperate rhyme of “mistletoe” and “door,” and the odd “Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho” bridge, are standout parts of this completely horrid song.
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Hi Jef,
I haven’t thought much about the song in years. Horrid is pretty heavy. How about pitful. It amounts to the same thing. Anyhow, as I look back it was a pretty bad tune. Unfortunately, I wrote it. Don’t tell anyone. I especially like when the song gets faster. I’m glad it ended when it did or I would have sounded like Donald Duck. Actually, I had to laugh when I read your description of the song. I am going to tell my friends about it so they can read it. No hard feelings. You win some and you lose some. However, I’m glad I recorded the song.
Mark Anthony (Traversino)
Hi Jef,
I’m not the Mark Anthony rockabilly singer that recorded for Porter Records. I have no idea who that is.
Mark Anthony