Twist Craze

Featuring Twist . Chubby Checker . The Twist . Joey Dee . The Starliters . Peppermint Twist . Lambrett Twist . Los Beatniks . Tampico Twist . The Ventures . Bumble Bee Twist . The Revelettes . Honky Tonk Twist . The Cramps . Ultra Twist

The History of Rock-n-Roll : In 1958, Ballard wrote “The Twist”, an up tempo 12 bar blues that used a melody line he’d lifted from the group’s flop of the previous year, “Is Your Love For Real?” which he had in turn borrowed from McPhatter and the Drifter’s 1955 hit “What ‘Cha Gonna Do?”.

Chubby Checker : After school, Chubby would sing and crack jokes at his various jobs including Fresh Farm Poultry on 9th Street and at the Produce Market. It was Ernest’s boss at the Produce Market, Tony A., who gave Ernest the nickname “Chubby”.

Classicbands.com : Bernie Lowe, president of Cameo-Parkway Records, was not impressed with Chubby’s recording and felt that it might be suitable for a “B” side at best. For that reason, it took nearly fourteen months, from June 1959, to August 1960, for “The Twist” to catch on. Chubby worked hard at promoting the record – interviews, TV dates and live performances. After three weeks of demonstrating the Twist, he had lost nearly thirty pounds.

Wikipedia : The Twist is performed by standing with the feet approximately shoulder width apart. The torso may be squared to the knees and hips, or turned at an angle so one foot farther forward than the other. The arms are held out from the body, bent at the elbow. The hips, torso, and legs rotate on the balls of the feet as a single unit, with the arms staying more or less stationary.

StreetSwing.com : What was leading the way for dances like the Twist you ask, the answer is “the Television and SAND.” Surfing was becoming extremely popular with the young and sand was replacing the dance floors. This sand would prove the Death Kill to any of the dances that required spinning or traveling while promoting stationary dances such as the Twist, Swim, Surf, Surfer Stomp, Frug, Ska, Watusi, and Monkey.

Joey Dee : The first single release was a ballad sung by David Brigati, Face of an Angel. The B-side was the group-led Shimmy Baby, which led them to work out the 1-2-3 kick, 1-2-3 jump! routine that would later evolve into the Peppermint Twist.

Wonder How To : Watch twist dance 1960s tutorials to learn all about how to twist dance 1960s with this collection of free how to videos, like Dance the Twist-o-flex style of pop, Twist your hips, and Do the Clickety Clank tap dance move.

How to Jive : It was because The Twist was so simple that it became a worldwide craze – even across generation gaps. It caused people to dance alone with no partner contact and a whole generation effectively either forgot or never learned how to jive.