Doing "The Twist" with Chubby Checker

A hit in both 1960 and 1962, and a dance everyone can do — from age 2 to 100+

Rock ’n’ Roll with Me is an email newsletter presenting one or more of my favorite danceable rock ’n’ roll songs, from the sixties onwards, along with some fun facts and memories.

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Our songs of the day

When was the last time you boogied down and danced to tunes you love in front of other people?

Might this be your response? (Select all that apply.)

• “Hey, dancing’s not my thing, dude.”

• “I can’t dance, OK? Not making a fool of myself, yeah?”

• “I can’t dance because I have a problem with my [feet, lower back, neck, etc.]

• “No one wants to see me dance, trust me, alright?”

• “I can twerk, on a good day.”

• “I’d rather lay on a bed of nails or walk across hot coals than dance in front of other people. Not gonna happen. No! Nein! Nyet! Is that clear enough for ya?”

I assure you, you would never have thought or said those kinds of things when you were a little kid. Not because you were a well-behaved little tyke, but because it wouldn’t have occurred to you to turn down the opportunity to dance.

You scoff? Here’s what bestselling author Robert Fulghum found when he asked people at different ages — kindergartners (around age 5), college students, and adults — about their ability to dance and do other creative things:

Ask a kindergarten class, “How many of you can draw?” and all hands shoot up. Yes, of course we can draw—all of us. What can you draw? Anything! How about a dog eating a fire truck in a jungle? Sure! How big you want it? How many of you can sing? All hands. Of course we sing! What can you sing? Anything! What if you don’t know the words? No problem, we make them up. Let’s sing! Now? Why not! How many of you dance? Unanimous again. What kind of music do you like to dance to? Any kind! Let’s dance! Now? Sure, why not?…

Try those same questions on a college audience. A small percentage of the students will raise their hands when asked if they draw or dance or sing or paint or act or play an instrument. Not infrequently, those who do raise their hands will want to qualify their response with their limitations: “I only play piano, I only draw horses, I only dance to rock and roll, I only sing in the shower.”

When asked why the limitations, college students answer they do not have talent, are not majoring in the subject, or have not done any of these things since about third grade, or worse, that they are embarrassed for others to see them sing or dance or act. You can imagine the response to the same questions asked of an older audience. The answer: No, none of the above.

What went wrong between kindergarten and college?

What happened to YES! of course I can?

(That’s from his brilliant book, All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten, full quote here.)

What a ridiculous state of affairs, that we have these wonderful bodies and lose the ability to enjoy them by the time we reach college. This cannot stand!

Never fear, as Chubby Checker has come to our rescue with a cover song about a dance move called “The Twist” that went to number one on the US charts not once but twice — in September 1960 and again when it was re-released in January 1962. It took 58 years for a two-time hit like that to happen again, with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” in 2020.

Not only that, for about six decades, until 2021, Chubby’s version was the most successful single in history on Billboard’s “Greatest Hot 100 Songs of All Time” charts, and Billboard declared it the biggest hit of the 1960s. It is also on Rolling Stones’ list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The 1960 version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, and archived in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2013.

Is it any wonder then to discover that Chubby has been a tireless advocate for getting on the dance floor? The proof is definitely in the pudding, as he’s still going strong and doing full concerts at the ripe ol’ age of 82. (You can book him here.) I think what he would say in response to any excuses for not dancing is the following:

• Of course you want to move to your favorite music — you’re human, man!

• Everyone can dance, and boy, do I have the dance for you.

• You can be any age and in any condition to dance to this, you just have to be able to move some part of your body.

• No one cares how you look — it’s about getting down and having fun!

• Just watch me and learn how.

If you take Chubby’s advice, you will never have to go to a party, wedding, concert, or other event again and sit or stand around watching as others throw decorum and caution to the wind. Nor will you have to down some ‘liquid courage’ or imbibe some ‘substance’ to get your booty shaking and groove on the dance floor.

All you have to do is watch Chubby do “the twist” — along with video clips of people of all ages doing it — and try his easy-to-follow directions:

As you can see, it’s not about technique so much as swinging or twisting your body parts in fun ways that feel good. It doesn’t matter what body part — your whole body if you can, your torso if you’re sitting in a chair or a wheelchair, your head if you’re on a bus, train, or plane, your hands and toes if you’re lying down. If you’re standing, you don’t even have to move your feet.

And it doesn’t matter what the tempo is — you can do the twist to any song, fast or slow. Chubby has even recorded a slower twist with Dee Dee Sharp (1962), which reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts and was also covered that same year by the Marvelettes. Here’s Chubby and Dee Dee’s version:

Perhaps, like me and like the British public, you’re not that taken with the song “The Twist” or its slower cousin above. If so, try Chubby’s second twist hit, “Let’s Twist Again,” which I much prefer and which was a Top 10 hit in the US, UK, and a number of European countries:

Or, if you’re into rap, get down with Chubby and the rap group the Fat Boys, whose 1988 version of “The Twist” reached number 2 in the UK, number 1 in Germany and Switzerland, and number 16 in the US. This is a really fun video, and Chubby smashes it with his suit:

Or maybe you’re a country fan. Chubby has recorded a song to address that need too. I love this — it makes me want to get on down to a honky-tonk in Austin, Texas and do the two-step with a fella in roachkiller boots and a cowboy hat:

Is hard rock your thing? How about Chubby performing “The Twist” with rockers Foghat (“Slow Ride”) in 2014. For some reason, you get to see the finish of their last song before they introduce him, but Chubby’s intro to the song is worth the watch as well as his collab with the Foghat guys.

Some fun facts

• As always happens, the dance that came to be called “the twist” arose among teenagers to express themselves to the new rock and roll music. As soon as adults adopted it and it became part of mainstream culture, the dance lost its cool among teenagers and they created new dances to replace it. You can see a list of dance fads down through the decades here.

• Hank Ballard wrote “The Twist” (1959) after witnessing teenagers dancing to it in Tampa, Florida, recorded it with his band The Midnighters, and made it the B side of his single “Teardrops on Your Letter.” By 1962, his version had sold a million copies. However, controversy surrounds his authorship of the tune, with Midnighter Lawson Smith claiming that Hank stole the melody from someone else and put new words to it.

• Chubby’s version came about when Dick Clark, a radio and TV personality and host of the TV show American Bandstand, unsuccessfully tried to book Hank Ballard on his show. He’d also seen how popular the dance was and decided to produce his own recording through Cameo Records. Searching for a singer, he chose Chubby because his voice was similar to Ballard’s and because he came across as wholesome. Chubby was only 18.

• Following his appearances on American Bandstand and The Dick Clark Saturday Night Show, Chubby’s version sped to the top of the charts. This isn’t surprising, given that Dick Clark’s shows were staples of the American TV diet, as I know from having watched them. They had far more significance than it might seem, in three critical ways: by launching many new musical acts over more than three decades, by preserving and fostering youth culture, and by facilitating integration within the industry by mixing black and white performers and audiences. Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve has been broadcast continuously since 1972.

• Many artists capitalized on the twist craze and racked up hits in the early sixties, including Danny & the Juniors, Joey Dee and the Starliters, Gary U.S. Bonds, the Marvelettes, Sam Cooke, the Isley Brothers, Bill Black’s Combo, King Curtis & His Noble Knights, the Dovells, Billy Joe & the Checkmates, and, of course, the Beatles with “Twist and Shout.”

• Chubby appeared in two films in 1961 — “Twist Around the Clock” and “Don’t Knock the Twist.”

• He also did songs about other dances, including the pony, the limbo, the hucklebuck, and the swim.

• The Flintstones parodied “the twist” with “the Twitch” and The Dick Van Dyke Show with “the Twizzle.”

Questions for discussion in the comments

1. What would your parody of “the twist” be called?

2. If you created a dance fad based on your own signature moves on the dancefloor, what would you call it?

3. Have you ever wooed someone with a twist song?

4. Explain the relationship between the Twist, Twisters the action thriller, the game Twister, and the twister in The Wizard of Oz that killed the bad witch, in ten words or less.

5. Are you a Twister champion? What was your strategy for winning (in detail)?