The Twist

Album

Twist With Chubby Checker

Label

Parkway Records

Genre

Rock & Roll

Composer(s)

Hank Ballard

Entered Chart

Aug 1, 1960

Peak Date

Sep 19, 1960

Released

June 1960

Recorded

1960

Catalog #

Parkway 811

B-Side

Toot

"The Twist" is an American pop song written and originally released in 1958 by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters as a B-side to "Teardrops on Your Letter".[1] It was inspired by the twist dance craze. Ballard's version was a moderate hit, peaking at number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960.[2] On the US Billboard Hot R&B Sides chart, the original version of "The Twist" first peaked at number 16 in 1959 and at number six in 1960.[3] By 1962, the record sold in excess of one million copies, becoming Ballard's fourth million seller.[4] Chubby Checker's 1960 cover version of the song reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 19, 1960, where it stayed for one week, and setting a record at the time as the only song to reach number 1 in two different hit parade runs when it resurfaced and topped the popular hit parade again for two weeks starting on January 13, 1962.[5] This would not happen for another song for nearly 59 years until December 2020, when Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" reached the summit after previously topping in another separate chart run in December 2019. On Canada's CHUM Charts, the songs were co-charted, reaching number 2 on August 22, 1960.[6] In 1988, "The Twist" again became popular due to a new recording of the song by The Fat Boys featuring Chubby Checker. This version reached number 2 in the United Kingdom and number 1 in Germany. In 2014, Billboard magazine declared the song the "biggest hit" of the 1960s

Come on baby
Let's do the twist
Come on baby
Let's do the twist
Take me by my little hand
And go like this

Ee-yah twist
Baby, baby twist
Ooh yeah, just like this
Come on little miss and do the twist

My daddy is sleepin'
And mama ain't around
Yeah, daddy just sleepin'
And mama ain't around
We're gonna twisty twisty twisty
Till we tear the house down

Come on and twist
Yeah, baby twist
Oooh yeah, just like this
Come on miss and do the twist
Ee-yah

('Round and 'round and 'round and 'round)
('Round and 'round and 'round and 'round)

Yeah, you should see my little sis
You should see my my litlle Sis
She really knows how to rock
She knows how to twist

Come on and twist
Yeah, baby twist
Oooh yeah, just like this
Come on little miss and do the twist

('Round and 'round and 'round and 'round)
('Round and 'round and 'round and 'round)

Yeah, rock on now
Yeah, twist on down
Twist
('Round and 'round and 'round)