twist

The tradition & historical record

The twist is a dance that was inspired by rock and roll music. From 1959 to the early sixties it became a worldwide dance craze, enjoying immense popularity while drawing controversies from critics who felt it was too provocative. It inspired dances such as the Jerk, the Pony, the Watusi, the Mashed Potato, the Monkey, and the Funky Chicken, but none were as popular. Having seen teenagers in Tampa, Florida, doing the dance, Hank Ballard wrote "The Twist", which became the B-side of Hank Ballard and the Midnighters' 1959 single "Teardrops on Your Letter". Dick Clark, having noticed the dance becoming popular among teenagers, recommended to Cameo Records that the more wholesome Chubby Checker rerecord the song, which was released in 1959 and became a number one hit in 1960. The dance became passé among teenagers as it became acceptable among adults and the song was re-released, becoming a number one hit again in 1962. A world record was set in DeLand, Florida, on October 11, 2012, when Chubby Checker sang the song live and the crowd danced. An estimated 4,000 people twisted along with Checker, surpassing the previous Guinness World Record for most people twisting in the streets at once.

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Twist (dance)”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.

twist is dance inspired by rock and roll music; music genre associated with the dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 14 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹