watusi

The Watusi is a solo dance that enjoyed brief popularity during the early 1960s. It was one of the most popular dance crazes of the 1960s in the United States. "Watusi" is a former name for the Tutsi people of Africa, whose traditions include spectacular dances. The naming of the American dance may have been inspired, in particular, by a scene in the 1950 film King Solomon's Mines which featured Tutsi dancers, or by its sequel Watusi.¶

History

The Orlons, a vocal quartet from Philadelphia, had the biggest hit of their career as recording artists with their recording of "The Wah-Watusi" (Cameo 218), which debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on June 9, 1962, and remained on the Hot 100 for 14 weeks; it peaked at #2 and held the position for two weeks. On the R&B chart, the single peaked at #5. This was not the only version of the song to hit the charts. On January 18, 1963, Chubby Checker released his single version of "The Wah-Watusi" (B-side of Cameo 221). Later that year, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles also recorded their own version. Popular covers of the song included those by Annette Funicello and The Isley Brothers. The Vibrations had previously released an R&B single in 1961 called "The Watusi" (US #25). Also in 1963, Puerto Rican jazz musician Ray Barretto had his first hit with a song called "El Watusi", and—although he didn't invent the dancing style—he came to be typecast as connected to the style. Barretto's recording, "El Watusi" (Tico 419), debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on April 27, 1963, and remained on the Hot 100 for 9 weeks; it peaked at #17 for 9 weeks. The Ventures covered Barretto's version on their 1965 album Let's Go!. The "Monkey Watusi" is mentioned in the 1964 single "Hey Harmonica Man" by Stevie Wonder. "The Watusi", along with "The Twist", is mentioned in the fragmentary "lyrics" of the Beatles' sound collage "Revolution 9". "The Watusi" is also mentioned in Chris Kenner's song "Land of 1000 Dances".¶

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

watusi is American dance from the 1960s, 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 2 external registers, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶