I can’t dance. I’ve never been able to dance. The term “two-left feet” was invented just to describe how I look when I’m on the dance floor. I grew up when rock and roll were just starting and everybody could dance to the fast songs except me. In high school, I would go hide somewhere when the fast songs were played. Well, you get the idea.
Then in 1960, something wonderful happened. Chubby Checker put out the first dance song that absolutely anyone could dance to, “The Twist”. When I was in the Air Force, we would go to UFO dances once in a while. Of course, the main we went was to pick up girls and in order to do that, you had to know how to dance. Imagine my surprise when I found out I could do the twist. Anyone could do the twist. It was great.
Would it surprise you to learn that Chubby Checker was a stage name? No, I didn’t think so. He was born Ernest Evans, but that sounded too dull, so he became Chubby Checker. A definite rip-off of Fats Domino from the 50’s. There were movies which featured “The Twist” and Chubby recorded many versions of the twist like “Let’s Twist Again” and “Slow Twist”. He also became the king of the dance record in the sixties with hits like “The Pony” and “The Fly”.
“The Twist” holds another rather unique record. It is the only record in the history of the charts to hit number one twice. It first hit in September of 1960 and again in January of 1962. Looking up news stories for that week, we find that Dag Hammarskjold, the Secretary of the UN dies in a plane crash in the Congo. You could buy a suit for $48 and a white shirt for $2.59. So you could look good for about fifty bucks. On TV was “The Rifleman”, “Dobie Gillis” and “Playhouse 90″. I remember them well.
Let’s begin this journey through the music of the 20th Century with a song that is looked on by most people as the first Rock and Roll record. I’m talking about “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets. The song hit number one on the Billboard charts on July 9, 1955. I was just about to enter 8th grade and basically didn’t have a clue what Rock and Roll was about. I grew up in Michigan which was not the center point for the music revolution. I might have felt differently if I had been raised in New York City or even in Chicago or L.A. The song was first released early in 1955, but didn’t do too much. It wasn’t until it was used in the movie “Blackboard Jungle” that it had a resurgence of popularity and rose to number one in July.
A headline in a Michigan paper for that day says “Congressman is indicted on $154,000 Conspiracy Charge”. It doesn’t look like some things have changed all that much. The paper cost 7 cents. A lumber yard is offering to build a complete 2-bedroom ranch style home (on your lot) for $3950.00. Coffee was 69 cents a pound. Popular comics in the paper were “Priscilla’s Pop” and “Freckles and His Friends”, not to mention “Alley Oop” and “Captain Easy”.
The term “Rock and Roll” is pretty much attributed to Allen Freed, a New York disk jockey who later made several cool Rock and Roll movies and was later indicted in the famous “payola” scandals that hit the late 50’s.
Bill Haley never wanted to be a rock singer. He started out as a country singer and had several groups in the late 40’s and early 50’s. The group that eventually became the Comets were called the Saddlemen up until 1952 when they officially became the Comets. His first hit under the new name was “Crazy, Man, Crazy” in 1953, but “Rock Around the Clock” in 1955 was his only number one.
If you haven’t heard the song lately, watch this video:
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I have been a lover of popular music for as long as I can remember. If you are too, sign up for our newsletter. James Hoag
