Come on, let's twist again - CyprusScene.com

By Ahmet Abdulaziz ….

Everybody knows that I usually do not use my car, unless it is a long drive. But during the last few days, I did have to use my car frequently.

The FM radio of my car is always on. Interestingly on all these occasions when I used the car, I found this song on air. I am referring to the title of this article. Yes I mean “Let’s Twist again”, by Chubby Checker.

Of course I had listened to this song frequently during the 1960s, when the twist craze had engulfed the whole world. In fact that was the period when we in Pakistan did not have Television service, so there was no chance of watching people dancing the twist, but listening to these songs on the radio now and then, were sufficient to make us feel the power of music. Just listening used to make us dance inside our souls.

I remember reading about the world-wide twist craze in that era, through LIFE and TIME magazines, of which my father was a subscriber.

Twist was a totally different type of dance, which had come up in place of the slow dances of the 1950s. Though Rock and Roll was also popular in those days, yet the twist was a far faster type of dance.

I would like to share excerpts from Wikipedia, as under :

“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” and released it as the B side of Hank Ballard and ‘The Midnighter’ 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 re-record 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 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.”

And now after a long, long gap, when a school going lad like me has crossed the 60 age bar, it is really wonderful to find my soul swirling again on the twist beat.

Here are the words of this fantastic song, which I am sure would make all young and old feel their souls dancing aloud.

LET’S TWIST AGAIN

Come on let’s twist again
Like you did last summer