Listening to Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, I remembered what a great song “Down By the Seaside” is. I had to laugh at this part:
Do you still do the twist?
Do you find that you remember things that well?
Some go twisting every day,
though sometimes it’s awful hard to tell
It seems to me that there are plenty more references to the twist in popular music. What did/does the twist mean to you? Was/is it important for any particular reason?
It refers to Chubby Checkers song from 1960. Somewhat sexual in a hokey pokey kind of way. It’s like saying, do you remember when we used to Twist? As in having sex when we were young.
And it’s important because it was the first time a black man was able to be so sexually specific in front of a white audience. Live and on national TV.
I remember the twist. By the time I was 10 it was going away. It was a predecessor to a variety of other dances like the Watusi, later parodied as the Batusi. It evolved into to Go-Go dancing and other forms, but a lot of dancing in any controlled manner disappeared for a while, sadly only to find a resurgence in the Disco era.
I wasn’t even born when the Twist came out. But its very possible that I owe my existence to the Twist! 
Mom was a big Chubby Checker fan.
I remember when it was a big hit. I didn’t listen to the radio back then, but it was all over the place.
It came out a year before I was born, but I am very familiar with the song and dance. I’ve always just thought it was a song about a dance craze!
You should see . . . my little sis. She really knows how rock! And she knows how to twist. Eeeee—Ah Twist! Pretty damn racy to be singing about your sister like that!
IMHO This song and his follow ups like Let’s Twist Again and the beach movies define the early 60’s for me. That and Gilligans Island, Lost in Space and the Beverly Hillibillies. A simpler more innocent time. Before Kennedy was shot and the Beatles took over the stage.
The Wikipedia entry says, “The dance became passé among teenagers as it became acceptable among adults….”
I don’t know if that’s true, but this video seems to support that argument 
I recall my slightly older cousins dancing the twist to the the Archie’s song Sugar Sugar in about 1969. So no, it wasn’t passe, it just became a common dance move mixed in with other moves.
Like so many teen activities, much of the original appeal was based on doing something adults didn’t do. Through the 60s there were plenty of adult complaints about the music and the dancing and the clothes and the hair. Then suddenly in the 70s it was all forgotten and the styles were taken up by adults, requiring the teens to find their own thing, usually harder rock music. I don’t know how much that damned Disco music appealed to teens, I only saw any of that stuff in the clubs, and it wasn’t the least bit disguised as anything but a mating ritual.
He doesn’t look particularly chubby in that video, though it is pretty lo-rez so it’s hard to tell for sure. Was ‘Chubby’ an ironic nickname, like calling a bald guy ‘Curly’, or was he considered chubby by the standards of 1960?
I don’t know, but “Chubby Checker” is an obvious allusion to “Fats Domino.”
Maybe slightly chubby by 1960s standards for got to be seen on TV. A little info from the wiki, doesn’t really say why he has the nickname. Certainly the name ‘Fats Domino’ was influential but maybe not directly taken from that.
From here:
Evans’ career took off when he met Barbara Clark, wife of American Bandstand host, Dick Clark. Barbara Clark is credited with giving young Evans his full stage name. He’d picked up the nickname ‘Chubby’ while working in a Philadelphia poultry market. When Barbara Clark met him he was working on his Fats Domino impression at the recording studio. She said “You’re Chubby Checker, like Fats Domino.” The name stuck.
Well there you go, directly influenced by Fats’ name.
It’s the Spring of 1957 and Paddy goes to pick up his date. He’s a pretty hip guy with his own car. When he goes to the front door, the girl’s father answers and invites him in.
“Ciara’s not ready yet, so why don’t you have a seat?” he says.
“That’s cool,” says Paddy.
Ciara’s father asks Paddy what they’re planning to do. Paddy replies politely that they will probably just go to the soda shop or a movie.
Ciara’s father responds, “Why don’t you two go out and screw? I hear all the kids are doing it.”
Naturally, this comes as quite a surprise to Paddy, so he asks Ciara’s dad to repeat it.
“Yeah,” says Ciara’s father, “Ciara really likes to screw; she’ll screw all night if we let her!”
Well, this just made Paddy’s eyes light up, and his plan for the evening was beginning to look pretty good.
A few minutes later, Ciara comes downstairs in her little poodle skirt and announces that she’s ready to go. Almost breathless with anticipation, Paddy escorts his date out the front door.
About 20 minutes later, Ciara rushes back into the house, slams the door behind her, and screams at her father: “DAMN IT, DADDY! IT’S CALLED THE TWIST!”
Thanks, nice research!
Is this the first instance of a song about a dance that is supposed to accompany it?
The Charleston predates it by decades and I don’t know if it was the first.
But was their a song called the Charleston? I’m not seeing one in the link.
I see a song called Tennessee Waltz but no actual dance move, just waltzing.
Meanwhile, let’s just do the Hustle!
