"Twist and Shout" is a 1961 song written by

Phil Medley Philip Medley (April 9, 1916 – October 3, 1997) was an American songwriter, notable for his composition " Twist and Shout", which he wrote along with Bert Russell. The song was made famous by both The Isley Brothers and The Beatles. Medley a ...

and

Bert Berns Bertrand Russell Berns (November 8, 1929 – December 30, 1967), also known as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. His songwriting credits include " Twist and Shout", " Piec ...

(later credited as "Bert Russell"). It was originally recorded by the Top Notes, but it did not become a hit in the record charts until it was reworked by

the Isley Brothers The Isley Brothers ( ) are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decade ...

in 1962. The song has been covered by several artists, including

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

Salt-N-Pepa Salt-N-Pepa (also stylized as Salt 'N' Pepa or Salt 'N Pepa) is an American hip-hop group formed in New York City in 1985, that comprised Salt (Cheryl James), Pepa (Sandra Denton), and DJ Spinderella (Deidra Roper). Their debut album, '' Hot, ...

, and Chaka Demus & Pliers, who experienced chart success with their versions.

Original version

The Top Notes, an American R&B vocal group, recorded "Twist and Shout" at the Atlantic Studios on February 23, 1961. The session was arranged by

Teddy Randazzo Alessandro Carmelo "Teddy" Randazzo (May 13, 1935 – November 21, 2003) was an American pop songwriter, singer, arranger and producer, who composed hit songs such as " Goin' Out of My Head", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", " Pretty Blue Eyes", ...

and produced by

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

.The Top Notes' Howard "Howie" Guyton provided the lead vocals, with accompaniment by saxophonist

King Curtis Curtis Ousley (born Curtis Montgomery; February 7, 1934 – August 13, 1971), known professionally as King Curtis, was an American saxophonist who played rhythm and blues, jazz, and rock and roll. A bandleader, band member, and session musician ...

, guitarist

John Pizzarelli John Paul Pizzarelli Jr. (born April 6, 1960, in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American jazz guitarist and vocalist. He has recorded over twenty solo albums and has appeared on more than forty albums by other recording artists, including Paul McCa ...

, drummer Panama Francis, and backing vocalists the Cookies. In a song review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...

described the Top Notes recording as "a Latin-tinged raveup with a drab generic R&B melody" that he felt was "not very good". Bert Berns, the song's co-writer, was dissatisfied with the recording and Spector's production. It failed to chart.

The Isley Brothers version

When

decided to record the song in 1962, Berns (who also used the name Bert Russell) assumed the role of producer. According to Unterberger, the new arrangement infused the tune with more "gospel-fired soul passion": "Twist and Shout" became the group's first single to reach the Top 20 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart.

Personnel

*Lead vocals by Ronald Isley *Background vocals by Rudolph Isley and O'Kelly Isley Jr.

Charts

The Beatles version

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' rendition of "Twist and Shout" was released on their first UK album '' Please Please Me'', based on the Isley Brothers' version.

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

provided the lead vocals and initially felt ashamed of his performance in the song "because I could sing better than that, but now it doesn't bother me. You can hear that I'm just a frantic guy doing his best." A second take was attempted, but Lennon had nothing left, and it was abandoned. The Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout" has been called "the most famous single take in rock history." Mark Lewisohn calls it "arguably the most stunning rock and roll vocal and instrumental performance of all time." The song was released as a single in the US on March 2, 1964, with " There's a Place" as its B-side. It was released by Chicago-based

Vee-Jay Records Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The label was founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a ...

on the Tollie label and reached 2 on April 4, during the week that the top five places on the chart were all Beatles singles. It was the only million-selling Beatles single in the U.S. that was a cover song, and the only Beatles cover single to reach the top 10 on a national record chart. The song failed to hit No. 1 because the group's own follow-up single "

Can't Buy Me Love "Can't Buy Me Love" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released in March 1964 as the A-side of their sixth single. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The song was included ...

" held the spot. In the UK, "Twist and Shout" was released by Parlophone on an eponymous EP with "

Do You Want to Know a Secret "Do You Want to Know a Secret" is a song by English rock band the Beatles from their 1963 album '' Please Please Me'', sung by George Harrison. In the United States, it was the first top ten song to feature Harrison as a lead singer, reaching N ...

", "

A Taste of Honey ''A Taste of Honey'' is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 19. It was intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalise British theatre and address social issues that ...

", and " There's a Place" from the ''Please Please Me'' (1963) album. Both the EP and album reached No. 1. In Canada, it became the title track to the second album of Beatles material to be issued by Capitol Records of Canada on February 3, 1964. The song was used as the Beatles' closing number on ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' in October 1963 and at ''The Royal Variety Show'' in November 1963; the ''Royal Variety'' performance was included on the '' Anthology 1'' compilation album in 1995. The Beatles performed the song on their ''

Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the '' CBS Sunday Night M ...

'' appearance in February 1964, and they continued to play it live until the end of their 1965 American tour. Additionally, they recorded "Twist and Shout" on nine occasions for BBC television and radio broadcasts, the earliest of which was for the ''Talent Spot'' radio show on November 27, 1962. In 1986,

Matthew Broderick Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American actor. His roles include the Golden Globe-nominated portrayal of the title character in '' Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's ''The Lion King'' (1994) ...

lip-synced to the Beatles' version of it in the film ''

Ferris Bueller's Day Off ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' is a 1986 American teen comedy film written, co-produced, and directed by John Hughes and co-produced by Tom Jacobson. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, and Alan Ruck with supporting roles by Jennifer ...

''. Coincidentally, the

Rodney Dangerfield Rodney Dangerfield (born Jacob Rodney Cohen; November 22, 1921 – October 5, 2004) was an American Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He was known for his self-deprecating one-line joke, one-liner humor, his c ...

film '' Back to School'' (released two days after ''Ferris'') also featured the song, this one sung by Dangerfield himself and patterned after the Beatles' arrangement. The use in the two films helped propel the single up the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 23 at the issue date September 27, 1986, giving the group their second chart single of the 1980s (the other being " The Beatles Movie Medley" in 1982). In November 2010, 47 years after its recording, the Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout" made a debut on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. One of a number of Beatles tracks re-entering the chart in the aftermath of their new availability on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

, it peaked at No. 48.

Charts

Certifications

Brian Poole and the Tremeloes version

In 1962,

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. ...

signed

Brian Poole and the Tremeloes The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, England. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with "Do You Love Me". After Poole's departure ...

, a British group from

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fore ...

, East London, in preference to the Beatles. Both groups had auditioned on the same day, and it has become legend that the Beatles were rejected by the label. Ironically, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes had no chart success until the beat boom in British rock had surfaced, following the success of the Beatles. This triggered the frenzied signing of most of the popular Liverpool rock groups of that period by the major record labels, and their distinctive "sound" became known as

Merseybeat Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffle ...

. Brian Poole and the Tremeloes imitated this style, and covered "Twist and Shout" four months after the Beatles had released their version, and achieved the No. 4 position in the

. However, according to

Brian Poole Brian Poole (born 2 November 1941)Eder, BruceBrian Poole Biography, Allmusic. Retrieved 17 August 2014 is a singer and performer who was the lead singer of 1960s beat band The Tremeloes (1957–62) and then Brian Poole and The Tremeloes (1962� ...

, "we were doing 'Twist and Shout' on stage before we knew anybody else doing it and we felt we could have a hit with it. Unfortunately, we had it in the can for about a year before Decca decided to release it as a single".

Charts

Salt-N-Pepa version

American hip hop trio

recorded a cover version on their 1988 album '' A Salt with a Deadly Pepa''. It was released as a single and was met with success, reaching the top five in Spain, the Netherlands and the UK, where it reached No. 4, as well as the top 40 in Ireland, Belgium and Germany.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chaka Demus & Pliers version

Jamaican reggae duo Chaka Demus & Pliers, collaborating with Jack Radics and

Taxi Gang Sly and Robbie were a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separat ...

, recorded "Twist and Shout" for their fourth album, '' Tease Me'' (1993). It was released as single on December 6, 1993, and topped the

for two weeks in January 1994. It was also a top-10 hit in Ireland (No. 9),

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

(No. 7), the Netherlands (No. 6), Denmark (No. 4), and New Zealand (No. 2).

Critical reception

Rick Anderson from

felt the song is "a fun novelty".

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the music ...

from ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'' wrote, "Who'da thunk this

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...

evergreen would become viable fodder for a

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

reconstruction? It has, and it works far better than you might imagine." He added, "With assistance from Jack Radis and

, Chaka Demus & Pliers playfully skip around a fast and jaunty island groove, darting in and out of familiar lyrics with bits of chatter and toasting. Visionary programmers will find this will flow over playlists like a fresh, cool breeze." Troy J. Augusto from ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...

'' declared it as an "infectious cut", that "add peppy new island life to this classic made famous, of course, by The Beatles." In a review for the ''

Gavin Report The ''Gavin Report'' was a San Francisco-based radio industry trade publication. The publication was founded by radio performer Bill Gavin in 1958. Its Top 40 listings were used for many years by programmers to decide content of programs. The p ...

'', Dave Sholin commented, "Summertime—time to hit the beach and party! And what better for the occasion than this upbeat production that puts a new twist on the

Isley Brothers Isley is an English surname. The name can also be used as an anglicized variant for the German surnames Eisele and Eisler. Notable people with the surname include: *The Isley Brothers, American musical group **Ernie Isley (born 1952), American mus ...

' original and Beatles' cover?" Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' deemed it a "fine regga re-reading", that "contains all the usual Chaka Demus & Pliers hallmarks, with sweetly cooed verses alternating with rapped passages. Just right for the party season." James Hamilton from the '' RM'' Dance Update described it as a "' La Bamba' based raver's reggae inflected but surprisingly conventional

Sly & Robbie Sly and Robbie were a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separa ...

revival, a party season smash". Leesa Daniels from ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'' gave "Twist and Shout" three out of five, writing, "''The'' tune at Christmas parties this year. Chaka and Pliers and a few mates have made a mega mover of a groover."

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1961 songs 1962 singles 1964 singles 1986 singles 1993 singles Song recordings produced by George Martin Cashbox number-one singles UK Singles Chart number-one singles Music Week number-one dance singles Number-one singles in Finland Number-one singles in New Zealand Songs written by Bert Berns Songs written by Phil Medley The Beatles songs Chaka Demus & Pliers songs The Isley Brothers songs The Kingsmen songs The Mamas and the Papas songs Salt-N-Pepa songs The Tremeloes songs Song recordings produced by Sly & Robbie Capitol Records singles Tollie Records singles Atlantic Records singles MCA Records singles Mango Records singles Twist (dance) Songs about dancing Wand Records singles Music published by MPL Music Publishing Song recordings produced by Mike Smith (British record producer)

Original version

The Isley Brothers version

Personnel

Charts

The Beatles version

Charts

Certifications

Brian Poole and the Tremeloes version

Charts

Salt-N-Pepa version

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chaka Demus & Pliers version

Critical reception

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

See also

Notes

References