Kal Mann
Kal Mann (born Kalman Cohen; May 6, 1917 – November 28, 2001) - accessed June 2010 was an American
Dave Appell
David Appell (March 24, 1922 – November 18, 2014) was an American musician, arranger and record producer born in Philadelphia.
Career
Appell (pronounced "AP-el") is associated mainly with the Cameo-Parkway record label, in whose history he ...
, and released as a single by
Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans; October 3, 1941) is an American singer and dancer. He is widely known for popularizing many dance styles, including the Twist, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard & The Midnighters' R&B song " The Twis ...
. One of the biggest hit singles of 1961, it reached No. 8 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' pop chart (No. 3 on ''Cash Box'') in August of that year and subsequently reached No. 2 in the UK in the spring of 1962. The song refers to the Twist dance craze and Checker's 1960 single " The Twist", a two-time U.S. No. 1 single (in September 1960 and again in January 1962 on re-release).
The song received the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Recording. Checker also recorded the song in German as "Der Twist Beginnt" and in Italian as "Balliamo il Twist". A sample of "Der Twist Beginnt" would later be used by
The Residents
The Residents are an American art collective and art rock band best known for their avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, ''Meet the Residents'' (1974), they have released over 60 albums, numerous music vid ...
to begin their 1976 album '' The Third Reich 'n Roll''. The song appears on the soundtrack of the 2011 film ''
The Help
''The Help'' is a historical fiction novel by American author Kathryn Stockett published by Penguin Books in 2009. The story is about African Americans working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early 1960s. A ''USA Today' ...
''.
Chart performance
Johnny Hallyday version (in French)
The song was covered in French by
Johnny Hallyday
Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (; 15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll and Pop music, pop singer and actor, credited with having brought rock and roll to France.
During a career ...
. His version (titled "Viens danser le twist", French for ''Come dance the twist'') was released in September 1961 and spent seven weeks in total at No. 1 on the singles sales chart in France (from 13 November to 13 December 1961 and from 13 January to 9 February 1962). In Wallonia (French Belgium) his single spent 40 weeks on the chart, also peaking at No. 1.