Description
The Twist was a dance craze and a musical phenomenon around the world. This 10-CD BOX documents its exciting, short-lived success story. In 1959, "The Twist" made its first appearance on the B-side of a single by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters. Even though this version climbed up to #28 on the American pop charts, it wasn’t until Chubby Checker re-recorded the song the following year that it became a worldwide hit. Checker established himself as the “King of the Twist� and helped establish this successor to the dwindling Rock & Roll hysteria alongside Joey Dee & The Starliters – soon everybody did the Twist, in New York to Berlin. And they still do, from John Travolta and Uma Thurman in "Pulp Fiction" on to Lady Gaga. A fair number of newcomers tried their luck on the Twist scene in the early sixties and even established musicians like Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Connie Francis, Bobby Darin, Duane Eddy, Louis Prima and James Brown wanted to take part in its commercial triumph. Johnny Hallyday, Chat Les Sauvages, Les Chausettes Noires and Dalida (!) are the most successful twisting French pop stars of their time on this box-set – and Adriano Celentano gives a prime example of how the craze hit the Italian pop scene. Over time, ever new dances were created with names like Madison, Locomotion, Watussi, Shake, Shimmy, Limbo, Slop and many more, but most of them were still danceable as a twist. This set is a treasure trove for music-fans of the revolutionary Twist, a short and lively phase before the subsequent Beat Mania made its entry into the dance halls and jukeboxes. P.S.: We are working on box-sets with original LPs by Chubby Checker and Joey Dee.