♫Ernest Evans Does the 'Twist'!♫

Dance and music...a natural combination! Dance produces excitement like none other. Dance is ecstasy. Dance is entertainment. Dance is performance. Each time a tune hits the airwaves there is an automatic bodily response to its indispensable, often pounding, rhythm...whether finger strumming, toe tapping, hip swinging or total body gyration. Certain vibes through the decades have produced various songs that absolutely drive everyone to wanna' dance: makes me feel all Wooly Bully, wanting to (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty, Dance the Night Away! Feel like a Dancing Queen! I Wanna Dance with Somebody, any body, I just want to DANCE! 

Today in Music History: January 26, 1962

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"The Twist" turned Ernest Evans into an overnight success when it shot to the top of the Billboard pop chart in September 1960! And it didn't stop there!

Wait just a minute! Ernest Evans? Never heard of him. Sure you have but just like Reginald Kenneth Dwight he is better known by his stage name...Chubby Checker!  "The Twist" had been a non-hit by its writer Hank Ballard in 1959. Dick Clark picked Chubby Checker to record a cover of the song. It is because of Clark's tireless on-air promotion that the song became a hit eventually making Chubby Checker rich and famous.

The significance of this day, January 26, 1962, is that "The Twist" by Chubby Checker finally ends its record-setting run at #1. What is so unique about this story is like most top songs, the hit faded from the charts only to reclaim its spot at #1 a full year later. It was the first and only time a pop single has fallen completely out of Billboard's "Hot 100" only to re-attain the #1 spot in a completely separate release.

Come on, baby, let's do the twist
Come on, baby, let's do the twist
Take me by my little hand and go like this...

E-E-E-OH! Twist, Baby, Baby Twist

O-O-O-OH - YEAAAHH! ...

And the music goes on beating to the rhythm of the changing times...