Chubby Checker celebrated his 69th birthday yesterday thus proving that regardless of body type and caloric intake, one can reach a ripe old age with regular sessions of dancing the Twist.
Ah, the Twist. Fifty years after its release, it remains the gold standard for filling the dance floor with baby boomers at wedding receptions and high school reunions. The Electric Slide, The Achy Breaky Heart, and even The YMCA have faded into oblivion while Chubby's classic continues to delight sixty-somethings and their chiropractors. As for The Hustle and its disco-era progeny we will see polyester leisure suits come back into fashion before it brings wedding guests to the dance floor from the seafood raw bar. The only potential threat to the Twist is the Chicken Dance and that is, of course, restricted to the Lehigh Valley.
The Twist was a godsend for awkward teen-aged boys of the early sixties. Previously, we were shunted to the perimeter of the dance floor during "fast songs" while the girls did the jitterbug with each other. Even the cha-cha required some degree of footwork beyond the capability of hormone-crazed teen boys. With the Twist, we could not totally embarrass ourselves attempting to "fast dance" with the object of our lust while impatiently awaiting a slow song with the requisite clutching and grabbing. Thanks, Chubby!
They say that age is just a number, but it is astonishing to think that when the Twist first became popular in 1960, Chubby Checker was a mere 19 years old. The Chubster still tours fifty years later. Only in America could a simple twelve bar song and a dance that anyone can do keep a performer going for half a century.
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