This year marks the 60th anniversary since the track first went to No. 1
“The Twist” by Chubby Checker first went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart this week in 1960. In celebration of this anniversary, ABKCO has prepped an official music video that is now available. It incorporates footage of Checker’s October 21, 1961 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show as “The Twist” reascended the charts, going back to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in January of 1962, a feat never equalled in the decades that followed.
“The Twist” video directed by Lucy Dawkins and Tom Readdy at Yes Please Productions.
ABKCO Records is also celebrating the track’s 60th anniversary with commemorative releases coming Friday, September 25th. The definitive album Twist With Chubby Checker album has been remastered and will be made available for the first time on vinyl since the 1960s. The date dovetails with the 60th anniversary of “The Twist” having first reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 on September 24, 1960. A special 45 rpm 7” vinyl of “The Twist” with two B-sides will also be available along with the physical editions of the new, definitive Dancin’ Party: The Chubby Checker Collection (1960 – 1966) on both CD and LP. Dancin’ Party collects 21 tunes that includes seventeen Top 40 hits, twelve of which hit the Top 20; seven hit the Top 10 with two going to No. 1, including the pinnacle recording of “The Twist,” a single that two trips to the top.
In summer of 1960 “The Twist” was released and first hit the Billboard chart on August 1st, 60 years ago this week. The tune raced to the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 on September 24th a matter of weeks later. Most remarkably, after the song was re-released in late 1961, it again arrived at the No. 1 spot on January 13, 1962, making “The Twist” the first record to occupy the No. 1 slot in two different run-ups, a feat unequaled to this day. The first release of the single in 1960 included “Toot” on the flip side and the 1961 version carried “Twistin’ USA” on its B-side. In recognition of that singular achievement the newly remastered version of “The Twist” EP includes both “Toot” and “Twistin’ USA.”
At the 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in Cleveland, a new class was inducted, this time in recognition of their respective impact on music and culture. First among these in terms of cultural and commercial transcendence was “The Twist” by Chubby Checker. Steven Van Zandt had the honor of inducting “The Twist,” recalling the song would, “along with The Pill, Hugh Hefner’s Playboy philosophy and Helen Gurley Browns’ ‘Sex and the Single Girl,’ be credited with starting the sexual revolution.”
When Billboard celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Hot 100 singles chart in 2008, “The Twist” was declared the No. 1 song of that half century span. That designation was bestowed on the record again in 2013 and 2015 and, yet again, when The Hot 100’s 60th year was observed. Each time, “The Twist” held on to the top spot among over 27,000 individual titles by more than 7,500 artists. “The Twist” by Chubby Checker is in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame more than 20 years ago. In its own time, “The Twist” was recognized by the Recording Academy as the Best Rock & Roll Recording at the 1961 Grammy Awards.
