Did He Who Brought The US THE Most Popular Dance Record Of All Time - Do Disco?

[remicks]

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....................... :icon_biggrin::icon_biggrin: YES!! :icon_biggrin::icon_biggrin:

Way back in the fifties , Hank Ballard & The Midnighters wrote and recorded the infamous dance tune : THE TWIST .....

Chubby Checker took their dance number around and around and around and around
and made it a national phenomenon .... igniting a dance craze that bulleted the record to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100. ...
In fact, so popular was it, that it went to the very top of the charts ..... twice! :icon_surprised: ---first in the summer of 1960 and then again over a year later in '61.
( only one other record has traveled up the charts two different times to reach #1 .....Bing Crosby's WHITE CHRISTMAS )

Here's that original version of THE TWIST from 1959 :



Time warp to the disco era and in 1974 Hank Ballard And The Midnighters dabbled in dance music for a new era, not with a new dance creation of their own, but by recording this song written by The Moments: :icon_cool: :icon_cool:

266) HEY THERE SEXY LADY - Hank Ballard & The Midnighters
(Stang) B= 10; D= 7; Total points = 17
3 weeks on the chart (2/1; 2/15 - 2/22/75); Peak: #15 markydefad

:icon_cool:


final note ....

--- Why didn't that Hank Ballard original version of THE TWIST fair as well as Chubby's remake ??

Could be simply the timing ....a little too "sixties" just a little too soon . :icon_razz: ......

...... and it could also partly be that the original version of THE TWIST was released as an also ran ... as simply a "B" side on a 45 of some other song of theirs .......:icon_eek:



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[ashley_k]

...and not forgetting 1979's rather silly but fun "Freak Your Boom Boom" by Hank Ballard and The Midnighters

Hank Ballard And The Midnighters Freak Your Boom Boom (12") Disco Music.com

this also came out on a Kingston Records 12" with a shorter mix on the flip.

[Disco Funk]

As the years go by, I've started realizing that the success of a record isn't necessarily how well it's made, but how much promotion the record gets. If a record company isn't interested in the single, then it doesn't get much chart action. Probably Checker's company really believed in the record, or saw lots of dollar signs. Either way, Ballard didn't get the push that Chubby got. It sounds exactly like the Checker version right down to Ballard's voice.

Here's Hank Ballard from his James Brown period, when he worked with the godfather of soul.



In the mid-70s he did a couple of singles like the one linked above, and Let's Go Skinny Dipping, on the Stang label.

Disco Funk

[remicks]

...and not forgetting 1979's rather silly but fun "Freak Your Boom Boom" by Hank Ballard and The Midnighters

Interesting ! ...Looks like this is one he wrote himself too!

DF : As the years go by, I've started realizing that the success of a record isn't necessarily how well it's made, but how much promotion the record gets. If a record company isn't interested in the single, then it doesn't get much chart action. Probably Checker's company really believed in the record, or saw lots of dollar signs. Either way, Ballard didn't get the push that Chubby got. It sounds exactly like the Checker version right down to Ballard's voice.

Hank Ballard was known for being a more racy artist, maybe there was a general resistance by some programmers to carry him. Fare-skinned , baby-faced Chubby fit the bill better ... he better projected the innocent and harmless fun of everybody doing The Twist.

Here's Hank Ballard from his James Brown period, when he worked with the godfather
of soul.

____________________________

I was counting on you to add this DF ! :




What a nice guy that James Brown .....taking a rival soulman from days past into his fold like that. :icon_cool:

Sounds like Hank had very little to add to the JB formula ...
other than his voice which was too similar to provide a meaningful variable . .....



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