Let's twist again...

April 13, 2011 5:16 AM

50's and 60's songs appropriate for "twisting" to (that aren't by Chubby Checker)?

I am looking for some great songs to do the twist to. I am doing a live burlesque-y show and hope to slip in some twistin'.

I've googled around, and am only getting the most obvious options (Chubby Checker and so on) but am hoping for something not quite so...obvious.

Share your secret twist list!

posted by foxy to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

Sam Cooke, Twistin' the Night Away. It's pretty obvious, but the lyrics make me happy ("Here's a man in evening clothes | How he got here, I don't know") and that VOICE.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:32 AM on April 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

Twistin' by the Pool by Dire Straits. Fun song.
posted by widdershins at 5:41 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm not going to claim these aren't "obvious," but...

Twist and Shout

Do You Love Me
posted by John Cohen at 5:53 AM on April 13, 2011

Louis Prima has a song called "Twist All Night." You can hear a sample of it by clicking through to this album-- I couldn't figure out how to make an iTunes link to the individual song.
posted by yankeefog at 5:53 AM on April 13, 2011

Chuck Berry - You Never Can Tell
posted by phunniemee at 6:25 AM on April 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

A couple of years early, but Lonely Teardrops is a good one for a slower twist, I think.
posted by droplet at 6:28 AM on April 13, 2011

Not obvious? How about 31 Flavors by The Shirelles. You have to be really intense, though.
posted by anaelith at 6:32 AM on April 13, 2011

The Kaisers' Alligator Twist. (OK, they're from the 1990s, but I doubt most people would know that.)
posted by kendrak at 6:40 AM on April 13, 2011

Heartily seconding Sam Cooke's Twistin' the Night Away, but even more specifically: the version on "Live at the Harlem Square Club" is my all out favorite.The energy is just great, and although I know it's not really what he sang, the line "dancin' with a chicken slacks" always makes me think of a giant rooster, wearing trousers, just twisting it up on the dance floor.
A chick in slacks is just so mundane really.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 7:11 AM on April 13, 2011

Joey Dee & the Starliters: The Peppermint Twist
posted by Right On Red at 7:29 AM on April 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Going through my iTunes these all seem pretty twistable:

The Beach Boys - Dance Dance Dance
The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There
Betty Everett - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)
The Chiffons - He's So Fine
The Crystals - Da Doo Ron Ron
Elvis Presley - Hound Dog
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally (come to think of it pretty much anything by Little Richard..)
The Shirelles - Boys
posted by azuresunday at 7:36 AM on April 13, 2011

You really gotta boogie woogie like a knife in your back, I think, for this to be any kind of success at all.
posted by Danf at 7:54 AM on April 13, 2011

There's a lot of stuff on the compilation Crescent City Soul: The Sound of New Orleans (downloadable from linked page).
posted by staggernation at 7:57 AM on April 13, 2011

Elvis - Blue Suede Shoes
posted by Khazk at 10:57 AM on April 13, 2011

A little later than what you're looking for, but I can see some Bay City Rollers songs as being twistable (Shang-A-Lang). Shaun Cassidy's Da Doo Ron Ron, too, would work (along with The Crystals)!
posted by Mael Oui at 9:23 PM on April 13, 2011