Chubby Checker's Cover of 'The Twist' Named Top Song of Billboard Hot 100 era

[Zoneboy]

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NEW YORK - How's this for a twist: Of all the No. 1 songs in the 50 years of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Chubby Checker's "The Twist" ranks as the most popular single.

Elvis and the Beatles didn't even make the top five.

Checker's ranking may come as a surprise to some, but not to the classic rocker.

"I'm glad they've finally recognized it," said Checker of his early 1960s hit.

He compared "The Twist" — named by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock 'n' roll — to the creation of the telephone as a groundbreaking moment because he said it was the first time people were dancing "apart to the beat."

"Anyplace on the planet, when someone has a song that has a beat, they're on the floor dancing apart to the beat, and before Chubby Checker, it wasn't here, and I think that has a lot to do with me being on the charts," he said.

Santana's "Smooth," featuring Rob Thomas, is the No. 2 most popular, followed by Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," Leann Rimes' "How Do I Live" and "The Macarena" by Los Del Rio.

The Beatles did make the top 10, coming it at No. 8 with "Hey Jude." But Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" and Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" are ahead of that hit. Rounding out the top 10: Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" at No. 9 and Toni Braxton's "Un-break My Heart" at No. 10.

Geoff Mayfield, director of charts at Billboard magazine, acknowledged that the list might not jibe with some fans' personal thoughts of the most popular songs of the past 50 years.

"This is simply a chronicle of how each of these songs performed in their era on the Hot 100. We're not saying these are the most memorable songs of your life. That would be something that's almost impossible to determine," said Mayfield. "Everyone has a subjective frame of reference."

The Beatles do top Billboard's all-time Hot 100 artists, followed by Madonna, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and the Rolling Stones. Billboard.com is breaking out some of the other chart achievements (the list of most No. 1 singles by an act is topped by the Beatles) on its Web site.

The Billboard Hot 100 chart measures airplay and sales information (and more recently digital downloads) in determining the nation's most popular songs. To determine the most popular song of the Hot 100 era, Billboard used a formula to determine the top song — not always relying on weeks at No. 1 since the data was reported differently in its early days.

Initially, Billboard relied on stations to report the most popular songs, and got sales surveys from record stores. But Mayfield said stations often stopped reporting on a song's popularity if it was no longer a priority for record labels. And in 1991, Billboard began relying on sales data from Nielsen SoundScan and airplay data from Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. So Billboard weighted certain songs from different eras to make sure all songs were on an even playing field.

"We went through each era, and we looked through the rate of turnover. The rate of turnover was very high in the late '50s and early '60s, and we had to put a weight on that to make the chart runs of that era equal to the chart runs that can be accomplished since 1991," he said.

Checker's "The Twist" spent a total of only three weeks at the top of the charts, but did so twice in two separate runs more than a year apart.

"It's the only song that was ever No. 1 in two different chart runs," he said.

Checker said he was gratified that Billboard noted the popularity of "The Twist," and lamented that both the song and his career have been at times overlooked.

"My music is less played that any performer that has been a No. 1 chart man on the planet," said Checker, who also had hits with "Pony Time," "The Fly" and "Let's Twist Again," which earned him a Grammy. "I don't get the respect that Rod Stewart gets, or the Rolling Stones, or Frankie Valli. ... But I have to deal with it."

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[tv star collector]

I don't know if I would call Chubby Checker's version a "cover," since his
original version was released first (on August 8, 1960). Hank Ballard & the
Midnighters released a cover version on August 29, 1960. Then Chubby
re-released it on November 20, 1961. Oddly, the re-release did better than
the first one, staying in the No. 1 spot for two weeks and on the charts for
a total of 18 weeks (compared to the 1960 release, which was No. 1 for one
week and on the charts for a total of 15 weeks). But if you're referring to the
second release, I suppose that could be called a "cover" (but I always think of
a cover as being by a different artist).

[Info source: The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, by Joel Whitburn]

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by tv star collector

I don't know if I would call Chubby Checker's version a "cover," since his
original version was released first (on August 8, 1960). Hank Ballard & the
Midnighters released a cover version on August 29, 1960. Then Chubby
re-released it on November 20, 1961. Oddly, the re-release did better than
the first one, staying in the No. 1 spot for two weeks and on the charts for
a total of 18 weeks (compared to the 1960 release, which was No. 1 for one
week and on the charts for a total of 15 weeks). But if you're referring to the
second release, I suppose that could be called a "cover" (but I always think of
a cover as being by a different artist).

[Info source: The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, by Joel Whitburn]

Sorry but it was indeed Hank Ballard and the Midnighters who originally recorded "The Twist"


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In 1958, Ballard wrote "The Twist", an up tempo 12 bar blues that used a melody line he'd lifted from the group's flop of the previous year, "Is Your Love For Real?" which he had in turn borrowed from McPhatter and the Drifter's 1955 hit "What 'Cha Gonna Do?" Unhappy at Federal, Ballard took the new tune to Vee-Jay, which cut it but didn't release it. Then King, Federal's parent label, picked up the group's option and recorded "The Twist", the first record to place Ballard's name on the label in front of the group's. It was issued, however, as the B side of the gospel-drenched Ballard ballad "Teardrops On Your Letter".



While "Teardrops" rose to number four on the R&B chart with minimal pop response, the flip also generated some action, peaking at number 16 R&B during its initial round on the charts. "American Bandstand" host Dick Clark was so enamored of the tune that he had Ernest Evans re-recorded it. Dubbed "Chubby Checker" by Clark's wife, the Philadelphia singer took "The Twist" to the top of the pop chart twice, in 1960 and again two years later. Checker's version was so close to the original that Ballard, upon first hearing it on the radio, thought it was his own.

Rather than being set back by the cover, Ballard and the Midnighters benefited. By the middle of 1960, they had three simultaneous hits in the pop top 40: "Finger Poppin' Time", "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go", and their original version of "The Twist." And Ballard came up with other dance-oriented hits for the group, including "The Hoochie Coochie Coo", "The Continental Walk", "The Float", and "The Switch-A-Roo", but chart action dried up after 1961 and group members began to defect.

By the late '60's, Ballard was working as a single, often with James Brown's revue, and he had two minor Brown-produced R&B hits: 1968's "How You Gonna Get Respect (If You Haven't Cut Your Process Yet?)" and 1972's "From the Love Side." After a long hiatus from performing, the singer returned in the mid-80's with a new set of Midnighters, first female, then male.

[MickeyMac]

How the hell did "Smooth" get to number two on this list?? That song is horrible.