The Twist of "The Twist" Goes Like This

 

Landing at 451 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time is "The Twist" (not to be confused with "The Twizzle", Dick Van Dyke fans). It was first recorded as a throwaway B side by Ballard and the Midnighters in 1958, but became a number one hit when recorded and released in 1960 by Chubby Checker (not to be confused with Fats Domino, word origin fans).

The twist you may be expecting is the bit-o-trivia that Chubby Checker's recording is the only single in pop music history to have reached number one on the charts two separate times; once in 1960 and again in 1962.

But the twist I'm talking about isn't that.

I'm pretty sure you've never been told that not only did Checker rerecord "The Twist," he also changed the words.

You're no doubt familiar with:

Come on, baby

Let's do the twist

Come on, baby

Let's do the twist

Take me by my little hand

And go like this

But did you know that the lyric was originally:

Come on, doctor

Remove my cyst

What's wrong, doctor?

Should I assist?

Be careful with my little hand

I'm a guitarist

Stick around, kids, I'm full of all kinds of stuff you never knew.