Hank Ballard and the Midnighters didn’t sing moon-June-spoon songs like most white bands. Their songs were considered by many to be raunchy, a catchall word that captures things earthy, sexual, and vulgar. Their 1954 song Annie Had a Baby was salacious (“She can’t work <as a prostitute> no more”). So was “Work With Me Annie,” which too many found scandalous, because it was about intercourse. Musical tidbit: Hank’s sister Florence was one of the Supremes along with Diana Ross and Mary Wilson.
A Closer Look at the Dance Crazes of the 1950s and 1960s
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters recorded “Teardrops on Your Letter” in 1958
Long-Playing records featured what they called longhair music. Teenagers’ records were 45 rpm vinyl discs were half as big as LPs (Long-Playing) albums but with a much larger hole in the middle. There was one song on each side. Songs that promoters wanted to push heavily were put on the “A” side and a lesser song was put on the B side. The “A” side, Teardrops on Your Letter, was ignored by most kids, but the song on the “B” side would change the music world.
Studio executives chose Earnest Evans to record the new song
Evans was clean cut and less threatening (think lighter-skinned) than Hank and the boys. His version became a worldwide music and dance sensation, back when people were inventing the Stroll, the Hand Jive, the Hully Gully, the Bristol Stomp, the Locomotion, Mashed Potato Time, the Watusi, Mickey’s Monkey, the Dog, the Jerk, and the Swim.
Let’s not leave out the one and only Rufus Thomas was singing and dancing the Funky Chicken
A Memphis WDIA disc jockey, Rufus billed himself as “The World’s Oldest Teenager.” Here he is in 1989 with the Saturday Night Live House Band.
Songs about new dances came around in the late 1950s
Most of them had lyrics that told kids how to perform the dance.
1957 The Stroll by The Diamonds. If you’ve ever watched Soul Train, you know where they got the idea for their line dance.
1958 The Hand Jive by Johnny Otis. Papa told Willie, you’ll ruin my home, You and that hand jive have got to go. Willie said, Papa, don’t put me down, They’re doin’ the hand jive all over town. Hand jive, hand jive, hand jive, doin’ that crazy hand jive.”
1959 The Hully Gully by The Olympics. There’s a dance spreadin’ round like an awful disease. A-well you shake-a your shoulders and you wiggle your knees. This dance goin’ round from coast to coast, When me and my baby do it, tryin’ to do it the most. Mama hully gully, Papa hully gully, Baby hully gully, too.”
1961 The Bristol Stomp by The Dovells. The town of Bristol sits on the line between Virginia and Tennessee. “The kids in Bristol are sharp as a pistol when they do the Bristol Stomp. It’s got that groovy beat, that makes you stomp your feet. And once you dance with me, you’ll fall in love you see, the Bristol Stomp will make you mine, all mine.”
1962 The Locomotion by Little Eva. Not everyone knows that Little Eva was once Carole King’s babysitter. “Everybody’s doin’ a brand new dance, now. I know you’ll get to like it if you give it a chance now. My little baby sister can do it with ease, it’s easier than learnin’ your ABCs, So come on, come on, do the Loco-Motion with me.
1962 Mashed Potato Time by Dee Dee Sharp. “The Mashed Potato started long time ago, with a guy named Sloppy Joe. Mashed Potato, feel it in your feet now, Mashed Potato, cmon and get the beat now. It’s the latest, it’s the greatest, Mashed Potato, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. C’mon honey.”
1962 The Wah Watusi by The Orlons. “Baby, baby, when you do the Twist, never, never do you get yourself kissed, ’cause you’re always dancin’ far apart – the Watusi girl is-a really smart. C’mon and take a chance and get-a with this dance. Wah, wah-a Watusi, Oh, baby, it’s the dance made-a for romance.”
1963 Mickey’s Monkey by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. “A cat named Mickey came from out of town. He was spreading a new dance all around. In just a matter of a few days, his dance became the new teenage craze. It was really something to see – ee – ee, that cat named Mickey doin that monkey.”
1963 The Harlem Shuffle by Bob & Earl. “You move it to the left, Yeah, then you go for yourself. You move it to the right, yeah, if it takes all night. Now baby kinda slow, with a whole lot of soul. Don’t move it too fast, make it last. We’re gonna ride, ride, ride, little pony, ride.”
1963 Walking the Dog by Rufus Thomas. “Asked my momma for fifteen cents, to see the elephant jump the fence. He jumped so high, he touched the sky, never got back ’til the Fourth of July. Walkin’ the dog, just a-walkin’ the dog. If you don’t know how to do it, I’ll show you how to walk the dog.”
1964 The Jerk by the Larks. ”Girl, what’s that you’re doing? Girl, how do you move your hips so fine? Work it out, right on time.”
1964 The Swim by Bobby Freeman. “C’mon everybody, come on in, cause Bobby’s gonna show you how to do the swim. Kinda like the Monkey, kinda like the Twist. Pretend you’re in the water and you go like this.”
In the 1950s and 1960s, Baby Boom kids were reaching their teens around the same time rock and roll music was becoming a Very Big Thing
Back in those pre-interweb days, there were several ways to listen to music.
- On a jukebox, three for a quarter.
- On AM radios in the car and home.
- With the compact transistor radios that were the first really portable music.
- Buying 45 rpm records and playing them on your record player that had only one speaker, of course.
- High-Fidelity (Hi-Fi) was the top-of-the-line sound production before stereo music became widely available and Detroit began installing AM/FM radios in our cars.
- On American Bandstand. This was the nationally-televised music show made for kids and teens.
Dick Clark started the format where contestants rated songs
“I didn’t like the lyrics but I gave it an 85 because you can dance to it.” And dance they did, live on television. How quaint it looks now with the girls in dresses and the boys wearing coats and ties.
Guests appeared and performed “live,” which was usually mouthing the words to an already recorded tune the studios were plugging
That way, American Bandstand had to pay just the featured singer, and not have to pay background singers or a band. And in those early days, when a band did appear, the whole thing was faked. When you watch old videos, notice how the cords are missing from the amplified instruments and the drummer stops short of actually hitting his kit with his sticks.
The kids didn’t care about that, because they were there to dance
All of a sudden, there were songs about new kinds of dances. More than most remember. Kids around the country, including me, watched to see who we’d been listening to and to see the dances the kids in the studio were doing. Back then, watching American Bandstand was how we learned to dance.
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- That’s right – they changed Earnest Evans’ name to Chubby Checker, the song was The Twist, and it was 1960. The dance moves were described as twisting (of course) from side to side while putting out cigarette butts with your shoes.
- The second time I went to college, I worked nights as an FM radio disc jockey at WRVG-FM. Listeners loved Friday nights when I played songs of the ‘50s and ‘60s. The records I played were all authentic 45s from a collection I bought used from one of the jukebox vendors.
- Long-Playing albums (33 ⅓ rpm LPs) were 12 inches in diameter and had a small hole in the center. They played for about 20 minutes per side. Singles (45 rpm) were 7 inches in diameter and had a big hole in the center. Songs played for less than 3 minutes per side. Jukeboxes were filled with singles.
- My favorite song from Hank and the boys was Finger Poppin’ Time. “Here comes Mary, here comes Sue
Here come Johnny and Bobby too. It’s finger pop, poppin’ time feel so good, and that’s a real good sign.” - Hi-Fi was the music industry term for High-Fidelity,
- Sock hops were weekend dances in High School gymnasiums. Originally, dancers were required to remove their shoes to protect the wooden floors.
- Why don’t Baptists have sex while standing up? They’re afraid someone will think they’re dancing.
My name is David Allan Van Nostrand and I wrote this article, along with more than 500 others on this site alone. Ever since I was a kid with an insatiable curiosity and a knack for learning, I’ve observed, analyzed, and made sense of hundreds of different subjects and topics. Today, in addition to writing, I help organizations solve difficult problems requiring imaginative solutions. What can I take a closer look at for you?
Bonus
Watusi Luci
While researching for this article, I came across something I’d never seen before – this time capsule film of President Lyndon Johnson’s daughter doing the Watusi. The clip was filmed at a Young Citizens for Johnson celebrity barbeque in Beverly Hills, California. As the story goes, when Luci Bird saw movie heartthrob Steve McQueen dancing alone, she jumped up and danced with him. Tabloids immediately dubbed her “Watusi Luci.”
