Many of us can probably remember at least hearing about, if not actively partaking in, some sort of dance craze. They were all over the place during the ’50s and ’60s, with the most notable being Chubby Checker’s “The Twist.”
Following the success of “The Twist,” Joey Dee and the Starliters came out with their own version in 1961 called “The Peppermint Twist.” Inspired by Checker’s smash hit, and named for the nightclub in which Dee performed (“The Peppermint Lounge”), the song and dance swept the nation and rose to number one on the charts in 1962.
The “Peppermint Twist” combined the moves of “The Twist” with new music and made it more upscale. Instead of young kids and teenagers dancing to the music, adults were pulled in to perform the dance craze that had been sweeping the nation.
New York City’s Peppermint Lounge became the epicenter of the Twist craze and after a vanguard of glamorous celebrity jet-setters — including Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, Joey Dee Dancing and Frank Sinatra and many more — each famously made the news by doing the moves at the Manhattan-based discotheque, the fad went mainstream.
What do you think of “The Peppermint Twist”? Is it too similar to Chubby Checker’s “The Twist”? Use the comments section below and share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you!
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