Chubby Checker is an American singer and dancer. He is widely known for popularizing many dance styles, including the Twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard & The Midnighters' R&B song "The Twist", and the pony dance style with the 1961 cover of the song "Pony Time". His biggest UK hit, "Let's Twist Again", was released one year later ; that year, he also popularized the song "Limbo Rock", originally a previous-year instrumental hit by the Champs to which he added lyrics, and its trademark Limbo dance, as well as other dance styles such as The Fly. In September 2008, "The Twist" topped Billboard's list of the most popular singles to have appeared in the Hot 100 since its debut in 1960, an honor it maintained in an August 2013 update of the list.
Kal Mann was an American lyricist. He is best known for penning the words to Elvis Presley's "Teddy Bear", plus "Butterfly", a hit for both Charlie Gracie and Andy Williams, and "Let's Twist Again", sung by Chubby Checker, which won the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Recording.
Freddie Starr was an English stand up comedian, impressionist, singer and actor. Starr was the lead singer of Merseybeat rock and roll group the Midniters during the early 1960s, and came to prominence in the early 1970s after appearing on Opportunity Knocks and the Royal Variety Performance. In the 1990s, he starred in several television shows, including Freddie Starr (1993–1994), The Freddie Starr Show (1996–1998) and two episodes of An Audience with... in 1996 and 1997. In 1999, he presented the game show Beat the Crusher.
"I Really Don't Want to Know" is a popular song written by Don Robertson (music) Howard Barnes (lyrics). The song was published in 1953.
"Pledging My Love" is a blues ballad. It was written by Ferdinand Washington and Don Robey and published in 1954.
The Freddie was a short-lived 1960s fad dance prompted by the release of the songs "I'm Telling You Now", and "Do the Freddie", both by the British band, Freddie and the Dreamers. "Do the Freddie" had been a number 18 hit in the United States in 1965, and American dance craze stalwart Chubby Checker had then made it to number 40 with the minor hit "Let's Do the Freddie" in that same year and number 15 in Canada Billboard said of Checker's version that there's a "new dance on the scene and Checker's got it! Exciting number done in his familiar style." Record World said that Checker "has a new terp idea that will also do big business."
"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" is a 1935 popular song with music by Fred E. Ahlert and lyrics by Joe Young. It has been recorded many times, and has become a standard of the Great American Songbook. It was popularized by Fats Waller, who recorded it in 1935 at the height of his fame.
"Please Send Me Someone to Love" is a blues ballad, written and recorded by American blues and soul singer Percy Mayfield in 1950, for Art Rupe's Specialty Records. It was on the Billboard's R&B chart for 27 weeks and reached the number-one position for two weeks; it was Mayfield's most successful song.
Alessandro Carmelo "Teddy" Randazzo was an American pop songwriter, singer, arranger and producer, who composed hit songs such as "Goin' Out of My Head", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", "Pretty Blue Eyes", and "Hurt So Bad" in the 1960s.
"It's Gonna Take a Miracle" is a song written by Teddy Randazzo, Bobby Weinstein, and Lou Stallman. It was first an R&B hit in 1965 for The Royalettes, which reached the Top 30 on the U.S. R&B chart and peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on Cash Box.
"Limbo Rock" is a popular song about limbo dancing written by Kal Mann and Billy Strange. An instrumental version was first recorded by The Champs in 1961. The first vocal version was recorded in 1962 by Chubby Checker : it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and at number one on the Cash Box charts. The Chubby Checker recording also made it to number three on the R&B charts. In Canada it reached number 7 for 2 weeks co-charting with the B-side.
"Loving You" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and performed by Elvis Presley with backup vocals provided by The Jordanaires. It reached No. 15 on the U.S. country chart, #20 on the U.S. pop chart, and #24 on the UK Singles Chart in 1957. It was featured on his 1957 album Loving You. It was featured in Presley's 1957 movie Loving You. The single's A-side, "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" reached No. 1 on the U.S. pop, country, and R&B charts and #3 on the UK Singles Chart in 1957.
Different Kinda Different is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis, released on June 16, 1980, by Columbia Records. It included covers of two standards and two recent hits. It also continued the trend of recording duets with a female singer; for this project Paulette McWilliams shared vocal duties on two of the six new songs.
"I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" is a song written and originally recorded by Hank Williams on MGM Records. It hit number two on the Billboard country singles chart in 1951. In his autobiography, George Jones printed the first six lines of the song and stated, "Its lyrics couldn't be more simple - or profound."
Lou Courtney was an American soul singer and songwriter who had several hit records in the 1960s and 1970s, both as a performer and writer.
"You Were Made for Me" is a song by the English band Freddie and the Dreamers, released as a single in November 1963. It peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart.
"It's All Over" is a song by the Everly Brothers, released as a single in December 1965 from their album In Our Image.
"I'd Never Find Another You" is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and first released by American singer Tony Orlando on his album Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits in September 1961.
"Run to My Lovin' Arms" is a song written by Tony Powers and George Fischoff. It was first released as a single by American singer April Young on 30 April 1965. However, it is better known for being released by English singer Billy Fury in September 1965, whose version peaked at number 25 on the Record Retailer Top 50.
"Letter Full of Tears" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Don Covay and released by Gladys Knight & the Pips as a single in November 1961. It became their second top-20 hit, peaking at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was covered the following year by English singer Billy Fury who had a minor hit with it in the UK.
