System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Hank Ballard, The Twist
November 18, 1936 - March 02, 2003
Singer and songwriter Hank Ballard, born “John H. Kendricks”, writer of the 1960’s hit "The Twist" died Sunday at his home. He was suffering from throat cancer. His age is uncertain as birth records indicate he was born in 1927, but most biographical information have his birth date listed as1936.
Hank Ballard, grew up singing in church in Bessemer, Alabama. In 1953 the 16 year-old former Ford assembly line worker became lead singer for The Royals, bringing to the group a hard gospel edge and a suitcase full of rhythm-charged, frequently raunchy songs, beginning with 1953's "Get It". As "Work With Me Annie" was gaining momentum in early 1954, the Royals changed their name to the Midnighters to avoid confusion with the Five Royals, another hard, gospel-styled R&B group. "Annie" and its answers kept the Midnighters going strong for a year and a half, after which they experienced a respite from the charts that lasted three and a half years.
In 1958, he 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?" He took the new tune to Vee-Jay records, which cut it but didn't release it. Then King records, picked up the group's option and recorded "The Twist", the first record to place his name on the label in front of the group's. It was issued, however, as the B-side of the gospel-drenched 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 rerecord 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 Coochi 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, he 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. In 1990, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
