As dances go, the Twist may have gone the way of the Charleston and the Hucklebuck, but Twist albums remain pretty good party records years after the fact.
Dale Hawkins' 1962 album
Let's All Twist, for example, finds the former rockabilly cat cashing in on the Twist craze with a lively, full-length Twist set recorded in concert at Miami Beach's Peppermint Lounge (not the same Peppermint Lounge
Joey Dee made famous).
Let's All Twist is similar in concept and execution to
Bill Haley's
Twistin' Knights at the Round Table, another live Twist album Roulette released in 1962. The record begins without fanfare as
Hawkins and his band,
the Escapades, launch into an invitation to dance, "Do the Twist," before dishing up some basic instrumental rock & roll with "Joanne," on which the sax player, guitarist, and organist trade riffs for nearly four minutes. "Luky Duky" is a torrid call-and-response rave-up, "Do It" tears it up with a heavy
Bo Diddley beat, and "Empty Shoes" takes
Hawkins' flirtation with blues-rock to its logical conclusion. "What Can I Do (To Make You Love Me)" is the album's only ballad, and "Someone to Care" is the only track that exhibits even a vestige of
Hawkins' rockabilly past.
Hawkins wrote most of the songs for the album, making liberal use of Twist rhythms and lyrics that mention the Twist. The 1994 CD version is a straight reissue of the stereo album, with the original liner notes reproduced inside the booklet alongside brief new notes. Neither
Hawkins' nor
Haley's twist albums charted, but both are energetic and fun dance records.
–
Greg Adams, Rovi