[Deathwatch] Hank Ballard, singer-songwriter, TBD

[Deathwatch Central]

"Twist" Songwriter Ballard Dies
Mon Mar 3, 5:15 PM ET

Hank Ballard, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter best
known for penning the dance craze-spawning/wedding reception standard
"The Twist," died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles.

According to longtime friends, Ballard had reportedly been ailing from
throat cancer.

It was not exactly known how old the entertainer was. While most press
accounts say Ballard was born November 18, 1936, friend and caretaker
Anna Ayala told the Associated Press his birth certificate stated 1927.


"He was just a very good man and loved by so many people," Ayala told
AP.

Ballard is best known to music buffs as the man who, in 1958, wrote and
recorded an uptempo 12-bar blues ditty called "The Twist," which was
seemingly relegated to obscurity as the B-side of a gospel-tinged
ballad called "Teardrops on Your Letter" he did with the Midnighters.
It caught on with inner-city kids, who invented a dance to go along
with it, but radio airplay was scarce and the song was quickly
forgotten.

That is, until one year later. Chubby Checker rerecorded "The Twist"
and debuted it on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.

Not only did the tune rocket straight to the top of the charts, but it
subsequently launched a hip-gyrating national dance sensation in the
mid-1960s, as well as a raft of "Twist" imitators, including "Let's
Twist Again," "Slow Twistin'," "Twist and Shout" by the Isley Brothers
and "Twistin' the Night Away" from Sam Cooke (news), not to mention a
couple of hit movies starring Checker, Twist Around the Clock and Don't
Knock the Twist.

While Checker's cover eclipsed their own, Ballard and the Midnighters
didn't disappear--two years later the group scored three simultaneous
Top 40 hits: "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go," "Finger Poppin' Time," and
their original version of "The Twist."

Ballard also penned other hip-shakin' hits, including "The Hoochie
Coochi Coo," "The Float," "The Continental Walk" and "The
Switch-A-Roo."

All told, Ballard and the Midnighters ended up landing 22 singles on
the rhythm-and-blues charts during the '50s and '60s.

Born John H. Kendricks in Detroit, Michigan, Ballard first got his
start singing in church in Bessemer, Alabama. At age 15, his family
moved back to Motor City, where he got a job working on a Ford assembly
line. He soon gave up car parts and joined a doo-wop group called the
Royals.

Bandleader Johnny Otis happened upon the group just before Ballard
replaced harmony vocalist Lawson Smith in the lineup and recommended
the Royals to Federal Records. (The band's original lineup included
fellow legends Jackie Wilson and Levi Stubbs, who later formed Motown's
seminal Four Tops.)

Ballard, who cited singing cowboy Gene Autry as an early idol, brought
to the mix a gospel influence along with hard-charging rhythms and
sexually suggestive lyrics, as exemplified in 1953's "Get It" and
1954's "Work with Me Annie," which went on to become the biggest R&B
hit of that year and sold over a million records.

The latter inspired a slew of "Annie" songs, including "Annie Had a
Baby" and "Annie's Aunt Fannie," as well as the raunchy "Roll with Me
Henry," watered down in a hit cover version for white audiences called
"Dance with Me Henry." Occasionally, some radio stations refused to
play Ballard's risqué tunes.

Eventually, the Royals changed their name to the Midnighters after
hearing of another R&B group called the Five Royals.

In the late '60s, Ballard broke off from the Midnighters and hooked up
with James Brown's band. Brown produced two minor Ballard hits, 1968's
"How You Gonna Get Respect (If You Haven't Cut Your Process Yet?)" and
1972's "From the Love Side."

Ballard laid low during the '70s before resurfacing in the '80s with a
new Midnighters lineup.

In 1991, Ballard was devastated by the death of his wife, Theresa,
killed by a hit-and-run driver. After intense therapy, Ballard slowly
recovered and turned up at a number of music festivals in the '90s.

"He was an all-around entertainer. He was a dynamite on stage," friend
and business associate Chuck Rubin told the AP.

Ballard was inducted into the Rock Hall in 1990.

"There's something about music that's just theraputic. If you're
looking for youth, you're looking for longevity, just take a dose of
rock 'n' roll," Ballard said in a 1996 interview at the Rockport Rhythm
and Blues Festival. "It keeps you going. Just like the caffeine in your
coffee. Rock 'n' roll is good for the soul."