Songfacts®:

• The Twist was a huge dance craze in the late '50s and early '60s, and Sam Cooke can't get enough of it on his Twistin' The Night Away album. The 1962 release finds him "Twistin' In The Kitchen With Dinah," "Twistin' In The Old Town Tonight," and doing Hank Ballard's "The Twist," but it's the title track that had the soul singer twisting up the Billboard charts. In the US, it peaked at #9 on the Hot 100 and went to #1 on the R&B chart. It was also his highest-charting single in the UK, where it peaked at #6.
  
  He sings about a place in New York where the move brings some unlikely pairings together on the dance floor, like the man in evening clothes twisting with a chick in slacks, and a fella in blue jeans grooving with an older queen who's dolled up in her diamond rings.
  
  With artists like Chubby Checker and Joey Dee And The Starliters landing huge hits with their Twist-inspired songs - Checker with "The Twist" and "Let's Twist Again," The Starliters with "Peppermint Twist" - it made sense for Cooke to try his hand at the theme. Joey Dee And The Starliters were the house band at The Peppermint Lounge in New York City, where celebrities and socialites converged to do the dance and inspired them to write their hit single.
  
  According to the biography Dream Boogie: The Triumph Of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick, Cooke wrote the lyrics to his song after seeing TV footage of wealthy old women getting their twist on at the club. "Look at those old ladies dressed in diamonds, twisting away," he told his business partner, J.W. Alexander.
• Whether he was writing dance numbers, ballads, or civil rights anthems, Cooke believed the secret to his success was the power of observation.
  
  He told Dick Clark in 1964, "If you observe what's going on and try to figure out how people are thinking and determine the times of your day, I think you can always write something that people will understand."
• Cooke started out as a gospel singer, fronting the group the Soul Stirrers, before enjoying crossover success in 1957 with the hit "You Send Me." In 1960, he signed a deal with RCA Victor and began working with the songwriting/production duo Hugo & Luigi, who helmed all of Cooke's albums at the label. Twistin' The Night Away was his fifth RCA release and came to fruition during the team's move from New York City to Hollywood, which led to the stellar West Coast talent rounding out the album credits.
  
  Cooke's conductor, Sammy Lowe, invited rock-and-roll guitarist/arranger Rene Hall to bring his skills to the recording, and Hall brought members of the famed group of session musicians the Wrecking Crew along with him. The lineup on the title track: Rene Hall (guitar, arrangement, conducting), Tommy Tedesco and Clifton White (guitars), Ed Beal (piano), Red Callendar (bass guitar), Earl Palmer (drums), Stuart Williamson (trumpet), John Ewing (trombone), John Kelson aka Jackie Kelso (tenor saxophone), and Jewell Grant (baritone saxophone).
• This was used in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House, which follows the antics of a rowdy college fraternity, Delta Tau Chi, in 1962. The song plays as guests arrive at the Deltas' toga party, with the lyrics, "Here's a man in evenin' clothes, how he got here I don't know," ushering in Flounder and his date, who are both overdressed in their formal wear compared to the bedsheet-clad partygoers.
  
  It was also featured in these TV shows:
  
  The Umbrella Academy ("Valhalla" - 2020)
  Granite Flats ("Something Dangerous" - 2013)
  Rock & Chips ("The Frog And The Pussycat" - 2011)
  Crime Story ("Pilot" - 1986)
  Happy Days ("Poo Bah Doo Dah" - 1982)
  
  
  And these movies:
  
  The Green Hornet (2011)
  Ali (2001)
  Innerspace (1987)
  The Greek Tycoon (1978)
  The Steagle (1971)
• The Motown girl group The Marvelettes recorded this for their covers album The Marvelettes Sing Smash Hits Of 1962.
• Rod Stewart recorded this for his 1972 album, Never A Dull Moment. The following year, it was released as a single and peaked at #59 on the Billboard Hot 100. He recorded it again in 1987 for the soundtrack to the sci-fi comedy Innerspace. That version went to #80.
• In 1985, Divine, an actor and drag queen known for his appearances in John Waters films like Female Trouble and Polyester, recorded a dance version for his Maid In England album. His version peaked at #47 in the UK.