Volume 221: Every Twist You Take

Liner Notes

The Versatile Twist

This is going to be an extra fun episode. Many of the tunes have melodies you already know. Some tunes were created for this album.

The trumpet player leading the band was part of some great music history in the form of some famous big bands, including some history he claimed on his own.

So get ready to hear the last living member of the original Glenn Miller Orchestra in Volume 221: Every Twist You Take.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

You can check out the video version here:

Credits and Copyrights:

See information from the Discogs.com page here

Ray Anthony And His Bookends – The Twist
Label: Capitol Records – T 1668
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono
Released: 1962
Genre: Jazz, Blues
Style: Big Band, Rhythm & Blues, Twist

We will hear 9 of the 12 songs from this album.

The Twist
Written-By – Hank Ballard

Twistin’ Alice
Written-By – Don Simpson, Ray Anthony

Twist Around Mister
Written-By – Don Simpson, Ray Anthony

Peter Gunn Twist
Written-By – Henry Mancini

Tequila With A Twist
Written-By – Chuck Rio

Twist And Rock Around The Clock
Written-By – Jimmy De Knight, Max C. Freedman

Mexican Hat Twist
Arranged By – Don Simpson, Ray Anthony

Bookend Twist
Written-By – Don Simpson, Ray Anthony

Bunny Hop Twist
Written-By – Leonard Auletti, Ray Anthony

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

#rayanthony #twist #thetwist #musichistory #vinylrecordcollecting #vinylrecords

Here is the Episode Script!

Thanks sweetie and thank YOU for tuning into episode 221 of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl.

This is going to be an extra fun episode. Many of the tunes have melodies you already know. Some tunes were created for this album.

The trumpet player leading the band was part of some great music history in the form of some famous big bands, including some history he claimed on his own.

So get ready to hear the last living member of the original Glenn Miller Orchestra in Volume 221: Every Twist You Take.

[Music: The Twist]

Ray Anthony And His Bookends with the title track of this album The Twist
Written and first recorded By – Hank Ballard. Of course, most of you know the Chubby Checker version.

Ok…Why this record for this episode?

This is the first of two Ray Anthony records my dad had and they had stayed hidden at the beginning of the record stack. I know that sounds weird, but I kept flipping by them.

I am certainly glad I finally grabbed one of them.

If there’s one dance I can do, it’s the twist. It’s easy. Pretend you’re holding a rolled up towel by each end while you are drying your butt and moving your feet to put out that cigarette.

If this music doesn’t get you moving, I don’t know what will.

Right Alice? Alice? Who the heck is Alice? I cleaned that up a bit.

[Music: Twistin’ Alice]
[Music: Twist Around Mister]

There were a couple of tunes Written-By – Don Simpson, and Ray Anthony
Twist Around Mister is what we just heard.

And before that we heard Twistin’ Alice.

Sorry about the tease. That was a cleaned up shout we do at the High Tide in Geneva on the Lake during a certain song about Alice.

Now let me tell you about my dad’s vinyl I am spinning for this episode.

Ray Anthony And His Bookends – The Twist
Label: Capitol Records – T 1668
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono (there is a stereo version of this album as well.)
Released: 1962
Genre: Jazz, Blues
Style: Big Band, Rhythm & Blues, Twist

We will hear 9 of the 12 songs from this album. They’re very short tunes.

The liner notes aren’t long, but I’m still not going to read quite all of them.

Ray Anthony has probably been associated with more new dance crazes than any other top band leader in recent years, having won renown as the innovator of the bunny hop, the Sluefoot, and several similar Sensations whose popularity has swept across the Nation’s waxed floors. Now the man with the golden horn and the driving beat issues this wide open invitation to dancers of every age to join him in doing the very latest of America’s dance manias. That new rockin’ rage they call the twist!

Ray’s great trumpet is backed here by three saxes, rhythm, and two driving guitars, in a collection of twist-inspired arrangements that really swing with an exciting new sound. Here, then, is the best thing that happened to dancers in a long long while. It’s the Twist.. Ray Anthony style.

Let’s see what prices this record is being sold at on discogs dot com.

$12.99 High
$1.00 Low

$4.81 Average
$2.99 Median

Last sold on Mar 09, 2025 for $2.81.

My dad’s record sounds surprisingly good. The wear marks on the surface mean he played this a lot. But there’s not much crackle or hiss between the tracks and within the music.

The cover is in fair condition. There’s the normal record outline showing through the cover. The word Posted is stamped on the back above the green magic marker streak. The front cover has two address labels on top of each other.

So I’ll value my dad’s vinyl at two bucks.

Next up is a Henry Mancini song that Ray Anthony made popular. Here it gets “the treatment.”

[Music: Peter Gunn Twist]
[Music: Tequila With A Twist]

That was Tequila With A Twist (Who doesn’t drink Tequila with some sort of bite out of a fruit)
Written-By – Chuck Rio

Before that was Peter Gunn Twist
Written-By – Henry Mancini

Now let’s learn a little about this great artist.

Raymond Antonini, better known as Ray Anthony, was born January 20, 1922. He is an American retired bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor.

Anthony was born to an Italian family in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, but moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he studied the trumpet. He played in Glenn Miller’s band from 1940 to 1941 and appeared in the Glenn Miller movie Sun Valley Serenade before joining the U.S. Navy during World War II as Miller joined the Army. After the war Ray formed his own group, The Ray Anthony Orchestra which became popular in the early 1950s with “The Bunny Hop”, “Hokey Pokey”, and the memorable theme from the radio/television police detective series Dragnet. He had a No. 2 chart hit with a recording of the tune “At Last” in 1952; it was the highest charting pop version of the song in the U.S.

In 1953, Ray Anthony and his orchestra appeared on a TV show that replaced Perry Como’s show for the summer. From 1953 to 1954, Anthony was the musical director for TV’s Top Tunes. He also appeared in movies like Daddy Long Leg* and The Five Pennies. (Who we just featured in the last episode) In 1955, he married actress Mamie Van Doren, and they had a son named Perry Ray in 1956. Anthony had his own TV show, The Ray Anthony Show, but it didn’t last long. He appeared in more films and TV shows, but after his divorce from Van Doren in 1961, he focused more on music. One of his famous songs was the theme from Peter Gunn, which became very popular. A song we already heard, of course, but this one got his twist treatment for this album.

Anthony became the last living member of Glenn Miller’s band when trombonist Nat Peck died in 2015.

This past January 20, 2025 Ray Anthony turned 103 years old.

Next up is a melody made famous by Bill Haley and His Comets.

[Music: Twist And Rock Around The Clock]

Twist And Rock Around The Clock
Written-By – Jimmy De Knight, Max C. Freedman

Time now for this episode’s interesting side note and it has to do with what you’re doing to your body when moving to this music.

The Twist was a dance craze that took over America in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It all started with a song called The Twist by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters in 1958. Ballard wrote the song after seeing teenagers dancing in Tampa, Florida. Even though the song didn’t become a huge hit right away, it introduced a simple yet exciting dance move that looked like you were putting out a cigarette with your foot while drying your back with a towel. The real explosion came in 1960 when Chubby Checker released his own version of The Twist and performed it on national television. His performance on American Bandstand made the dance an instant sensation!

At first, the Twist was mostly popular with teenagers. They loved it because it was so different from the formal dances their parents did, like the waltz or the foxtrot. Instead of dancing with a partner in a close embrace, the Twist allowed people to dance by themselves while still facing each other. It was energetic, fun, and most importantly, easy to learn. Teens loved the freedom it gave them to move in new and creative ways without needing to worry about fancy footwork or complicated steps.

The popularity of the Twist kept growing as more and more Twist-themed songs hit the radio. Chubby Checker followed up with songs like Let’s Twist Again, and other artists jumped on the bandwagon with songs like Twistin’ the Night Away by Sam Cooke. Even adults started to get in on the fun, and soon the dance spread from teen parties to high-society events and nightclubs. Even First Lady Jackie Kennedy held “Twist parties” at the White House. The Twist became more than just a dance—it became a symbol of how music and dance were changing in the 1960s, making room for more individual expression and carefree fun.

OK…here’s a dance within a dance.

[Music: Mexican Hat Twist]
[Music: Bookend Twist]

Named after his female backup singers, there is Bookend Twist
Written-By – Don Simpson, Ray Anthony

Before that we heard Mexican Hat Twist
That was arranged By – Don Simpson, Ray Anthony

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

I think I remember this album cover from my growing up days in the house.

This is such a 60s album cover. The woman dancing in the black and white photograph on the front cover reminds me of a scene from It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Except the dancer on the cover is…uh…much more covered than the bikini clad dancer from the movie. It’s the moves she is seemingly making and the attitude that struck me as similar.

While the cover dancer is in bare feet, she’s wearing a skirt that goes down to about mid thigh and what’s probably an Angora sweater. She’s in mid gyration, but she doesn’t need the towel to guide her movement.

The photo takes up about two thirds of the right side of the cover. The left portion gives the title of the record, the artist and a list of the tunes.

The back cover has another image of our dancer, probably more reminiscent of that movie scene than the front. There’s pretty much the same information plus the liner notes I read.

I have a feeling my parents pulled this out at parties. My dad always had that big Magnavox console stereo going.

We’re going to finish up with a mix of the Twist and the song that put Ray Anthony on the pop musical map.

[Music: Bunny Hop Twist]

Bunny Hop Twist
Written-By – Leonard Auletti, Ray Anthony

And there you have selections from an album that was meant for a certain to every tune.

So thanks for tuning into Volume 221: Every Twist You Take

however you did. If you want more information about this SHOW, head over to spinning my dad’s vinyl dot com.

I’ll be back next week with all my skips, scratches, and pops

FOR Volume 222: A TJB Concert Rewind

Until then,
Go with the flow my friends.