"Twist" Writer Ballard Dies

Legendary R&B singer and songwriter Hank Ballard died Sunday at his Los Angeles home after suffering from throat cancer; according to birth records, which differ from his official biographical information, he was seventy-five.

Ballard, born John H. Kendricks in Detroit, formed his first doo-wop group while a teenager working on the Ford assembly lines. He was discovered in the early Fifties by the writer and producer Johnny Otis and became frontman for the notoriously naughty Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. With songs like "Finger Poppin' Time," "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" and the million-seller "Work With Me Annie," the group scored a half-dozen R&B and pop hits in the Fifties and Sixties, even though some of its tracks were banned from radio.

Still, he was best known for writing "The Twist," which he recorded and released in 1958, a year before Chubby Checker's version became a hit and launched a dance craze.

Ballard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

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Song Stories

“The A Team”

Ed Sheeran | 2011

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.

More Song Stories entries »

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