Chubby Checker

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"Limbo Rock" is a popular song about limbo dancing written by Kal Mann (under the pseudonym Jon Sheldon) and Billy Strange. An instrumental version was first recorded by The Champs in 1961. The first vocal version was recorded in 1962 by Chubby Checker (on Parkway Records): it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number one on the Cash Box charts. The Chubby Checker recording also made it to number three on the R&B charts. Checker then released a sequel, Let's Limbo Some More, in 1963 and that peaked at #20 in the Billboard chart.

The song was covered by a long list of artists including Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, The Champs, The Ventures, Fozzie Bear, Sebastian the crab, Chet Atkins and Hank Snow (on their joint album C.B. Atkins & C.E. Snow by Special Request), The Knickerbockers, Klaus Wunderlich, The Routers, Arthur Lyman, Skiantos. Because the song is literally about limbo, versions of the song by lesser-known cover bands appear on various latin music, Calypso music and reggae compilation records. It also appears on a number of children's music albums.

The song was written on a 100 dollar bet that Strange could write a hit song in 5 minutes with a buddy while riding in his car. Strange indeed penned the song under 5 minutes, won the bet, and collected the 100 bucks. Over time, the Tequilas managed to break the top 40 with the tune, and Chubby Checker almost topped the Top 40 charts with it as well. Strange received a check for $62,000 one day in the mail from ASCAP, and, never making anywhere near that money before, thought it must have been a mistake. He called ASCAP mentioning the probability that there was a huge error, and they asked him if he wrote the song. He mentioned he did, they mentioned it charted twice, and that he certainly had the money coming. All from that 5 minute song...

The Chubby Checker recording was featured in the film Hairspray.