“Twist and Shout” by the Beatles

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My favorite recording of an all-time party classic, a song guaranteed to start singalongs and hip gyrations no matter where you are.

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As I was prepping the first few months of the 2025 content calendar, it hit me like a freight train: I haven’t highlighted a Beatles song in this recurring column yet.

Embarrassed at this egregious oversight, I began whittling down a shortlist of Fab Four songs to discuss in this newsletter (there’s more content about the band scheduled for release later this year, so keep an eye out for that in your inbox if you’re a subscriber). My idea was to provide a quick but effective showcase for the group’s unmatched pop songwriting abilities from both a lyrical and melodic point of view. The irony is that, after hours of deliberation, I concluded that arguably their most fun song isn’t even theirs in the strictest sense. It’s one of their many covers that became the song’s defining moment in the zeitgeist.

“Twist and Shout” was written in 1961 by Phil Medley and Bert Berns, and was originally recorded by the R&B vocal group the Top Notes. Despite being produced by Phil Spector, the song didn’t become a hit until the Isley Brothers released their version, which peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. Like their British Invasion brethren, the Beatles were in the habit of repackaging R&B hits for a rock-leaning (and, let’s be honest here, predominantly white) audience. In that regard, “Twist and Shout” is the easiest of pickings.

My favorite story about this track isn’t about the John Lennon vocal (he had basically lost his voice when it was time to record it) nor the fact that it was cut in one take (and you can still hear Lennon coughing up part of his lung at the very end right when the song ends), though both aspects certainly add to its charm. Instead, here’s a bit of trivia for you: Despite selling millions of copies in its initial sales run, “Twist and Shout” wasn’t a Beatles No. 1. Instead, it peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and was kept out of the top spot by … the Beatles. That week—April 4, 1964—the group’s music occupied all of the Top 5 spots on the chart, with “Can’t Buy Me Love” edging out “Twist and Shout” for the title of the most popular song in the US.

It’s a reminder that, only a couple of months after they performed the song on the Ed Sullivan Show, they were flying higher than any music act had before.

PS: A special shout out to this song’s inclusion in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, one of my all-time favorite movie scenes.