6 September 1965
If Chubby Checker can follow up ‘The Twist’ with ‘Let’s Twist Again’ (I imagine Brendan Bowyer or his defence counsel pleading) surely Ireland’s leading showband can treat the little people to more of that Hucklebuck magic, right? Well, it may be Ireland’s biggest home-grown hit of the ’60s but I’m not so invested in ‘The Hucklebuck’ universe as to care what comes next after you wriggle like a snake and waddle like a duck: emigrate to England?
Not that ‘The Hucklebuck’ was ever a deep well from which to draw draughts of career-long sustenance, but ‘Don’t Lose Your Hucklebuck Shoes’ is the source thinness spread even more thinly. I recognise fragments of Hucklebuck lore: the flaccid sax; the recurring shout of “hey”; the grim determination to hang on to the ’50s. Bowyer’s vigour is badly hampered by the melody being right at the top of his range: he’s straining to make a good time of this, and frankly so am I. I’ll bet even Imelda Marcos baulked at the idea of owning Hucklebuck shoes.
