Rock and Roll

The song “Pony Time” was Chubby Checker’s second big hit at the top of the charts after his 1960 cover of Hank Ballard’s “The Twist.” In 1961, “Pony Time,” a dance song, went to #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and R&B Chart. The song was written by Don Covay and John Berry and released on Parkway Records. It was featured in John Waters’ 1988 film Hairspray.

Chubby Checker was born Ernest Evans on October 3, 1941 in Spring Gulley, South Carolina, and subsequently grew up in Philadelphia. (The professional moniker Chubby Checker was based the name Fats Domino. The story goes, it came about from a conversation between Dick Clark’s wife and Checker after he had been doing some impressions of singers, including Domino.) He is a prolific singer/songwriter and has had success with other dance songs, including “The Fly” and “Limbo Rock.” Checker was in the films Twist Around the Clock (1961) and Don’t Knock the Twist (1962). He continues to tour and perform.

Here are the lyrics to “Pony Time” by Chubby Checker:

“It’s pony time, get up
Boogety, boogety, boogety shoo

Hey now everybody
In the Union Hall
It’s pony time
When you hear this call

So get with it
Don’t quit it Get up

Do the pony with your partner
Or with a big boss line
Well anyway you do it
You’re gonna look real fine

So get with it
Don’t quit it Get up

Now ya turn to the left when I say, “Gee”
Turn to the right when I say, “Haw”
Now gee, yeah yeah little baby
Now haw, oh oh baby, oh baby, pretty baby
Do it baby, oh baby, oh baby
Boogety, boogety, boogety, boogety shoo

Gonna see little Suzie
Who lives next door
She’s doin’ the pony
She’s takin’ the floor

Eee ah, so get with it
Don’t quit it
Get up

Do the pony with your partner
Or in the big boss line
But anyway you do it
You’re gonna look real fine

So get with it
Don’t quit it
Get up, eea

Do the turn to the left when I say, “Gee”
Turn to the right when I say, “Haw”
Now gee, yeah yeah little baby
Now haw, yeah oh baby, oh baby, pretty baby
Do it baby, oh baby, oh baby”

If you are interested in reading and listening to songs about The Twist, please click here for “Three Takes on the Twist.” Another song by Chubby Checker is “Limbo Rock.”

For More Golden Oldies Music       

The Daily Doo Wop Rec Room has daily featured doo wop, rock and roll, R&B, or rockabilly songs that were hits during the first era of rock and roll (that is, from about 1952 until the British invasion in 1964). After a song is featured, it then goes into the juke box. You are welcome to listen to any of the 40+ selections there. Every weekend, there is a Golden Oldies Juke Box Saturday Night, and the juke box is full of song requests from the 1950s and 1960s.

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