The Monkees were widely accused of ripping off The Beatles. “Ripping-off” was usually too strong a word for the inspiration that the Prefab Four took from the Fab Four, but the word applied well to a ...

“Twist and Shout” was co-written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns. The latter used the pseudonym Bert Russell. Berns also produced other hits such as The Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk” and Van ...

The dance craze known as the twist seemed to take over the music world for a few years. When Hank Ballard wrote “The Twist” and put it out as the B-side of “Teardrops on Your Letter” in 1959, it was ...