So I'm sitting there in Wendy's munching on my sandwich and the 50's loop is playing on the muzak and I hear this record that I'm sure I've never heard before but it sounds familiar. A guy is singing, and the verse begins, "There's a dance you should know," very syncopated with an elongated "there's" and a bump-bump for the last two syllables.

Now, a long time ago there was an episode of "The Honeymooners" in which Ed tries to teach Ralph one of the new dances the teen-agers are doing. (Why?) It's a set piece for Ed to do that geeky-cool thing that he does and for Ralph to do that slow-volcano-graceful-buffalo thing that he does. Now the song which is also the dance that Ed is teaching is the Huckabuck Hucklebuck, and we hear a record with a Teresa Brewer type singing. The music and the choreography are so preposterous—sort of a Twist/Mashed Potato thing—that I always figured that the writers of the episode had invented the dance themselves to further their comic ends.

But no, the Hucklebuck is a real song from the era, and 50 years later it's playing in the fast food joint where you get your chicken strips.

The episode is "Young at Heart."

posted: 11:53:51 PM