How To Do The 1960s Dances "The Jerk" & The "Cool Jerk"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides information and videos about the 1960s Dances "The Jerk" & The "Cool Jerk". This is a supplement to the earlier pancocojams post http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-real-meaning-of-r-song-cool-jerk.html

This content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos & thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and hat tip to Tom who postd a question to the commeent seection of that previous pancocojams post about "Cool Jerk" post about how the Cool Jerk was danced. That question prompted me to publish this post.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE JERK [1960s SONGS AND DANCE]
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerk_(dance)
"The jerk was a popular dance in the 1960s.

Description
The jerk is similar to the monkey. The arms move and hands move as if conducting. The wrists cross in front of the chest and then sweep out in time, or at half time, with the music. The hands are up at face level. On count 1, the outward sweep, the hands are quickly pushed out, giving the jerky motion. For a little more style, the fingers may be snapped on the two outward movements—the first and third counts of the hand motion.

Songs featuring or suggesting the dance
Released as a single in 1964 on the Money record label, "The Jerk" was a hit for the Los Angeles band the Larks. In the same year, the Miracles wrote and recorded "Come on Do the Jerk". The Capitols performed a 1966 hit song called "Cool Jerk", written to capitalize on the dance's popularity"...
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Click http://www.ehow.com/how_2096151_dance-jerk.html for step by step instructions on how to dance the 1960s dance called "The Jerk".

The short answer to the question how to do "The Cool Jerk" is that this dance is done the same way as the jerk, but the dancers were "cooler" (smoother, not frenetic) with thier body [arms] jerking moves.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "COOL JERK"
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Jerk
...Per one of the Funk Brothers, the [1966 song "Cool Jerk"] was originally to be called "Pimp Jerk." This was taken from watching neighborhood pimps, who would dance in the clubs, but were too "cool" to do the jerk like regular folks. Their version was subsequently named "the Pimp Jerk." The producer was afraid that a song with the word pimp in the title would be banned or not receive much positive attention, and had the title changed to its current form."
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Here's information about "The Jerk" from a six seconds video that was posted by Samuel Booth on Apr 3, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf8ZHCg2XEo:
"The history of the Jerk dance goes way back to the 1960's. It became popular when the song 'You're a Jerk' by The Larks was released in 1964. Another song that popularized the Jerk dance was The Capitols' 'Cool Jerk.' Then later on the rap artists The New Boyz made the song called "You're A Jerk" and that made the dance even more popular. People all over the world enjoy this dance and to be honest it's a pretty fun enjoyable dance.Want to know how this dance started? Jerkin' or Jerk is a street dance from Los Angeles. Since 2009, jerkin' has gained fans along the West Coast and, as of 2009, was gaining popularity on the East Coast.

The dance itself consists of moving your legs in and out called the "jerk", and doing other moves such as the "reject", "dip", and "pindrop". And that is the history of the Jerk."
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Note: The 1960s R&B dance "The Jerk" isn't the same as the 2009 dance called "The Jerk" (“jerking”). An example of that dance is found below in the Addendum to this post.

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FEATURED EXAMPLES
These examples are presented in chronological order based on theeir publishing date on YouTube with the oldest dated videos given first.

Example #1: The Righteous Brothers - Come On Do The Jerk (Shindig 1964)


John1948Ten, Uploaded on Nov 16, 2009

They weren't brothers, but Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield (both born in 1940) were most definitely righteous, defining (and perhaps even inspiring) the term "blue-eyed soul" in the mid-'60s. The white Southern California duo were an established journeyman doo wop/R&B act before an association with Phil Spector produced one of the most memorable hits of the 1960s, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." The collaboration soon fell apart, though, and while the singers had some other excellent hit singles in a similar style, they proved unable to sustain their momentum after just a year or two at the top...
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"Do The Jerk" waas written by African American R&B singer/composer Smokey Robinson and four other members of his group "The Miracles".

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Example #2: do the jerk



SexyThrillerGuy Uploaded on Feb 27, 2011
This is a clip from the movie: The Jackson's An American Dream. One of my all time favorite movies. This is the best Michael Jackson movie ever made so far. I hope they come out with another MJ movie just as good as this one.

Example #3: The Larks "The Jerk"



NRRArchives2, Published on Dec 8, 2012

American Bandstand. October 21, 1964

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ADDENDUM: Audio Push - Teach Me How To Jerk



AudioPushVEVO, Uploaded on Nov 22, 2009

Music video by Audio Push performing Teach Me How To Jerk. (C) 2009 Geffen
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Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46BsgpnioTc for an instructional video by this group about the Jerk and the other two dances that aree mentioned in this song (The Reject and the Dip).

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