I’m always amazed when I hear Chubby Checker’s 1960 hit, “The Twist.” The thing is only two minutes and forty seconds long, but that brief period is one of the mostly completely and fabulously joyous ever committed to vinyl.

Listen to that rhythm section as it chugs along in triple-time. Damn. It’s flawless. I’m tempted to think that the song is the product of aliens who came to earth planning to drive us crazy with an over-injection of pure exuberance.

Listen to Chubby when he gets soaring. It’s like some kind of happiness candy. As if the spirit of the song is so complete, so unbound, that for those two minutes sadness or anything remotely resembling it is banished from the earth.

Here’s a clip:

Download “The Twist” from iTunes