Hank Ballard at the age of 73 and the Midnighters

Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go
#1 in 1962


 Hank Ballard was born November 18, 1927 (according to his birth records) in Detroit, but moved to Bessemer, AL, as a young child following his father's death. There he began singing in church and when he returned to Detroit at age 15, he set about forming a doo wop group while working on the Ford assembly line. The consensus of opinion is that Hank Ballard hitched on to the Royals whose charter members included Jackie Wilson and Levi Stubbs. The group changed its name to The Midnighters to avoid confusion with The "5" Royales". In 1959, Hank Ballard's "The Twist" gained some notice and found a fan in American Bandstand host Dick Clark, who brought the song to Chubby Checker's attention; the rest is history, as "The Twist" became the first song to hit number one during two completely separate chart runs. Ballard and the Midnighters benefited from the exposure, scoring their first Top Ten pop singles in 1960 with "Finger Poppin' Time" and "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go. In 1990 Ballard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Hank Ballard died on March 2, 2003 in his Los Angles home of throat cancer.
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