Andre Williams, who was the house producer at One-der-ful Records saw them perform as The Crawlers and had them record a tune, "Twine Time," to exploit a popular teen dance that was the rage on the south side of Chicago in late 1963.
Released on One-der-ful's Mar-V-Lus imprint in 1964, the tune became a pop hit in January 1965, and whereas 'The Crawlers' proper (Cash's brothers) did not sing on the track, a band called The Nightliters[1] from Louisville, Kentucky, provided the instrumental backing.
[2] The Crawlers name appeared on the two follow-up singles, "The Barracuda" (a national r&b hit in 1965) and "The Penguin," which failed to chart.
By the fourth release, the Nightlighters, which had been touring with Cash and backing him on all his sides, were credited as "The Registers," and that credit appeared on the next five Mar-V-Lus singles, namely, "Boston Monkey" (1965), "The Philly Freeze" (a national hit in 1966), "Alvin's Boo-Ga-Loo" (1966), "Doin' the Ali Shuffle" (1967), and "The Charge" (big local Chicago hit in 1967).
Cash went solo after a few further singles, and recorded an album in tribute to Muhammad Ali; he also acted in several blaxploitation films, such as Petey Wheatstraw and Black Bart.