[1] The song's opening lines list actual popular dances from the early to middle 1960s: the Shake, Boogaloo, Mashed Potatoes, Hoochie-Coo, Twist, and Funky Chicken.

A sound-alike cover version by Chubby Checker tremendously out-sold the original, and was the first recording to attain the number one position on Billboard magazine's Top 100 listing in two different years (1960 and 1961).

Entwistle called this album "Rigor Mortis Sets In" and illustrated the cover with a photo of a coffin and a grave, implying that rock music was dying or dead, and that one could only look back at its earlier days of glory.

In fact it was released just as a re-appreciation of older rock & roll was just getting started, which served to invigorate the careers of former singing stars and introduced their songs to a new audience.

The film "American Graffiti", first shown in 1973 (the same year of "Rigor Mortis Sets In") was the real instigation of the fad for the so-called "Fabulous '50s" which also inspired the hit TV series "Happy Days".