"Cha Cha Slide" is a song by American artistDJ Casper, also known as Mr. C The Slide Man. The song was released as a single in August 2000, and spent five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at the position of number 83. It continued to be a chart hit around the world for four years, topping the UK Singles Chart in March 2004. The song was also part of an 11-track album, Cha Cha Slide: The Original Slide Album, released in September 2000. Initially aimed at aerobic sessions and nightclubs alike, the song is often played at dance clubs, school gymnasiums, prom nights, birthday parties, ice-skating places and rollerrinks, bar mitzvahs, weddings, and sports events in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and different countries.
History
"Casper Slide" Pts 1 & 2
DJ Casper wrote the lyrics for the original around January 1998, and recorded his performance of the original version of the "Casper Slide Part 1" in January 1998. The song was heavily inspired by the Chicago stepping movement. Around June 12, 1999, Perry recorded a second version of the song, entitled "Casper Slide Part 2," at the home studio of Fred Johnson with the help of Hollywood Scott, band leader for the Platinum Band. Perry recorded and released the song at his own expense, and manufactured copies and distributed them with the help of Gardner Douglas, owner of the Cisco's Music World record stores in Chicago, Illinois. The song was played at various night clubs and was used by Perry's nephew, a fitness trainer at Bally Total Fitness Health Club in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, as the music for a step aerobics class.
"Cha Cha Slide"
DJ Casper enlisted the help of M.O.B. Music Publishing to produce, edit, and engineer the new version of the song "Cha Cha Slide". Men On Business also produced several other accompanying songs to produce the entire Slide Album. DJ Casper and Men On Business licensed the Slide Album to Universal Records, and it was released on September 19, 2000. Once it was Universal's project, "we made some instructional 'Cha-Cha Slide' dance videos and distributed them to clubs," said Senior VP of Urban Promotion Michael Horton. "We also promoted the song at various black functions, such as homecoming events at black colleges." The song then made its way to R&B/hip hop station WGCI-FM, in DJ Casper's hometown of Chicago. In 2001, the following year, the dance caught on around Canada and the United States, where urban contemporary radio stations played the song continuously, particularly in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Arkansas, Memphis, and Detroit. In March 2004, the "Cha Cha Slide" was released in the United Kingdom, and went on to top the UK Singles Chart. Its success in the United Kingdom was helped by Scott Mills of BBC Radio 1, who promoted the song on his weekday afternoon radio show. On the Saturday Night Live episode that aired March 2, 2019, a sketch titled "Cha Cha Slide" featured guest host John Mulaney and other cast members performing the dance at a wedding reception while blandly chit-chatting.
Music video
At the beginning of the video, a news van arrives in front of a crowd of people doing the dance on a sidewalk. After that, the reporter reports about the dance. Then, the video transitions to several scenes, including DJ Casper dancing with a group of people on a white background and different people in various locations doing said dance. Near the end of the video, the news camera crew begins dancing a bit. In the last scene, the reporter dances with them.
