Hand jive

The hand jive is a dance particularly associated with music of the 1950s, rhythm and blues in particular. It involves a complicated pattern of hand moves and claps at various parts of the body, following and/or imitating the percussion instruments. It resembles a highly elaborate version of pat-a-cake. Hand moves include thigh slapping, cross-wrist slapping, fist pounding, hand clapping, and hitch hike moves.

In 1957 when filmmaker Ken Russell was a freelance photographer, he recorded the teenagers of Soho, London hand-jiving in the basement of The Cat's Whisker coffee bar, where the hand-jive was invented. According to an article in the Daily Mirror, "it's so crowded the girls hand-jive to the band as there's no room for dancing." Russell told interviewer Leo Benedictus of The Guardian that "the place was crowded with young kids... the atmosphere was very jolly. Wholesome... everyone jiving with their hands because there was precious little room to do it with their feet... a bizarre sight. The craze fascinated me. It seemed like a strange novelty; I used to join in."

In April 1958, the label London released a song called "Hand Jive" by Bud Allen, performed by the Betty Smith Group. The song lyrics describe the hand dance the title refers to. Hand Jive by Betty Smith released April 1958

Capitol Records released the song "Hand Jive 6-5" in the U.S., backed with "Ramshakle Daddy" (3937) by British group Don Lang and the Frantic Five in March 1958 . This recording does not feature the Bo Diddley rhythm.

The hand jive was popularized in the States by Johnny Otis's "Willie and the Hand Jive", described as a "funky blues rendition in a Bo Diddley styling" and "another approach to the growing Stateside interest in the British originated hand dance."

This song exhibited the Bo Diddley beat, a rhythm that originated in Latin music and was brought into mainstream American music by Bo Diddley. It has since influenced generations of musicians.

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