"Let's Turkey Trot" is a popular song with writing credits to

Gerry Goffin Gerald Goffin (February 11, 1939 – June 19, 2014) was an American lyricist. Collaborating initially with his first wife, Carole King, he co-wrote many international pop hits of the early and mid-1960s, including the US No.1 hits " Will You L ...

and Jack Keller and/or

Carole King Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter and musician renowned for her extensive contributions to popular music. She wrote or co-wrote 118 songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billbo ...

. It was released by

Little Eva Eva Narcissus Boyd (June 29, 1943 – April 10, 2003), known by her stage name Little Eva, was an American singer, well known for her 1962 hit "The Loco-Motion". Biography Boyd was born in Belhaven, North Carolina in 1943 and had twelve siblin ...

as her third single for the Dimension label. The Little Eva's recording debuted on the charts on February 2, 1963, and peaked at #20 on the Hot 100. It was her third top 40 record. In

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

it reached #23, her third of four in the top 25. The record features girl group

the Cookies The Cookies were an American R&B girl group active in two distinct lineups, the first from 1954 to 1958 which later became the Raelettes, and the second from 1961 to 1967. Several of the members of both lineups were members of the same fami ...

on background vocals, with the Cookies' lead Earl-Jean McCrea getting some solo lines. The song's title is a reference to the turkey trot dance step, a step that was only briefly popular fifty years before the song was released; the song is played at a tempo much slower than the one used for the dance in its heyday. The B-side of the original single is a Goffin-King song called "Down Home" that is also found on the 1962 ''Llllloco-Motion'' LP. In the film ''

Easy Rider ''Easy Rider'' is a 1969 American road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern. It was produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and the S ...

'', Little Eva's "Let's Turkey Trot" is playing on the jukebox when the protagonists enter the café. The song was ambient sound and not a chosen song; it was omitted from the

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' said that it "should start the kids off on another dance craze-as the tag implies" and it was a "sparkling choral and instrumental showcase on a lid that can go all the way." The song was covered by

Jan & Dean Jan and Dean were an American rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf music styles ...

on their 1963 album, ''Jan & Dean take Linda Surfin''.

The Dollyrots The Dollyrots are an American punk rock band formed in 2000, composed of Kelly Ogden (bass, lead vocals) and Luis Cabezas (guitars, backing vocals). They have released nine studio albums under Panic Button Records, Panic Button (part of Lookout R ...

covered the song on their EP ''A Dollyrots Christmas''.

References

{{authority control 1963 songs 1963 singles Little Eva songs Songs written by Jack Keller (songwriter) Songs with lyrics by Gerry Goffin