Sexy Ways: The Best of Hank Ballard & the Midnighters (1994)

Ballard purred a pile of quaint '50s R&B hits about bumping and grinding with a lady named Annie, and at the time they were considered scandalous. But his band's true talent was for speedier dance songs-Hank had a hit with ''The Twist'' in 1959, one year before Chubby Checker turned it into a worldwide fad. Sexy Ways: The Best of Hank Ballard & the Midnighters (Rhino) suggests the Midnighters also taught the early Beatles a thing or two about rhythm. B+