How to dance achy breaky heart
Line dancing: good for that achy breaky heart
By Dorene Internicola, Reuters Life!
4 Min Read
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Prefer your fitness with a dose of country?
Adam Herbel, a.k.a. the Dancing Cowboy, leads a line dancing session at Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California, in this 2010 handout photo. Herbel teaches country line dancing at The Rodeo Club in San Jose, California. He said some come for the exercise, some for the music and atmosphere. Though deeply rooted in Irish and German folk traditions, line dancing was off most urban grids until 1992 when Billy Ray Cyrus, father of teen idol Miley, stomped upon the stage with his megahit "Achy Breaky Heart." Today line dancing is a worldwide phenomenon. Devotees have formed organizations as far away as Singapore and Australia. REUTERS/El Camino Day of Dance/Handout
If you’re hankering to move with cowboy attitude, experts say line dancing could be the ideal workout. Even if you’ve never moseyed into a country bar or felt particularly at home on the range.
“Line dancing is exercise for people who like country music,” said fitness instructor Amy Blackburn, “people who might not join a gym because traditional exercise, like treadmills and weight lifting, is either intimidating, or it bores them to death.”
Blackburn, who is based in Nashville, Tennessee, said line dancing is the thing to do on a Saturday night. Her DVD, “Country Line Dance Party,” is an aerobics workout carved from its signature shuffles, kicks and stomps.
“The music’s upbeat. The workout burns calories and strengthens the core, legs, and hamstrings,” she said. “And you can take it down a level to keep it low impact.”
Though deeply rooted in Irish and German folk traditions, line dancing was off most urban grids until 1992 when Billy Ray Cyrus, father of teen idol Miley, stomped upon the stage with his megahit “Achy Breaky Heart.”
Today line dancing is a worldwide phenomenon. Devotees have formed organizations as far away as Singapore and Australia.
Adam Herbel, a.k.a. the Dancing Cowboy, teaches country line dancing at The Rodeo Club in San Jose, California. He said some come for the exercise, some for the music and atmosphere.
“We have a funny thing called redneck aerobics,” said Herbel, described as a series of five or six upbeat line dances strung in a row.
“When the DJ calls out ‘its redneck aerobics,’ everybody knows what’s coming,” he said. “Sometimes the fitness gals will do pretty advanced line dancing.”
Herbel said the dances change from area to area so one song may have 50 different dances to it. Nevertheless, it’s not hard to learn, the music is cheerful and the folks are friendly.
“You can master single line dance in a one hour class,” he said. “It appeals to ladies because you don’t have to have a partner to do it. So I tell the guys, if you want to have a chance at least get out and try.”
Known around the San Francisco Bay area of California as the Queen of Line Dancing, Doris Volz has been dancing since 1992 and teaching seniors since 2003.
“No one knows how many line dancers there are in the world,” said Volz. “There is no way to count.”
Dr. Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, an expert with the American College of Sports Medicine, described line dancing as a “sociable, musical and fun” way to fight inactivity among the elderly.
“With any physical activity, there’s the rule of the third: one-third of people will like it, one-third will hate it, one-third will be indifferent,” said Chodzko-Zajko, professor of Kinesiology at the University of Illinois. “What people find motivating is going to vary with their culture.”
Whether you’re stomping in cowboy boots or running shoes, it’s hard to pout while attempting a classic heel-toe swaying step like the Tush Push, or moving to a tune called “Beer for my Horses.”
“They can teach a line dance to go with just about any upbeat song,” Blackburn said. “People teach different moves, but the Tush Push is universal.”
Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus
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Songfacts®:
Written by the country songwriter and performer Don Von Tress, this was a remake of a 1991 song by the country act The Marcy Brothers, titled "Don't Tell My Heart." That original version had the lyrics: "Don't tell my heart, my achy, breakin' heart..." >>
Suggestion credit:
David - Long Beach, CAThis song best represents the country music craze in the early '90s. As the audience for "Old Country" artists like Willie Nelson and George Strait waned, younger listeners turned to "New Country," which had slick production and pop melodies.
"Achy Breaky Heart" led the charge, crossing over to Top 40 radio and becoming a huge hit. Purists hated it and blamed Cyrus for desecrating country music, but it led the way for artists like Shania Twain and Faith Hill, who had massive pop success with country songs.
Born and raised in Flatwoods, Kentucky, Cyrus first worked as a car salesman there, and dreamed of being a professional baseball player. He made his singing debut in father's gospel group.
This song became the most popular and prominent of the United States line dancing craze of the early '90s. It spawned a dance called "The Achy Breaky," which became ubiquitous in country dance bars.
Thanks to this song, the album Some Gave All went to #1 for 17 weeks - a record for a debut artist. One artist that was held off the top spot by Billy Ray was Megadeth, whose Countdown to Extinction had to settle for #2. The group's rather impolitic leader Dave Mustaine was not pleased; he griped to The Onion A.V. Club: "All those fat f--kin' housewives in the Midwest, and this guy with this funny haircut, and that song, it just resonated with the American people and people bought into it, and there was no shaking it.
His song was a novelty."The song may have been a novelty, but it made the Some Gave All album the best seller of 1992.
Cyrus claims he was too bashful to get on the floor at high school dances. He clearly came out of his shell.
Cyrus was signed to Mercury Records in 1990 thanks to some help from a friend he'd made, Grand Ole Opry star Del Reeves.
Although he never came close to an "Achy" style hit again, Billy Ray Cyrus went on to a solid career with plenty of commercial success. His second album debuted at #3 and went platinum. When his singing career stalled, he turned to acting roles, including a part in the 2001 movie Mulholland Drive.
Billy Ray's daughter, Miley Cyrus, became a Disney Channel star with the show Hannah Montana, playing a girl who is secretly a pop star by night.
Billy Ray had a role on the show, playing her manager. While the show was running, Miley and Billy Ray released a duet called "Ready, Set, Don't Go," which went to #37 US, giving Billy Ray his first Top 40 since "Achy Breaky." Miley would soon become a media sensation and by far the most famous Cyrus.
This was the first million-selling country single since "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton in 1983.
Weird Al Yankovic did a spoof of this called "Achy Breaky Song," in which he begs the DJ not to play "that Achy Breaky song." Al offers alternatives like Yoko Ono, Vanilla Ice and Zamfir.
Weird Al donated all the profits for his spoof to the United Cerebral Palsy Association. The parodist felt the song was "mean-spirited," so he thought that he might as well donate the money earned to a charitable cause.
In Billy Ray Cyrus' 2006 song "I Want My Mullet Back," the riff to this song is sampled in the guitar solo.
>>Suggestion credit:
Vincent - Fayetteville, ARA rap reworking of the song by Buck 22 titled "Achy Breaky 2" entered the Hot 100 in 2014. Cyrus contributed vocals to this new version as well and also appeared in the video.
This was featured on the PAX TV medical drama Doc, starring none other than Billy Ray Cyrus. His character, Dr. Clint "Doc" Cassidy, hears the tune on the radio and says, "I hate that song." The show ran from 2001 to 2004.
This was the first single to achieve triple Platinum status in Australia.
Cyrus owes a debt to Ray Charles with the line, "You can tell your mom I moved to Arkansas." On his 1959 hit What'd I Say, Charles sang:
Tell your mama, tell your pa
I'm gonna send you back to Arkansas
- More songs from Billy Ray Cyrus
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- More songs from 1992
- Lyrics to Achy Breaky Heart
- Billy Ray Cyrus Artistfacts
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Freemasons feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Palmolive advertisement lyrics
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Palmolive advertisement (performer: Freemasons feat.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor)
Heartbreak... Heartbreak... heartbreak... Uh! Oh! Uh! Oh! ... I've tried to hold myself together Tried to forget you've gone away The tears I´ve cried they won´t subside Unless the music starts to play Keep [bad word] on and on and on Heartbreak makes me a dancer dancer DJ give me the answer love stop getting me down down down Do it alone I could do it alone Heartbreak make me a dancer dancer Keep my heart beating faster faster Love stop bringing me down down down Do it alone I could do it alone I need to feel I'm getting stronger Long as I´m moving it feels [bad word] And with each step I will forget Forget all those memories of you Keep [bad word] on and on and on Heartbreak makes me a dancer dancer DJ give me the answer love stop getting me down down down Do it alone I could do it alone Heartbreak make me a dancer dancer Keep my heart beating faster faster Love stop bringing me down down down Do it alone I could do it alone Heartbreak... Heartbreak...Heartbreak... Heartbreak... Heartbreak makes me a dancer dancer DJ give me the answer love stop getting me down down down Do it alone I could do it alone Heartbreak make me a dancer dancer Keep my heart beating faster faster Love stop bringing me down down down Do it alone I could do it alone Broken heart... Broken heart... Broken heart... I tried to hold on Tried to forget how you left The tears I shed won't dry Until the music plays... Come on... A broken heart makes me dance, dance DJ, answer me, answer... Love, stop torturing me, torturing me... I can do it alone, I can do it alone. A broken heart makes me dance, dance Let my heart beat faster, faster... Love, stop torturing me, torturing me... I can do it alone, I can do it alone. I need to feel like I'm getting stronger While I'm dancing - it's so nice. And with every step I'll forget Forget all about you... Come on... A broken heart makes me dance, dance DJ, answer me, answer... Love, stop torturing me, torturing me... I can do it alone, I can do it alone.
