Lurch, The - Dance craze introduced on the October 30, 1965 Halloween episode of SHINDIG, an ABC teen rock music program. After assisting Boris Karloff with his rendition of the "Monster Mash," Ted Cassidy, who played the zombie butler, Lurch on the sitcom THE ADDAMS FAMILY/ABC/1964-66, debuted a new dance craze called "The Lurch." The dance steps were nothing more than a lot of shuffling and arm dangling a la the Frankenstein Monster. "The Lurch" was released as a single 45 record (Capitol 5503) with the vocals performed by Ted Cassidy and a background female chorus and music by Gary Paxton. THE ADDAMS FAMILY episode No. 33 "Lurch, the Teenage Idol" (5-14-65) predated this event with a storyline where Lurch records a song at the harpsichord and soon becomes the idol of screaming teenage fans. 

 

Lurch:	[gong sounds] YOUR RANG!?
Singers:	[speaking] Hi Lurch!
Lurch:	AAAHH!
Singers:	[begin to sing] Hey Lurch, We just heard the news around town
Lurch:	NEWS?
Singers:	And we're here to see what's putting you down'
Lurch:	AAAAH! HA HA
Singers:	We thought you might give us a chance And teach us how to do the Lurch dance
Lurch:	MY PLEASURE
Singers:	Hey Lurch, teach out how to do the Lurch dance
Lurch:	YOUR SERVANT
Singers:	Yeah Lurch, we wanna learn to do the Lurch dance
Lurch:	FOLLOW ME....
Excerpts from "The Lurch" (Capitol Records 5503 - 45 single )