A Short Origin Story of The Cha Cha Slide
I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that you’ve probably heard what is colloquially known as the Cha Cha Slide at least at some point in your life. If you’ve attended a wedding, a graduation party, a sporting event, or a school dance you’ve probably heard the song at some point whether you wanted to or not.
The Cha Cha Slide was never exactly set up to go mainstream. The artist, DJ Casper, had originally written it in 1998 for his nephew’s step aerobics class as a mere list of instructions.
Later on, DJ Casper thought to put the step routine to music and used the song Plastic Dreams by Jaydee under the dance instructions. Of course, that version of the song was never released as DJ Casper did not own the rights to the music used. However, you can find a short clip of The Casper Slide Part One on the podcast Every Little Thing: The Cha Cha Slide: How One Uncle Changed Weddings Forever.
As the step routine became more popular — DJ Casper knew he had to do something. So he re-recorded the song with a live band and released the song in the summer of 2000. This became The Casper Slide Part Two, or the Cha Cha Slide — the version of the song we all know and love.
