Time Warp (song)

Template:Short description Template:Other uses Template:Use mdy dates Template:Advert Template:Infobox song "Time Warp" is a song featured in the 1973 rock musical The Rocky Horror Show, its 1975 film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the 2016 TV production The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again. The song title comes from a dance performed during the pre-chorus of the song.

Composition and lyrics

The song is both an example and a parody of the dance song genre, with much of its lyrics consisting of instructions for performing the dance. (Example: "It's just a jump to the left / And then a step to the right / Put your hands on your hips / Bring your knees in tight.")<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

This dance became one of the major audience participation activities during screenings of the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show and live performances of the original 1973 stage production The Rocky Horror Show.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The song is a glam rock and rock and roll song. It is written by Richard O'Brien and Richard Hartley. The song is in the key of A major with a tempo of 174 beats per minute.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Placement

The choreography for "Time Warp".

"Time Warp" was the fifth song in the original stage show (after "Science Fiction/Double Feature", "Dammit Janet", "Over at the Frankenstein Place" and "Sweet Transvestite") where it was performed by Riff-Raff (Richard O'Brien), Magenta (Patricia Quinn), Columbia (Nell Campbell) and the Narrator (Jonathan Adams), but fourth in the film (following "Over at the Frankenstein Place" and preceding "Sweet Transvestite"). O'Brien, Quinn and Campbell reprised their roles from the stage production in the film but the Narrator, now renamed the Criminologist, was instead played by Charles Gray. In the 2016 TV production, The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time-Warp Again, the number was performed by Reeve Carney (Riff-Raff), Christina Milian (Magenta), Annaleigh Ashford (Columbia) and Tim Curry (the Criminologist).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Stage productions continued to use the original placement until Richard O'Brien revised the script for the 1990 West End revival in which he moved the song to the film's placement. For reasons of pacing, most productions now follow this order.<ref name="Thompson">Template:Cite book</ref>

The song is reprised briefly at the end of the film, in flashback, and in the stage show it serves as an encore led by Dr. Frank N. Furter (played by Tim Curry in the original stage production and film).<ref name="Thompson"/>

Charts

Weekly charts

Original Australian cast recording
Chart (1977)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)<ref name=aus>Template:Cite book</ref>	85

The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Chart (1980–81)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)<ref name=aus/>	3
Canada (RPM Top Singles)	12
Europe (Euro Digital Songs) (Billboard)	16
France	20
UK (UK Singles Chart)	13
U.S. (Billboard) (Hot 100)<ref>Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - Template:ISBN</ref>	29

Year-end charts

Chart (1980)	Position
Australia (Kent Music Report)<ref name="aus80">Template:Cite web</ref>	66
Chart (1981)	Position
Australia (Kent Music Report)<ref name="aus81">Template:Cite web</ref>	27

Other appearances

The Hillywood Show used the song in a 2014 Doctor Who parody, which actor David Tennant (who portrayed the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors on the series) called "extraordinary".<ref name="nerdistdw">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="metrodw">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

In the S1E9 of the English dub of The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World, Carol makes the Grim Reapers dance the Time Warp.

External links

• Patricia Quinn discusses the Time Warp on Studio 10
• Fandango Movieclips: The Rocky Horror Picture Show - The Time Warp Scene