Music history of the United States in the 1960s and symphonic music, is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in the early 1970s among existing blues rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. Chubby Checker during the early 1960s popularizes the enduring dance craze The Twist with his hit cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit "The Twist". Gerry Goffin and Carole King become a very influential duo in pop music, writing numerous number one hits including the first song to ever reach number one by a girl group, The Shirelles "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and
The Ballad of the Brown King U.S.A." The 1960 performance was sung by the Westminster Choir. The cantata is made up of nine movements with parts for soprano, tenor, baritone and choir. The composition includes "a combination of European, Jazz and Calypso music." Other musical influences include four-part hymn and gospel music. There are also "quasi-recitative sections" and blues influenced parts of the cantata. "Ballad" focuses on one of the Three Kings from the story of the birth of Jesus. Hughes chose the African king, Balthazar, as a way to "reinforce the image of African participation in the Nativity story." The Ballad of the Brown King