R.I.P. DJ Casper, artist behind “Cha-Cha Slide”
The man behind the iconic dance song, which was first written as an aerobics routine, was 58
Songwriter William Perry Jr., a.k.a DJ Casper (the man behind the iconic “Cha-Cha Slide”) has died. That’s according to Chicago’s ABC7, which reported late on Monday that Casper had died following a battle with kidney and liver cancer. Casper was 58.
“Cha-Cha Slide” is now a stable at basically any event where dancing is involved, particularly line dancing, as well as any kind of sporting event (including the Olympics), but Casper wrote it in the ‘90s as a workout routine for his nephew—who was an aerobics instructor at a Bally Total Fitness in Chicago at the time. The original version of the song was literally just aerobics instructions, but after being inspired by Chicago Stepping dances, Casper set it to music (specifically Jaydee’s “Plastic Dreams”) and created “Casper Slide.”
But when Casper decided to try and release the song, he needed to record a new instrumental track, which he did at his own expense with The Platinum Band. He distributed the song himself, later working with a publishing group to create the version of the song we know today, which was produced for an album called Cha-Cha Slide: The Original Slide Album and released by Universal Records in 2000.
It took some time for the song to break through, but it was eventually picked up by a Chicagoland hip-hop station and expanded from there, with a Universal exec at the time saying that it was the kind of novelty song—like “The Electric Slide”—that would “never go away completely.” He was, of course, correct. The song is now an international hit, with Casper once noting to ABC7 that the dance involved was “something that everybody could do.”
Casper was diagnosed with kidney and liver cancer in 2016, telling ABC7 during his treatment, “Anybody that’s going through cancer, know that you have cancer and cancer does not have you. So, keep on doing the ‘Cha Cha Slide.’” He also told the outlet that he hopes his song “will always serve as a reminder of the power of unity, community, and positivity.”