Alvin Cash was born Alvin Welch on February 15, 1939. In 1961, Alvin and three of his brothers moved to Chicago seeking a record deal, but they had to dance for tips in their first few years in the Windy City. Former Fortune and Motown artist/songwriter/producer Andre Williams caught the newly named Crawlers' act and invited them to the studio to chant over a dance track he'd written (with Verlie Rice) called "Twine Time," a take-off on the Five Du-Tones' "Woodbine Twine." "Twine Time" surprised everybody by zooming to number 14 on the pop chart in February 1965. Cash's post-"Twine" recordings never measured up commercially, though many were far better recordings; the most successful was "The Philly Freeze," which reached number 49. Subsequent releases -- "The Barracuda," "The Penguin," "Unwind the Twine," and "The Philly Freeze" -- hit the R&B charts but weren't pop successes.