Dorothy Dandridge & Harry Belafonte doing the limbo dance in the film, Island in the Sun (1957.). The Limbo Rock song was recorded in 1962 by Chubby Checker & peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. The history of the limbo rock is tied to the limbo dance which originated in Trinidad and Tobago as a solemn ritual or dance at wakes and funerals. It's believed to have originated from the slave trade, when Africans kidnapped by slave traders were held in chains on ships and had