Chubby Checker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker in 2005
Background information
Birth name	Ernest Evans
Born	3 October 1941 Spring Gulley, South Carolina
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genre(s)	Rock and roll
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1959 - Present
Label(s)	Parkway, MCA
Website	ChubbyChecker.com

Chubby Checker is the stage name of Ernest Evans (born October 3, 1941), an American singer best known for popularizing the dance The Twist with his 1960 song "The Twist".

He was born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina,^[1] and raised in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended South Philadelphia High School with Frankie Avalon and Fabian. The wife of American Bandstand's host Dick Clark suggested the name "Chubby Checker" to Evans as a take-off on then-popular singer Fats Domino. In 1964, he married Dutchwoman Catharina Lodders, who had been Miss World in 1962.

Contents 1 Fame 2 Later years 3 Hit songs 4 Trivia 5 See also 6 References and footnotes 7 External links

[edit] Fame

"The Twist" (which had previously been a minor rhythm and blues hit for its author, Hank Ballard) was so popular that his public often did not allow him to sing any other style of music. He did popularize many dance songs.

Checker later lamented:

...in a way, "The Twist" really ruined my life. I was on my way to becoming a big nightclub performer, and "The Twist" just wiped it out. It got so out of proportion. No one ever believes I have talent.

He is the only recording artist to have five albums in the Top 12 all at once. He is hailed by many to have changed the way we dance to the beat of music since 1959.

Checker had a number of hits with dance-themed records into the mid-1960s, but changes in public taste ended his hitmaking career in 1965. He spent much of the rest of the 1960s touring and recording in Europe. The 1970s saw him become a staple on the oldies circuit and having a minor comeback as a disco artist.

[edit] Later years

His material during his 1960s heyday was recorded for Cameo-Parkway Records and became unavailable after the early 1970s. His later sixties material included a dancefloor classic cover version of The Beatles "Back in the USSR", released on Buddah Records. None of it was available on compact disc until 2005. (Almost all CD compilations of Checker's hits consist of re-recordings.)

Despite his negative view towards his biggest hit single, in the 1980s it granted him a new lease of fame when he recorded a new version of "The Twist" (released in 1987) with rap trio The Fat Boys. Ironically, the lyrics to this new version implied he was pleased of his association with it. Cashing in once again on the song that made him a star, Checker sang it in a commercial for Oreo cookies in the early-1990s. He then opened his own restaurant, which he continues to run, as well as singing on a regular basis.

[edit] Hit songs

• "The Class"
• "Jingle Bell Rock" (with Bobby Rydell)
• "The Twist" (#1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 19 in 1960, topping the chart for one week and returning to the top position on January 13, 1962, for two weeks).
• "Slow Twistin'" (with Dee Dee Sharp)
• "Pony Time" (written by Don Covay; was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 27, 1961, topping the chart for three weeks)
• "Let's Twist Again"
• "Limbo Rock"
• "Dancin' Party"

"The Twist," "Pony Time," "Slow Twistin'," "Let's Twist Again" and "Limbo Rock" each sold more than 1 million copies around the world. "The Twist" was re-released in 1961, once again selling over a million.

[edit] Trivia

• His daughter, Mistie Williams (née Bass), is a professional basketball player for the Houston Comets in the Women's National Basketball Association.

• Chubby Checker is mentioned in the School House Rock cartoon "A Noun Is A Person, Place, Or Thing". However, in what is perhaps the series' most famous error, they depicted him as a white man.

• Chubby Checker headlined the halftime show at Super Bowl XXII.

• Voiced a parody character of himself in the now closed Food Rocks attraction that ran at Epcot, appearing as Chubby Cheddar, a cheese hunk seen only in projected shadow puppetry.

• Chubby met his future wife Catharina during the German Oktoberfest of 1964. He was there to perform his hitsongs and she made her appearance as the reigning Miss World. A few months later he flew to Amsterdam to ask Catharina's parents for their daughter's hand.

• He appeared as himself in the Quantum Leap episode "Good Morning, Peoria", teaching Sam Beckett how to do the Twist. Despite being 48 years old at the time, he played himself as an 18-year-old boy.

• Chubby credits his longtime saxophone player from Southern Maryland, Roy Robertson, for his career longevity saying that Robertson was "the best darn sax player I've ever seen or heard and I'm god damn Chubby Checker!"

• Although a fan of Howard Stern, Chubby was extremely offended when Howard Stern called his current album "shit". A 3 page letter was written to Howard Stern asking for an apology.

[edit] See also

[edit] References and footnotes

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Chubby Checker - King Of The Twist - by Dr. Frank Hoffmann
• http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/chubbychecker.txt

Persondata
NAME	Checker, Chubby
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Evans, Ernest
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Singer
DATE OF BIRTH	3 October 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH	Spring Gulley, South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH