Here’s The Twist: Chubby Checker ready to light up Greensburg’s Palace
Chubby Checker says to expect a rocking show when he performs “The Twist” and much more at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Oct. 29.
Chubby Checker says to expect a rocking show when he performs "The Twist" and much more at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Oct. 29.
Don’t expect some moldy oldies revue leisurely going through the motions when Chubby Checker plays the Palace Theatre on Oct. 29.
“We’re a rock band,” Checker says of his five-man ensemble. “Chubby plays rock ‘n’ roll. Like Mellencamp or Bob Seger or one of those guys. Bryan Adams. The Rolling Stones. It’s not R&B. We’re hard to define, but we’re something else.”
Fans will flock to Greensburg simply to hear Checker sing “The Twist,” his groundbreaking song that changed the way people dance; the same tune Billboard magazine ranked No. 1 on its “All-Time Top 100 Songs” list in 2008 and again in 2013.
“The Twist” might have stayed in obscurity if not for a legendary Pittsburgh disc jockey.
“It was Porky Chedwick,” Checker said. “He made ‘The Twist’ happen.”
Chedwick, who died last year, was the popular “Platter Pushing Papa” on Pittsburgh’s WAMO-AM. He had received a vinyl 45-rpm record by Checker, but refused to play the single that the label had chosen, deciding instead to flip the record over and play its B-side — Checker’s cover of “The Twist” originally recorded by Hank Ballard.
“As soon as Porky did that, the phones lit up,” Checker said. “Then when I started going to record hops, people were asking for that song. So when he turned that record over, my career began. And that makes it a real big deal to me to come back to Pittsburgh to perform.”
Checker said the buzz that Chedwick sparked quickly reached the ears of Dick Clark, whose popular TV show “American Bandstand” booked the hometown Philadelphia singer for a history-making appearance on Aug. 6, 1960.
Fifty-five years later, Checker still gets excited talking about that day.
Think about it: Before then, couples held each other when they danced. But when “American Bandstand” viewers saw Checker singing “The Twist” and noticed teen dancers dutifully twisting their torsos to the music while standing apart from each other, a national sensation was born.
“A style of dance was created right then and there: dancing apart to the beat,” Checker said. “That’s exactly what happened in those two minutes and 42 seconds.”
The dance craze caught on with adults, too, and soon many other songs tapped into “The Twist,” including “Peppermint Twist,” “Twist and Shout” and “Twistin’ the Night Away.” Along came a slew of other dances where couples no longer held each other, such as “The Jerk,” “The Hully Gully,” “The Boogaloo” and “The Shake,” with Checker still at the forefront with his follow-up songs “The Pony,” “The Fly” and “The Hucklebuck.”
“The benefit to dancing apart to the beat was that I was watching the girl, and the girl was watching me, and I had a chance to exploit my sexuality while being fully dressed,” said Checker, who in 1964 married former Miss World Catharina Lodders from the Netherlands, with whom he raised three children in suburban Philadelphia.
Checker was born as Ernest Evans on Oct. 3, 1941, growing up in the projects of South Philly, where he held down several after-school jobs, including one at a produce market where he also entertained customers with his singing. The boss there gave him the nickname Chubby, and the singer remains friends with that man’s sons.
Interestingly, it was Dick Clark’s first wife, Barbara, who came up with the “Checker” name in 1959, when she and Clark first met the then-Evans at a recording session where he was completing a novelty Christmas song, “Jingle Bells,” on which he impersonated other singers.
Barbara asked the singer his name, and he replied, “My friends call me Chubby.”
She said, “As in Checker?” a play on words since he had just finished impersonating Fats Domino.
The name stuck, for which Checker has no regrets.
Checker has recorded fresh versions of “The Twist” over the years, including a country rendition and a 1988 hip-hop collaboration with the Fat Boys, “The Twist (Yo, Twist!)” that reached the Billboard Top 20.
Checker attributes the enduring popularity of “The Twist” to it being so utterly simple.
“‘The Twist is dumb. It’s just dumb, and anyone can do it,” Checker said. “But as human beings, we like stupid. All our great songs our stupid.”
And many of them make you want to dance.
“Isn’t that the first thing people ask about a song: ‘Does it have a good beat? And can you dance to it?'” Checker said.
Checker has recorded more serious songs he’s proud of, such as “Knock Down the Walls” and “Changes.” He’s working on a bluegrass album now, indulging his longstanding interests in country music that date to Ernest Tubb, the first musician he liked as a youngster.
Checker always has a new project on the horizon.
“Picasso, when he died, was working on a painting,” Checker said. “I want to be working on something like that when it’s all over.”
At 74, Checker certainly shows no signs of slowing down, recently wrapping up a tour of Europe.
He’s excited about playing the Palace, well aware that one of the support acts is the Vogues. Checker is a fan of that Turtle Creek-founded group. He’s also a big fan of Pittsburgh’s own Skyliners, citing “Since I Don’t Have You” as among his favorite love ballads.
So if you’re hankering to do “The Twist” once more with the man who made it a dance craze, then get to Greensburg on Oct. 29. Bring your energy with you.
“I’m coming to burn the house down,” Checker said. “I’m coming with a vengeance. People who see us never forget it. We’re all that.
“I’ll be bringing you smiles, because that’s what I do.”