By Rodney Richey, Herald Bulletin Feature Writer
June 26, 2009 12:05 am
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CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. — “Good morning, Mr. Evans.”
“Only the tax man calls me ‘Mr. Evans,’” replies the soft, friendly voice on the phone.
Ernest Evans’ other name is Chubby Checker, and he will perform two sold-out shows at Hoosier Park Racing and Casino in Anderson on Saturday.
Chubby Checker is the rocker who made The Twist a national dance sensation in the early ’60s. But the still-youthful 67-year-old also holds a record that will likely never be broken.
His recording of “The Twist” was No. 1 on the Billboard charts. Twice. In two different years: 1960 and 1962.
“I’ve known Chubby since he was a kid,” said entertainment icon Dick Clark via e-mail. “I’ve watched him grow and mature into one of the legends of rock ’n’ roll.”
Gene Swindell, a DJ at WHUT-AM 1470 (now WGNR) from 1960 to 1970, said that Checker’s fame was pervasive in those days.
“He’ll always be known as the rock-’n’-roller that invented the dance craze,” Swindell said Wednesday from his office in Atlanta.
In 2008, Billboard magazine named “The Twist” the biggest No. 1 song of the past 50 years.
According to Dick Clark, it is “probably one of the most influential songs of all time.”
But it didn’t start out that way.
Checker said from his Pennsylvania offices that he started out wanting to be Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole.
Then Checker (his name coined by Clark’s wife as a play on “Fats Domino”) heard a recent B-side by Hank Ballard. The song was languishing on the charts, but a dance was emerging. It was rudimentary, just kids shaking to the beat of music.
Checker recorded his own version of the song and launched a publicity campaign about the dance.
“And lo and behold, (radio stations) started playing ‘The Twist.’ And the rest is history.”
Radio didn’t just “play” the song. Twisting became a phenomenon, much bigger than other crazes like the Macarena.
Swindell said that he would hold record hops in shopping center parking lots during that time.
“I can well remember, I played that record out,” he said of “The Twist.” “It got so scratchy I couldn’t use it. The kids just always wanted me to keep playing that song over and over.
“Of course, you didn’t have to know how to dance. You just had to know how to twist.”
And the new thing Chubby Checker helped to make popular? Dancing apart.
Before then, everyone danced in a chaste embrace, or at least holding hands. “The Twist” changed all that. In its wake came such dances as the Mashed Potato, the Monkey and the Funky Chicken. There were also songs by other artists, most notably Joey Dee’s “Peppermint Twist.”
(In 1987, he recorded a new version of the song with rap trio The Fat Boys. Two more recent instances: John Travolta and Uma Thurman dancing in 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” and James Franco and Kirsten Dunst giving it a go in 2007’s “Spider-Man 3.”)
Still, Checker held to his earlier visions, honing his stagecraft. One performance coach told him that, with training, “When your hit records stop, then you can go on.”
And the hits did stop, with the British invasion. Until the 1970s, when “oldies” records became hot, Checker was all but forgotten.
“In the ’60s, the one thing that kept me in good spirits was that people were dancing apart to the beat. ... I mean, people are trying to dance together again, but it’s just too much trouble. It’s much easier to just stand there and be cool.”
And the man is not shy about the dance’s subtext.
“When you’re doing the Twist, you’re looking at her, and she’s looking at you. And you’re watching each other explore your sexuality.”
After all that, Checker is not a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, despite having been eligible for 24 years.
Still, Checker tours with his band, almost 30 shows this year, giving each one his professional touch.
“He’s always been an enthusiastic performer,” said Dick Clark. “And to this day, he still captivates the audience with his performance. He sings his hits like it was his first time on stage.”
“It’s the fans that have kept me alive,” Checker said. “There’s not a whole lot of them, but there’s enough of them to keep me running my big mouth.
“The centerpiece of my show is the audience. I’m just a good excuse for the party.“
Ernest Evans, aka Chubby Checker, lives in gratitude for his unplanned career.
“I just ask God to keep me going, because I realize that the worst enemy we have is in the mirror,” Checker said, adding one more twist, with a chuckle.
“You’ve just got to understand one thing: Whatever you’re doing, it’s no big deal. It’s just a job that you have to do. Realize what you have, make the most of it, and shut up.”
Contact Rodney Richey, 640-4861, rodney.richey@heraldbulletin.com.
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