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Artist: Chubby Checker
Genre: Rock
Latest Album:The Best Of Chubby Checker: Cameo Parkway 1959-1963
Background:
Chubby Checker is an American singer and an unrivaled king of the rock & roll dance craze best known for popularizing the dance The Twist with his 1960 song "The Twist". “The Twist” has remained the yardstick against which all subsequent dance floor phenomena are measured and with its popularity the public did not allow him to sing any other style of music. He is the only recording artist to have five albums in the Top 12 all at once and the only artist to have a song reach #1 twice—"The Twist". He is hailed by many to have changed the way we dance to the beat of music since 1959.
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About Chubby Checker
Checker had a number of hits with dance-themed records into the mid-1960s. His first single, "The Class," showcased his skills as an impressionist; while the record became a minor novelty hit, none of its immediate follow-ups were successful. He recorded "The Twist," a cover of a 1958 Hank Ballard & the Midnighters B-side in 1960. Checker's rendition de-emphasized the original's overtly sexual overtones, focusing instead on the song's happy-go-lucky charms. In addition to 1961's "The Fly," Checker's other Top Ten hits included three 1962 smashes: "Slow Twistin'," "Limbo Rock," and "Popeye the Hitchhiker." 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 U.S.S.R, released on Buddah records. None of it was available on compact disc until 2005.
He was granted him a new lease of fame with his new version record of "The Twist" with rap trio The Fat Boys. 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. The single rocketed to number one during the autumn of 1960, remained on the charts for four months. He even starred in a pair of feature films, Twist Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Twist. Checker notched 32 chart hits before the bubble burst in 1966 and he briefly turned to folk music, and became a regular on the nightclub circuit. From 1970s onward, he was a staple of oldies revival tours; in 1982, more than a decade after his last studio LP, he signed with MCA and issued the disco-inspired The Change Has Come, scoring a pair of minor hits with the singles "Running" and "Harder Than Diamond."
In 1988, Checker returned to the Top 40 for the first time in a quarter century when he appeared on the Fat Boys' rap rendition of "The Twist," and he continued touring regularly throughout the decade to follow. 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.
