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a brief history
Born
in Philadelphia in 1941, Ernest Evans would later become Chubby
Checker and make Rock and Roll history. With
the help of Dick Clark and a record deal with Cameo-Parkway,
Chubby Checker began his
professional career. After recording four songs on Cameo-Parkway
that barely dented the top forty, a “twist” of fate
had Chubby singing “The Twist” for American Bandstand
as a stand-in act for a no-show. “The Twist” hit
the pop charts in the summer of 1960 and went to number one.
Following the huge success of “The
Twist,” Chubby Checker
recorded several other top ten hits including “Pony
Time,” “Let’s Twist Again,” and “The
Fly.”
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John's memories
“The Fly” was originally
written and recorded for Carl and The Commanders. Dave White
and I went to play it for Cameo Parkway Records. Chubby
Checkers’ “Twist”, was
just coming down the charts, and they were looking for something
to follow it up with. They thought our record was great.
They wanted to use our track and put Chubby's voice on it.
Of course, doing the follow up to “the Twist” was
really exciting. In the beginning of Chubby’s career,
we were the first outside producers to produce something with
Chubby through Cameo Parkway.
Little did I know that this would be the beginning of my producing
Chubby for two other record companies – Buddah and 20th
Century. The Buddah records had Daryl Hall, Tim Moore and
Tom Sellers, not only playing but singing background.
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what happened next?
From 1959 to 1965, Chubby
Checker put twenty-two hits in the top forty.
In 1961, “The Twist” reentered the charts and went
to #1. The only other artist who has accomplished that is
Bing Crosby with “White Christmas.”
Chubby Checker is credited for popularizing
the dance songs in the early 60’s with "The Pony,"
"The Twist" and "The Fly." He gave movement
to a music that never had this movement before.
Dick Clark once said: “The three most important things
that ever happened in the music industry are Elvis Presley,
The Beatles and Chubby Checker.”
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