Check(er) Mate Sill Twisting
It’s startling to realize that while the Lobero Theatre has been a beacon for the arts in Santa Barbara for 150 years, Chubby Checker has been around for more than half of those years, and is still going strong. As part of the Lobero’s year-long Ovation celebration, the now-81-year-old 1960s rocker who propelled “The Twist” to the top of the charts twice in two years and then saw the reprise, “Let’s Twist Again,” soar even higher is headlining a free community block party event on Saturday, May 20, from 3 to 8 pm. Also performing are local favorites Glen Phillips, Spencer the Gardener, and the La Boheme Dancers.
We caught up with Checker (born Ernest Evans) over the phone from his Philadelphia-area home, where his infectious spirit was palpable 3,000 miles away.
Q. What made you want to do a version of “The Twist” when Hank Ballard, who wrote it, had recorded it only a few months before in 1959?
A. His song hadn’t been a hit, and it wasn’t happening. I took a dead item and made it something that it would never have been without Chubby Checker. I’m so glad he wrote it, but what we did to that song was something completely different. And we had to campaign that thing for about six months while I was still in high school to tell people what it was all about, get on American Bandstand, which is when it took off.
Q. Did you anticipate what would happen, that you would have this impact on pop music and, particularly, dancing, turning into such a craze?
A. I thought it was a good song, but we had no idea what we were messing around with. But it changed the dance world completely forever. Before Chubby Checker, guys didn’t look at their girlfriends while they were dancing because you were too close together. But with the Twist, you were watching her exploiting her sexuality while she was fully dressed, and she was looking at you. Chubby put that on the dance floor. The whole world changed in those two minutes and forty-two seconds.
Q. I can’t imagine having all that success while still in high school. How was it for you?
A. That was all I wanted to do ever since I was four years old, when my mom took me to see Ernest Tubbs. I bragged and talked about it and boasted right on up until I was 17. I was really uncomfortable as a kid and got my little singing group together at 11. Then all of a sudden I was on stage, a professional in the 11th grade in South Philadelphia High School.
How did I feel about being up there? Thank God it happened!
Q. People may not know that you had other hit songs that kept the dance craze going.
A. Oh yeah, you had the Pony, the Fly, the Shake, and that old nasty dance from 1949 called the Hucklebuck. The Pony, by the way, is what a pony does: He hips and he hops. I just want to throw that out there, because the whole foundation of hip-hop is built on that song that Chubby Checker put out there. Sixty years later, it doesn’t matter who’s singing. If you’re dancing and you are looking at each move, Chubby’s there. I haven’t left the dance floor young.
Q. Why do you think you’re not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? I mean, Hank Ballard got inducted back in 1990.
A. They must have a good reason, but I’m singing (“The Twist”) the No. 1 song of all time, which is in the HOF. But I don’t care about that. I’m coming to Santa Barbara and if you are looking for an oldies show, stay home. You’re coming to see an icon, a legend, a man that changed the whole music industry, and it’s still changed because of Chubby. Disco is Chubby Checker. When you throw your hands in the air and wave like you just don’t care, you’re doing Chubby Checker and the Fly. Do I do new songs in my shows? Hershey doesn’t need a new Hershey bar, ‘cause everybody’s still eating (the original). How do you do better than the No. 1 song of all time?
Q. I have to tell you that I think it’s kind of cool that you still have that brashness and confidence you talked about having at five years old even now, literally 75 years later.
A. Every time I play on the stage, my dream is renewed because that’s all I ever wanted to do. You just hold onto that, and the light is always shining.
