Chubby Checker: ‘I’m just a good excuse for the party’

There is no more enduring rock n’ roll legend than Chubby Checker, who will visit Lincoln City’s Chinook Winds Casino and Resort for an 8 p.m. concert on Dec. 7.

Sixty-five years after signing with Cameo-Parkway Records and recording “The Twist,” which would reach No. 1 on the singles charts, Checker is still entertaining audiences throughout the country.

This is the third time to perform at Chinook Winds for Checker, whose version of “The Twist” became the only single to top the Billboard Hot 100 in two separate chart runs (1960 and ’62). By 1965, it had sold more than 15 million copies.

Born Ernest Evans in Spring Gulley, S.C., Checker was given the nickname “Chubby” at age 11 by Tony Anastazi, the owner of a deli store in which he worked. Anastazi would often let him sing to customers on a loudspeaker in the market. The wife of American Bandstand’s Dick Clark completed his stage name when he was 16. “There’s Fats Domino,” she said. “And you’re Chubby Checker.”

It stuck, and he became the world’s most successful rocker in the early ‘60s, with 12 singles and seven albums in the top 20 on the Billboard 100.

Checker remains the only artist to have five albums in the top 12 at one time.

Checker is a true professional who loves performing.

“The man has never missed a show,” says Shelly Field, his long-time manager. “You will find that his show today is even better than it was seven years ago. He is an amazing man. He is nice, and you don’t find nice all the time in this business. He never says no to somebody who wants a picture taken with him.”

I recently had my second interview with Chubby — we had talked before his last performance at Chinook Winds, in 2017 — and found him to again be pleasant, gracious and rightfully proud of both his accomplishments and longevity through a remarkable career.

KE: You have played thousands of venues throughout the years, including several in Oregon. Do you have any memories of your previous shows at Chinook Winds?

CC: I remember playing there. It’s always about the show. It’s always about the music. It’s always interesting. To come back is always very special.

KE: In 2017, you were performing between 50 and 60 dates a year. Have you slowed down at all?

CC: No. (Laughs) My mom took me to the fair in Georgetown, S.C., when I was four. I was watching Ernest Tubb on the stage. (Performing) was all I ever thought about. And all of a sudden I’m in high school. I’m getting ready to graduate. I’m on the stage. “The Twist” is being released and I’m listening to it on the radio while I’m graduating. My dream came true. All I ever wanted to do was go on stage and sing. At Chinook Winds, I’m having my dream again, and I’m having it for the third time at the same place.

KE: I recently interviewed Otis Williams of The Temptations. You guys are both 83 years old and still doing what you’re doing, and doing it well. What gives you the energy to keep doing this?

CC: It is being able to have your dream come true every time you play on stage. That’s all I ever wanted. Every time I do this, it’s something very special for me. Whenever I go on stage and play, that four-year-old excitement at the fair is still there.

KE: For many years, your version of “The Twist” topped Billboard’s list as the most popular chart hit to have appeared in its Hot 100 since its debut in 1958. In 2020, “The Twist” dropped to No. 2 behind the song “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd. But you’re still No. 2 all-time.

CC: I will always be No. 1, no matter what happens. Whoever becomes the president this year or was 10 years ago, they are not the first president of the United States. “The Twist” is the first No. 1 song in history. I will always be No. 1. I think it’s great that there is another song that became No. 1, but is he going to be No. 1 for 61 years? And “The Twist” was No. 1 twice. No one has done that.

KE: Your early years were in South Carolina. Was your father a tobacco farmer there?

CC: Tobacco and beans and cotton and chickens and pigs. I was like a little Amish kid behind the plow, plowing the fields for my dad. But it was a very nice, wholesome upbringing. We all worked hard. If we weren’t working in the field, we were in church singing.

KE: How old were you when your family moved to Pennsylvania?

CC: Seven or eight. I was a shoeshine boy then. My dad believed you should always be working. He was like, “You’re not going to sit around here in the house doing nothing. One day, you’re going to be a man, and you’re not going to be a lazy old man sitting around trying to raise a family.”

KE: What was it like growing up in the projects of South Philadelphia?

CC: They say that, but I never lived in the projects. I lived in an apartment with my mom and dad. Then my dad was able to make a lot of money and we moved into a house on Christian Street. I had my own room. I was very happy about that. Then I went to Ninth Street and met Tony Anastazi, who nicknamed me “Chubby.” I didn’t like that, but he said, “If you want to work here, I’m going to call you whatever I like.” I said, “Yes sir,” and I became Chubby. The Italian neighborhood on Ninth Street was where all the Philadelphia streets became famous, I worked on that street.

KE: And you started a street-corner singing group at age 11. Did you envision stardom even then?

CC: Ah yes — The Quantrells. Oh boy, we did some good songs. Like I said, all I ever wanted to do was sing on stage. You know something? Shelly will call me up and say, “Guess where we’re going?” I ask, “Where?” She tells me where, and all I can think about is that show coming up. Then I’m so glad to get there to do it. And when it’s over, I go to my room and go, “Whew. We did it.”

KE: I understand you have your own tour bus. What is it like, and how often do you use it?

CC: Whenever we’re not flying, we use the bus. Charlie Daniels told me, “Chubby, you gotta get a bus. You can’t drive around in a van and a trailer; you gotta get a bus.” (Laughs) I got a bus and I put my name on it because I want people to know that I’m alive and well. You know what? I was coming down the highway one day in Connecticut and was going south. Here coming north was Ernest Tubb and his bus. I didn’t know what to do. I mean, there was Ernest, and he had a bus with his name on it. I was so excited.

KE: You signed your first record deal in 1959. That was 65 years ago. Is that hard to believe?

CC: Yeah. I tell you this, I was such a nuisance. From the time I was four, I wanted to sing (professionally). At 17, when I signed my first contract, guess what I said? “It’s about time.” (laughs) But honestly, I thought it would never happen.

KE: You are known as an artist who rarely turns down an autograph or photo request. How did you come to treat your fans so well?

CC: Without the fans, I’m dirt. … I respect them. Without them, I have nothing. When they want something, I just do it. Why shouldn’t I do it? I’m coming to Chinook Winds, and I want to see a lot of people there watching the show because it’s all about them. I’m just a good excuse for the party.

KE: When you sing a song to an audience, what goes through your mind?

CC: I have a connection with those people. They used to tell me, “Chubby, when you sing a song and I hear it on the radio, it’s like you were in the living room with me.” I make sure all the words are clear. People understand all the lyrics. From the lyrics and my feelings, they get the meaning of what I’m singing about. That’s what it’s all about.

All these years, the relationship with them is about everything I live for. Any time I play a show, it’s all about them. I try to have that connection. Maybe that’s why I have been around so long, because of the emotional connection that I have with the audience.

KE: Has your show changed much since you performed in Oregon seven years ago?

CC: I can play the same (venue), but it will never be the same show. If you come to see me and see a show twice in a row, (the second one) won’t be the same thing. I am going to sing many of the same songs, but I have to be different. I am able to go out and perform and love that audience and have that audience respond to what I am doing, and I am responding to them.

KE: When you were last at Chinook Winds, you went down into the crowd and danced the twist with several of your fans. Will you do that again?

CC: I sure will (laughs). It’s so incredible that I have something to do that they know all about. How many performers who go out there. … (those in the audience) can sing the lyrics to your song, but can they do the movements to your music?

That “Twist” song changed what happens on the dance floor forever. The No. 1 song right now that’s being played, and someone is dancing to it — that style of dance? Chubby’s right there on the floor. The dance floor and that style of dance is as old as my career. And anyone who has a song with a beat and they are on the charts and are making a lot of money? Chubby’s right there.

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