endless songs incorporating “The Twist” into its name sprang up
such as “Peppermint Twist”, “Twist and Shout” and “Twistin’ the
Night Away”. In addition, each new song brought a new dance
involving “dancing apart to the beat” such as “The Jerk”, “The
Hully Gully”, “The Boogaloo” and “The Shake”. At the forefront
was Chubby with “The Fly”, “The Pony” and “The Hucklebuck”.
The next few years were prolific for Chubby as hit followed
hit. In 1961, Chubby recorded “Pony Time” written by Don Covay
and John Berry. It went to #1 and stayed on the charts for 16
weeks. In between recording and touring, Chubby took time
to add feature films to his portfolio with the releases of “Don’t
Knock The Twist” and “Twist Around The Clock”.
In the fall of 1961, record industry history was made when
Checker’s original hit record, “The Twist”, re-entered the charts
and by January of 1962, it was back in the #1 position. No other
record before or since has accomplished that feat. Combining its
nine month total on the U. S. best seller charts.
Chubby Checker merchandise was everywhere, and
included T-shirts, shoes, ties, dolls, raincoats, and chewing gum.
His success continued for years with the release of one dance
record after another, with “The Fly” and “Let’s Twist Again”, for
which he won a Grammy for the “Best Rock Performance”. More
hit records followed. “Slow Twistin’”, Dancin’ Party”, “Popeye the
Hitchhiker” and “The Limbo Rock” all came along in 1962.
and “Twist It Up”, after which he followed with “Loddy Lo” and a
series of other novelty type tunes. Eventually, teens incorporated
these movements to all songs that had a beat and called these
movements “The Boogie”, a permanent fixture in Rock and Roll
1964 was Chubby’s marriage to Catharina Lodders, Miss World
1962.
some unique twists. ABC aired their answer to NBC’s Saturday
Night Live, a counter culture show called Fridays which
starred Michael Richards (Kramer) and Larry David. A special
appearance by Chubby as he sang his current hit, “Running”
(excerpted on his website) was broadcast before a live national