Let’s Whine Again!
Hell hath no fury like a 1.5-hit wonder scorned :
Chubby Checker, whose song “The Twist” was one of the most popular dance records of all time, isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And that’s OK with him.But the singer is peeved over what he considers a lack of radio airplay for the classic song and his new material. So he staged a protest ? albeit good-natured ? outside Monday’s induction festivities in midtown Manhattan.
“I’m not doing it to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at all,” he told The Associated Press in an interview. “I don’t get the airplay that one in my position deserves. ‘Twist and Shout’ gets more airplay than ‘The Twist,’ and that’s not right.”
Checker, 62, has been recording for decades, and some of other hits include “The Hucklebuck” and “Pony Time.” But his biggest hit was the 1960 song “The Twist,” which went to No. 1 in that year and again in 1961, sparking a dance craze across the nation. The song was so popular he even had a hit with its sequel, “Let’s Twist Again,” in 1961. (He also had a hit with “Slow Twistin’” and in 1994 released a song called “Texas Twist”).
. . .
“I’m not getting the airplay ? no airplay, no payday,” said Checker, who waxes on and on about the popularity of “The Twist. He says even foods with the words “twist” and “checker” in them point to the song’s enduring popularity. (He also markets “Chubby Checker’s Beef Jerky” with flavors like “Sugar Twist Teriyaki.”)
Okay, just glancing at the list of past inductees, I can think of five performers that deserve to be inducted before Chubby Checker :
And that’s just off the top of my head. Just because you’re old and you had a hit a long time ago doesn’t automatically mean you deserve to be in the hall of fame. Besides, I think there’s a hall of fame rule that states if you remake your only big hit with the Fat Boys, then you have to wait an additional ten years to be considered.
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At least he redid his own hit with the Fat Boys, unlike the Beach Boys, who did the Surfaris “Wipe Out” vocally with the Fat Boys.
I dunno. Clearly Chubby is not a great songwriter, and he’s far less wonderful than all the bands you mentioned. Then again, “The Twist” was by far a bigger hit than “Time of the Season” and in fact helped spur on a cultural phenomenon. We can’t give him credit for inventing the twist (kids at the Peppermint Lounge, I think, invented “the peppermint twist”) but surely his song’s effect on popularizing it to an astounding degree (remember, there were “Twist Parties” and tons of twist albums by lots of artists in its wake), and changing the dancefloors of America should count for something. I’m pretty sure without the “Twist” we sould not also have had the slew of dance-step songs that followed, e.g. “The Locomotion,” “The Jerk,” “The Swim,” etc.
However, as much as I think he influenced music, I wonder what oldies radio stations he’s listening to that DON’T play him. I hear his songs all the damn time.
Comment by dAnimal — March 15, 2004 @ 3:48 pm
True, but to be fair, that’s the Kokomo Beach Boys. The same ones who appeared on “Full House” all the time to sing “Help Me Rhonda” with Joey and uncle Jesse. Like fellow sitcom staple Little Richard, the Beach Boys have a pretty solid body of work to justify their inclusion in the HOF. Chubby Checker, on the other hand, has probably always been a cheeseball.
I left out the part of the article where it’s mentioned that the guy who wrote “The Twist” is already in the hall of fame.
I think it’s even funnier that he’s pissed that “Twist and Shout” get more airplay. Beatles bias aside, the multiple versions of “Twist and Shout” are much, much better than “The Twist”. To put things in more modern terms, “The Twist” is the equivalent of “The Macarena”, while “Twist and Shout” is more like “Hey Ya”.
Comment by greg — March 15, 2004 @ 4:00 pm
Ya know, Chubby does deserve something for the songs he wrote. And he’s already gotten it. It almost seems like he’s halfway blaming the public for not liking the sequels he wrote to “The Twist.”
By that same logic, I blame the opera community for ignoring my rock opera version of “After the Laughter: The Greg Saunders Story.” Philistines.
Comment by Megalodon — March 15, 2004 @ 4:05 pm
danimal is right. what oldies station is this dude listening to? is he pissed jim ladd isnt spinning him? that he aint on arrow? or kroq?
on the other side of the hof doors, its cool to see prince getting inducted.
Comment by josh — March 15, 2004 @ 4:10 pm
Cheesiness aside, “The Twist” is far closer to Madonna’s “Vogue” or maybe Blondie’s “Rapture.” It referenced something that was already happening, that Chubby did not invent, but put it in the public spotlight in a big way that affected everything that came later.
I mean, the Twist was perhaps more huge than we’re giving it credit for. Your parents (unless you’re really young or really old) all went to parties where they did the twist. Early 60′s bands all played songs that you could twist to. In the Beach Party movies and a thousand other teen craze B-movies, people were always twisting around the pool. And that energy really got going due to Chubby Checker’s song about what had previously been a very small phenomenon.
Furthermore, in the wake of “The Twist” a thousand other songs suddenly arose that were all about specific dances with specific names. So it influenced music specifically, not just dancing.
As limited as his output was, the cultural influence of his work is large enough that he should probably get inducted. Especially if they’re going to induct shit like the Eagles, who influenced nobody and contributed nothing to our culture except to make L.A. and Hollywood seem even more phony.
Comment by dAnimal — March 15, 2004 @ 6:46 pm