Chubby Checker is one of the most iconic singers in rock and roll music. Recorded and broadcast on FM radio in 2010, this interview was included in a show in celebration of “The Twist.” This interview is being presented to the podcast listeners 10 years later, and now we celebrate 60 years of “The Twist.”
As one of the most recognizable voices in rock and pop music, Chubby Checker is a legendary vocalist, dancer, performing and recording artist. I hope we can welcome him again someday soon.
Or listen on YouTube.
Since October 2003 The Paul Leslie Hour has made all content available to everyone. If you’ve ever gotten enjoyment or inspiration from The Paul Leslie Hour, consider becoming a patron.
Subscribe/stream on the following platforms:
• RadioPublic • Stitcher • iTunes • Spotify • Player FM •
• Overcast • iHEARTRadio • CastBox • Acast • Deezer
Consider sharing this interview on Social Media.
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram & Twitter
Visit the Chubby Checker Website.
The Official Transcript
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that we welcome our special guest, the legendary rock-n-roller, Chubby Checker. Thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you so much. Good to be talking with you.
It’s a great pleasure. So tell everyone out there…people know your songs…but whose the real Chubby Checker?
You don’t want to know him. He’s a very quiet guy.
Really?
He’s more like Clark Kent. Nobody cares about him. He’s very quiet, you know. Someone whose the other guy…he’s always promoting Chubby Checker…the other guy, he’s always promoting Chubby and everything Chubby does. It’s like I’m a person within a person. I promote…I promote Chubby Checker and the quiet guy doesn’t really do very much. He’s very laid back. He’s a whole different kind of person and very quiet and…and…you know, just very normal. In fact, I try to keep out of the way…keep out of the lights and, um, go to quiet places to be entertained. Nothing exciting because the life of Chubby Checker is always in the spotlight so the other person tries not to be in the spotlight.
Interesting. Where do you come from originally? What was life like growing up?
Spring Gully, South Carolina and it’s Williamsburg County and Georgetown County. Williamsburg from Spring Gully, South Carolina and Andrews, South Carolina, this is my home and when you come through Andrews, South Carolina on Highway 521, in every section of town they will say “Welcome to Andrews, birthplace of or the home of Chubby Checker.”
Wow! Very cool.
I have to behave myself because I, I always tell the people in Andrews and Spring Gully that please forgive me because every time you come through town my name is always there so it’s a burden for them so please forgive me. I’m going to behave myself and be a good by so that you won’t be ashamed of me (laughs).
I was reading a really interesting story about you…and there’s lots of interesting stuff also I want to direct all the listeners to ChubbyChecker.com….there’s a real interesting story about you and how you got your name.
When I was a kid, I worked in a produce market for Tony Anastasi and Tony Anastasi gave me the name Chubby. I later discovered that he gave me his son’s name, which I considered a great honor and a few years later I was working in the poultry market for Henry Colt and he took me to the record company. I was doing a project for Dick Clark. The lady there…this lady said…she said, “That’s Chubby. Chubby like Fats,” and then she added, “Checker, like Domino,” and Chubby became Chubby Checker and the lady’s name was Mrs. Dick Clark.
So tell me, how did you get interested in music?
My mom took me to concert when we were living in Georgetown County in Georgetown, South Carolina and I was looking at Ernest Tubb, the country singer, and then she later took me to a show in Andrews, South Carolina where I saw a singer named Sugar Charles Robinson and after I saw those two people, I decided I’d have to be in show business. I was about four or five years old.
Wow. Can you remember favorite artists and favorite records growing up?
I remember people from the 40’s like, um, Hank Williams and Grandpa Jones…those people were around when I was a kid because all I ever heard was country music because I was born before rock-n-roll and people like Hank Williams…people like that….and then when I gained consciousness, about 1951…I must have been about ten years old, then I started exploring rock-n-roll because people like Billy Ward and the Dominos and people like that and…Perry Como and Milton Berle and then came along people like Sammy Davis, Jr. and Harry Belafonte and, um, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin…people like that…but my favorite of all times was Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis. These are the people that really mean something in the rock-n-roll business. We…we are part of all these people.
I had to agree with you there on the Fatman there. He was one of my favorite people to interview. Just an amazing artist.
But these five people, to me, are…a statue should be carved of them in some mountain somewhere and call it the ‘Rock-n-Roll Mountain of Rushmore.’ Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis… these are the guys who really made it…that made rock-n-roll come alive with great fire.
Before ‘The Twist,’ you had a song called ‘The Class.’ Tell us about that song.
I did impressions of Fats Domino and Elvis Presley and Cozy Cole and the Chipmunks and things like that and I still do a good Elvis impression and Ricky Nelson and Fabian and people like that and it was a novelty record. It wasn’t my favorite but it was my first hit but it wasn’t my favorite record because I thought that, at the time, I was much cooler than ‘The Class.’ (Laughs)
Well tell us about the first time you heard your own music on the radio. What did that feel like?
I really never listened to my music and I very rarely look at any films of me on TV or videos. I never really watch that and the reason why I don’t listen to myself is because I might hear something that I don’t like and I might change it…I might change it…and that might be the reason why people are listening to me and when I watch myself on TV and I see something and I change it, that might be the reason why they like me so I never really watch myself and I don’t listen to my records but I do know that when they’re not played…I have a thing called ‘Media Base.’ I find out where all my music is being played and how many times it’s being played and the great heartbreak about my career is that they don’t really play my music like they play the other great people in the music industry. I would like to hear Chubby’s music even more. My music is responsible for the way we dance on the dance floor because after we did ‘The Class,’ and I did ‘The Twist,’ the world changed forever. It’s almost as if we’re talking on the telephone right now…when the telephone came to the public, it became a permanent fixture in the world. When…when Edison gave us the light bulb, it became a permanent fixture in the world. When Chubby Checker did ‘The Twist,’ the ‘Pony,’ the “Fly,’ the ‘Shake,’ the ‘Hucklebuck,’ dancing on the floor the way we dance became a permanent fixture on the dance floor for everybody’s music and all I want out of it all is for everyone to play my music like they play Elton John; like they play Elvis; like they play all the rest of the guys out there….Bob Seger…I want to hear my music the way they play their music and I deserve to have it because in September 11th, 2008, ‘The Twist’ was named the number one song on the planet. I want to hear the number one song on the planet on the radio. I want to hear every radio station play the number one song on the planet.
Well tell us a little bit about that song. It is amazing, you know. I can’t believe that it wouldn’t be more wide-spread. Everybody knows ‘The Twist’ and it’s…
Everybody knows ‘The Twist,’ but I want the radio stations to play what’s responsible for the way we dance on the dance floor 24/7 since Chubby Checker went on ‘American Bandstand’ around 1959 and the world changed forever. I mean, the way we do the boogie… the way we dance to Lady Gaga… the way kids dance that are nine or ten years old…that’s Chubby Checker. You turn on the light in your house, it’s Thomas Edison. When you get on the phone, it’s Alexander Graham Bell. When you get on the dance floor, that’s Chubby Checker. The music has a beat and you can dance to it, like they use to say, that’s Chubby Checker.
Well, tell us about that song, ‘The Twist.’
We’re celebrating fifty years of dancing by ourselves on the dance floor. Billy Idol said it last…said it best. He says, that song “dancing by myself… and I’ll be dancing by myself.” That’s what we’ve been doing. When Chubby Checker did ‘The Twist,’ we been dancing by ourself on the dance floor, in front of someone, exploiting their sexuality, which is the most exciting thing on the planet! That’s why we’re still doing it.
Yeah, I heard you say that on the, on the television. Uh, you mentioned that…you said that we’re exploiting one another’s sexuality. What exactly do you mean by that?
It means that I’m actually standing in front of that woman and she’s standing in front of me and we’re fully dressed and we’re doing it. What are we doing? We’re doing it. I’m looking at that girl and I’m saying, “Watch me…check my moves,” and she’s saying, “Watch me…check my moves,” and I’m looking at her and she’s looking at me. My goodness! You can’t get any closer to a strip tease than that.
(Laughs) Yeah…
And that’s why…that’s why the way we dance on the dance floor before Chubby Checker wasn’t here…in fact, aerobic exercise did not emerge until someone says, “Hey, ‘The Twist’ is great exercise. Let’s get some music and exercise to music,” and before Chubby Checker, that wasn’t even here.
That’s amazing. When you look back at all the songs you recorded, is there one to you personally…you mentioned that you didn’t listen to your own records…but is there one to you that is a favorite?
‘The Twist’ is a great song. ‘The Twist’ is my favorite song and reason for that is is because, you know, it changed the world. When Walt Disney brought Mickey Mouse to our attention animated cartoons was established and invented right there and everyone that does animated cartoons…now when you go to Disney World or Disneyland you see Mickey Mouse but what about Snow White and the rest of the characters that he has? Well my Mickey Mouse is ‘The Twist,’ and then my Snow White is ‘The Colonnade,’ and my Goofy is ‘The Fly, and another one is ‘The Shake’ and another one’s ‘The Hucklebuck.’ Those are my characters but they all represent, like Walt Disney’s characters all represent animated cartoons because before he came along it wasn’t here, and all my dances represent the way we dance on the dance floor. We call it the ‘Dancing Keyboards’ to the way we do the boogie and it’s been going on 24/7 since Chubby Checker, that in two minutes and forty-two seconds the world, the world changed…the dip, dip beat(?)…the length of ‘The Twist’ is two minutes, forty-two seconds and two minutes and forty-two seconds changed the dance floor forever and it’s still going on as we speak. ‘The Twist’ and the way we dance to the beat is the biggest event in the music industry…the day that it happened…and it still is the biggest event in the music industry. I just want to catch up with myself and I’m hoping that all the radio stations in the world will play Chubby Checker’s music. When I’m dead, I’m not going to be able to hear it. I want to hear it while I’m alive and well.
It was not too I was doing an interview with Clarence “Frogman” Henry in New Orleans and he was, he was talking about you and he said that you were one of the people that he opened for that he was the most proud and the most excited to sing along with. So I wanted to ask you: Who have you sang along with or opened for or had open for you that you were especially excited about?
It was way back in the day. There was show in Philadelphia. I was still in high school and I was the MC. I…the first tour I went on, I was the MC and I was…I opened for The Quest. I opened for Paul Williams and the Big Band. I opened for Clyde McPhatter and I opened for Bo Diddley. The show was called ‘Hot Five,’ and I was on that show. After that, basically most of the time, I’m on the road by myself all the time. I loved playing with Chuck Berry. I loved Fats Domino, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. I mean, I’ve played with all these people. I was in the company of Elvis once in my career. I’ve met Paul McCartney twice and that’s…that’s about it. I mean, other than that, it’s the music and Chubby and the audience. That’s what we’ve been doing, you know, since 1959. I graduated in 1960. I was touring before I even graduated high school. Go to I-Tunes and Amazon.com and look for ‘Knock Down the Walls.’ Look for ‘All the Best.’ Look for that. Look for ‘Limbo Remix.’ Look for ‘The Texas Twist.’ These are things that I’ve done over the last ten years and you need to listen to those cause it’s…the music is very exciting. Uh, ‘Knock Down the Walls,’ very exciting song and ‘Texas Twist’ is a country album and it’s all country music on it and it’s something that you need to get in to. It’s very exciting…
Yeah..
..and, and, and….and go to…go to The Last Twist.com and, you know…we have candy bars and hot dogs and steak and all kinds of junk on there and I’m sure it’d be very interesting.
I’ve got two final questions.
Uh-huh…
When somebody goes to hear you play, cause I wanted all the listeners out there again…check out ChubbyChecker.com…he’s got shows everywhere…uh, what do you hope that they get out of the experience of coming to a Chubby Checker show or listening to one of the records?
They are the centerpiece of the performance. I am just a good excuse for the party. It’s all about them. It’s not about me. I’m glad they’re coming to see me but I’m also coming to see them and I’m going to give them something. I’m going to personally get involved with them. That’s what I do. You know, the show is about them and you have to see it in order to know it but the thing is, most shows you go to you sit, you clap and you’re an observer and you go home. You sit down, you clap, you’re an observer and you go home.
Right.
And that’s all you get. With Chubby Checker, you get more. You get other things. Come to town. Come to see me so that you can see what the other thing is all about. What’s the next question?
The last question for the legendary Chubby Checker: This broadcast goes out all over the world. What would you like to say to all the people out there that are listening?
Whenever you go on the dance floor, I’m there. In fact, out of all the dances that you do, when you go on the dance floor more than anyone else, you might be dancing to the Beatles but the dance that you do to the Beatles is Chubby Checker. You might be dancing to Lady Gaga, but Chubby’s there. You might be at your office on the telephone but Graham Bell’s there. You might be in your house with the lights on but Edison is there. Everybody out there, have a good time and most of all is my last message to you: “Behave!”
(Laughs) Alright, ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Chubby Checker.
TRANSCRIBED BY LORI DOMINGO
