His workplace antics helped win an audition with the local Cameo-Parkway label, who signed the fledgling singer in 1959 at the suggestion of no less than Dick Clark's wife, the portly youth was re-christened Chubby Checker, the name a sly reference to Fats Domino.Ĭhecker's first single, "The Class," showcased his skills as an impressionist while the record became a minor novelty hit, none of its immediate follow-ups were successful. Born Ernest Evans on October 3, 1941, in Spring Gulley, South Carolina, he worked in a local poultry shop while in high school, and while on the job often entertained customers by singing and cracking jokes. Chubby Checker was the unrivaled king of the rock & roll dance craze although most of the dances his records promoted - the Pony, "the Fly," and the Hucklebuck, to cite just three - have long since faded into obscurity, his most famous hit, "The Twist," remains the yardstick against which all subsequent dancefloor phenomena are measured.
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