PhilPaine.com

Ernest Evans (stage name “Chub­by Check­er”, a spoof of “Fats Domi­no”) is an exam­ple of a per­fectly com­pe­tent singer who might have had a long and high­ly respect­ed career, if not for the fatal pop­u­lar­ity of one hit tune. He is the only record­ing artist to have five albums in the Top 12 all at once. He is the only artist to have a song reach #1 twice, with the dread­ed “Twist”. I am lis­ten­ing to that sad lit­tle item on the orig­i­nal Park­way album, Your Twist Par­ty, in its 1961 Cana­di­an press­ing — a nice lit­tle rar­i­ty in my vinyl col­lec­tion. “The Twist” was noth­ing but a lit­tle dit­ty that trig­gered a brief dance craze, but it brand­ed Check­er as the musi­cal equiv­a­lent of hoola hoops, and he was nev­er per­mit­ted to sing much of any­thing else again, and nev­er tak­en seri­ously. This is the sad­dest aspect of show busi­ness. In some ways, utter fail­ure offers some dig­nity. To be briefly wor­shiped for some lame, triv­ial accom­plish­ment, then cast aside and mulched back into the earth must be utter­ly humil­i­at­ing. Checker’s singing was quite styl­ish, and some of his per­for­mances of rock-and-roll and show stan­dards on this album, such as “Ballin’ the Jack”, “Blue­berry Hill” and even “I Could Have Danced All Night” show that he could have been a long-term success.