This man should be a genuine 'junk'. The Twist, Chubby Checker's big hit in 1960, was a phenomenon in all senses. I guess it brought us some circumstances : one was that it became one of the patterns of making hits that songs were named after and related with and sold with prevailing or new dances(for examples, Sam Cooke's Twistin' the Night Away, Rufus Thomas' Walking the Dog, Do the Funky Chicken, Smokey Robinson's Mickey's Monkey, James Brown's Mother Popcorn, Archie Bell's Tighten Up (the last one is also a obscure dance)), another was that some held a fixed image of blacks smiling and singing and twisting with white teen-agers dancing innocently.
Originally, 'Rock'n'Roll' was a lingo of a man and a woman doing something. As you can hear on Hank Ballard's compilations through his career, "Let'em Roll" or "Sexy Ways", R&B audiences in the mid-fifties loved raunchy, double-meaning songs (Work with Me Annie, Sexy Way and so on), The Twist was also one of these songs. However, the wife of Dick Clark, the host of the TV show "American Bandstand", gave a debut and the name Chubby Checker to a young black of good voice, and then the Clarks let him sing The Twist and featured the dance called 'Twist' on TV. Circumstances of the music scene changed. Even the original Hank Ballard released dance-oriented songs like Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go, but the tempo of rhythm and the delivery of vocal came from nothing but R&B of blacks.
By the way, Chubby Checker was signed with Cameo-Parkway label of Philadelphia, and the master tapes still have never appeared on CD formally. Even if the qualities of tones are bad, most of the first recordings should be superior to the re-recordings in terms of the craze and momentum of the days. So I do claim those who reserved the rights to re-issue them soon, though I don't know what they're thinking about. That's why I could only hear re-recorded The Twist on CD, for the first time on Japanese budget-priced compilation "Rhythm & Blues" of Aile Disc, which was sold in front of the station Takadanobaba. And then I bought the compilation "The Very Best of The K-Tel Recordings", which is a collection of re-recordings in the early '70s and is a clue in which you remember songs at his best. Paradoxically The Twist leaves roughness of the original because it's a copy, his other original twist songs , however, are 'sophisticated', without harmfulness or sensuality. Limbo Rock, whose original was the instrumental version of the Champs of "Tequila" fame, is a joyful latin novelty. Huey Smith's Birdland is a rendition without the loose rhythm of New Orleans. Follow-ups of The Twist-like Pony Time, The Hucklebuck or The Fly are more diluted with water. Despite it, they are cheerful and good for many and not for a few manias like me. Those who listened to these songs in their teens may think they are embarrassing but dear and touching to their heart, and I myself cannot deny the memories which are beyond right and wrong.
After doing above-mentioned writings, things have changed. The 4-CD box set "Cameo Parkway 1957-1967" finally offers you Cameo-Parkway recordings formally first on CD. In addition to cheerful and easy-going hits of Bobby Rydell, Dee Dee Sharp and so on, the set also contains various sides like 96 Tears of ? & The Mysterians or the original So Much in Love performed by The Tymes. As for Chubby Checker, the set also contains his tunes including The Class, where he mimics Fats Domino, The Coasters and Elvis in the situation of singing Mary Had a Little Lamb as a homework. When you listen to them, you can find K-Tel recordings had tried to reproduce Cameo-Parkway ones not only in the arrangements but in the deliveries. Such efforts themselves are pathetically sincere. As in the near future Chubby Checker's Cameo-Parkway compilation will be released, I am looking forward to seeing it.
And then, you can have it! On his "1959-1963" for the first time I hear smells-like-junk-spirit songs such as Toot, which reminds me of the Royal Teens' Short Shorts or Surf Party, which makes me weep with the idea of combining Beach Boys and the Twist. In spite of his folk tunes like Hooka Tooka, Loddy Lo or Hey, Bubba Needle, finally Chubby Checker means 'Twist'. The stuffs written in the liner notes such as 'Twist doll', 'Twist jewelry', 'Twist shoes' or 'Twist dance kit'. What kind of goods were they? This stirs my interest. (2004/07/19)(2005/08/07)(2005/11/13)