1960 chubby checker

Ballard should be dancing with joy. And in a stroke of good timing, Ballard is also one of the 30 finalists being considered for inclusion in the next group of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. But he could also be bitter. Though it caused a minor stir in the black market, it was nothing pop stations would have played in those days.

Born Ernest Evans on October 3, , 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. His workplace antics helped win an audition with the local Cameo-Parkway label, who signed the fledgling singer in ; 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. Checker'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. The single rocketed to number one during the autumn of , remaining on the charts for four months; some time after it dropped off, it slowly returned to prominence, and in late it hit number one again; the only record ever to enjoy two stays at the top more than a year apart. After "The Twist" first made Checker a superstar, he returned to the top in with "Do the Pony"; that same year, he also reached the Top Ten with "Let's Twist Again," which assured the dance's passage from novelty to institution. In total, Checker notched 32 chart hits before the bubble burst in ; as interest in dance novelties dwindled, he briefly turned to folk music, and became a regular on the nightclub circuit. From the s onward, he was a staple of oldies revival tours; in , more than a decade after his last studio LP, he signed with MCA and issued the disco-inspired The Change Has Come , scoring a pair of minor hits with the singles "Running" and "Harder Than Diamond.

Over six decades of the rock era, the infectious dance-craze hit remains the? It's also the only tune to ever hit No. But it's hard to overstate the song's significance at the time.

He moved to Philadelphia with his parents and two brothers and attended South Philadelphia High School. Evans aspired to become a performer from a young age and eventually caught a small break after graduating from high school making novelty records that were impressions of singers like Elvis Presley and Fats Domino. Barbara Clark is credited with giving young Evans his full stage name. When Barbara Clark met him he was working on his Fats Domino impression at the recording studio. It was a hit.