Chubby Checker Gets Stoned In the Bathroom
In the summer of 1960, Chubby Checker’s influence loomed enormous.
That year, Chubby recorded his version of “The Twist”—originally by R&B legend Hank Ballard.
Born in South Carolina and raised in South Philly, Chubby’s first taste of success was nothing less than a Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper.
But “The Twist” was more than a smash single. It was the first and greatest hit of the dance craze era. The Watusi, the Jerk, the Alligator, the Bristol Stomp, the Alligator, the Monkey….all were on the near horizon.
The dance craze played an important and underappreciated part in taking rock and roll mainstream. During the brief historical gap between Elvis and the Beatles, dance crazes regularly ‘swept the nation,’ as was the parlance of the time.
Artists now long forgotten (like the Orlons, the Dovells, and Major Lance) would launch from urban nightclubs to the top of the charts, seemingly overnight. The early sixties are often thought of as a rock and roll deadzone—a fallow period dominated by slick teen idols, and sandwiched unfavorably between the artistically fertile Golden Age and British Invasion.
But it was arguably this period that delivered rock and roll to dancefloor dominance. And there has never been a dance as dominant as “The Twist”.
Chubby launched the twist craze and a thousand imitators, not least of all, his own reiteration with 1961’s summer smash “Let’s Twist Again”, which reached #8 on the Hot 100 and earned Chubby and Grammy.
Then, once again in January of 1962, Chubby rereleased “The Twist”, and once again rose to the #1 spot on the charts.
Chubby was also responsible for popularizing The Pony, The Fly and The Limbo.
British Invasion and the Oldies Bargain Bin
With “The Twist”, Chubby lodged himself into the national consciousness. But like those precious summer nights in the waning days of August, the Age of the Dance Craze was not long for this world.
By the mid-‘60s, the Beatles and Bob Dylan had re-written the rules.
Rock music became a more sophisticated and experimental medium. By the Summer of Love, the dance craze was a relic. Hit-makers like Chubby watched as post-Revolver full-length platters crashed their jukebox world.
The 45 was out. The LP was in.
By 1971, Checker’s days as a chart-topper were behind him. So he did what a lot of smart people might do. He went to Amsterdam, got super high, and made a psychedelic soul record.
Let’s Get Twisted Again
Never officially released in the United States, Chequered! follows in the tradition of such famously unsuccessful psych-reinventions as Muddy Waters’ Electric Mud. This full-length disc pairs the Twist King with heavy, fuzz-laden rock arrangements and Band of Gypsies-styled power-soul.
The material and the singing are a dramatic departure for Chubby. His voice is actually borderline unrecognizable when held up against “Limbo Rock.”
The material is also a million miles away from the high school dance fare that made him famous. Tunes like “Slow Lovin’”, “No Need To Get So Heavy,” and “Stoned in the Bathroom,” aimed at an increasingly adult rock audience.
Ironically, Chubby’s effort at updating his sound was itself a step behind. By 1971, psychedelic music was already a dying breed.
Frustration over the ongoing misery of the Vietnam War and a devastating string of high-profile rock and roll overdoses gave prelude to the great rural comedown of the early ‘70s. From Dylan to the Dead, the Byrds to the Beach Boys, the great LSD warriors of the 60s moved out to the country and embraced the earthly strains of Americana.
Chequered! never saw the light of day. Its reputation would grow instead only as curiosity and bootleg. To listen to it now, I wouldn’t necessarily make the argument that its non-release was a great crime against history.
Worth Chequing Out
I would, however, suggest that unique and sometimes excellent performances have been lost in the shuffle. In spite of a band that lacks character and a concept that could be interpreted as pandering, Chubby’s vocal prowess actually keeps the whole thing afloat.
On “Goodbye Victoria,” Chubby’s layered singing places him somewhere in space between Funkadelic and Buddy Miles. He leads into “Gypsy” with a gutbucket scat and follows with a persuasively howling blues workout. The ballad “If The Sun Stops Shining,” is actually downright gorgeous. In short, Chubby proves himself a soulful singer and one capable of far greater range than perhaps his dance craze hits ever really hint at.
It’s no mystery why Chequered! wasn’t released in 1971. It would most certainly have been a commercial failure and probably even an embarrassing misfire. No good could have come from it at the time.
Happy Days
Fortunately for Chubby, the ‘70s and the disco era would revitalize interest in both the dance craze and nostalgia acts. A resurgence of interest in “oldies” permanently reurned Chubby Checker to visibility, establishing him as a vital legacy act.
In spite of his one false attempt at reinvention, time has proven Chubby’s most popular contributions to be his most important. As for Chequered!, it was ultimately released from limbo through historical reissue in 2012.
Now readily available for your consumption, it’s a record that sounds better today than it ever could have in its time and place. Today, removed from its original commercial context, this is a fascinaing and revealing artifact.
A footnote to be certain, it’s still worth listening to now. Chubby is rightly remembered for “The Twist,” but he should also be recognized as the bold and soulful singer heard on Chequered!