Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 07 Oct 06 - 09:04 AM

Yes, thanks, it would have been fun! Nowadays I occasionally take advantage of the dances held at the beautiful Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo [ark in Maryland, but it's not the same as when you were actually a young person...

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 05:50 PM

I remember all that Linda and I was up in Columbus. The few of the boys who could dance were in demand as at that age we were just discovering that girls were useful and fun to be with beyond just teasing. So as we prepared for our first "Gym Dances" and sock hops, some of us were giving lessons to friends in basements on how to jitterbug and/or atleast Cha-Cha and The Stroll. But we had the Watusi and Mashed Potato to teach too and it was a busy time. Somehow the move to Junior High had made lots of girly things acceptable...like dancing.

And The Twist arrived and was probably the biggest craze of the time and the simplest dance known to man.....or boy. What we were really wanting was more slow dances but we got Twist Contests instead.

You should have come to Columbus Linda. I'd have been happy NOT to do The Twist with you! (:<))

Spaw

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 05:21 PM

I'm NOT a fan of Chubby Checker. I had just completed two years of P.B. Myrick's Dancing School, every Sunday afternoon, in Cincinnati Ohio in 1960, and was ready to waltz, rumba, jitterbug, foxtrot, tango, cha cha, mambo, merengue etc with all the good-looking 12 year old boys at all the Bar Mitzvah parties just ready to begin. BOOM!! but The Twist came along and whoosh, all the other dances went completely away. --Linda

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 05:20 PM

Sorry if you were offended Guest. That's all. I don't apologize for the agenda I see here from the Piss&Moanmeister......and he is no different from "Chief of the Mudcat Editing Team." It's a title given someone.

I am perhaps the Royal Ignoble Piece of Hogshit Jackass of the Universe......Who cares?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 05:01 PM

I apologize Mick. You're innocent of the name calling. What bothers me is the way that you and Catspaw were doubling up to beat up Shambles at the beginning of the thread. He may deserve it in other threads but not in this one. Sometimes he really does try to fit in with everyone else. It was a pretty good idea to do these birthday threads. Much as it was a good idea a while back to do the threads on each calendar date.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 04:19 PM

I didn't do any namecalling, please re-read my posts.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 04:03 PM

It's funny how peoples minds play tricks! Chubby Checker did indeed instigate the " dancing apart" social dancing which has dominated popular dancing since 1962(!). Before that, jiving ( in the UK, at least ) was what would be seen at rock n' roll orientated dances. Interestingly, Chubby's first UK hit was " Twist again like we did last summer", but, in the UK, we never did Twist last summer! If you get my drift!

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 01:37 PM

Catspaw and Big Mick,

It's one thing to pick on Shambles when he is being a pedantic pest. In a thread such as this where he is trying to generate information on a subject and doesn't seem to have any agenda other then to learn about Chubby Checker it is disgraceful to start calling him names. All that both of you have done is add fuel to his fire. If you insist on namecalling then do it in a thread where he is repeating the same thing over and over again. Try to control yourself in a thread like this.

Frankly, your name calling should be edited out. Other posts have been deleted for far less of a reason. You are both among the hierarchy of Mudcat. Why not set a good example?

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 01:13 PM

Doin' the Twist at Wedding Discos kills me old knees these days. But it's FUN !!.
Belated Greetings Chubster.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 12:34 PM

AND.....There were a ton of dances prior to or concurrent with The Twist where partners never or rarely touched. The Hully Gully. The Watusi. The Jerk. The Fly. The Mashed Potato. These were all early sixties and even before that in the 50's the dances were mainly variants of jitterbug and lindy hop where there wasn't a lot of touching except for spinning and tossing...LOL.

Some other were line dances or other variants of the Cha-Cha or the ubiquitous Stroll. Chubby just had another dance that caught on big. Nothing remarkable or innovative..........

Spaw

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 12:25 PM

I wasn't.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: jacqui.c
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 12:24 PM

And we were dancing round our handbags well before the twist came (and went)

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 12:21 PM

I beg to differ with you. Partner holding on to partner is a relatively recent development in western dance. You don't have to go back very far to find almost complete seperation of the sexes in English/Western European dance.

Why do you think permission was required before young ladies could dance the waltz in public?

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 12:01 PM

I feel the signifigance of 'The Twist' as a dance and as cultural change is perhaps overshadowed by the later 'Disco' craze.

But this only built on the main inovation of 'The Twist' and all the later attempts to duplicate this success.

It was the birth of that totally embarrassing dance that 'dads' now do at all weddings.

For prior to 'The Twist' all western dancing was with partner holding on to their partner. The idea that you could Waltz all around the floor on your own - arms stretched out to an imaginary partner would have been thought absurd. You either found a partner (and worked at the steps at dance classes) or you were a 'wallflower' (or you just got drunk in the bar).

No - things were never to be the same again - after 'The Twist'.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 11:06 AM

Well Scrump, late in life I heard he put strings across his navel and passed the hat on street corners while he accompanied himself singing "Good Night Irene."

Spaw

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: Scrump
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 11:01 AM

To stick to the topic of the thread and answer the OP's question, I would say Chubby Checker didn't have much effect on my life.

He had a string of dance craze hits and will be best remembered for the Twist (biggest UK hit was Let's Twist Again), which caught on widely and spawned a number of related hits by other artists (including, indirectly, the Beatles who covered the Isleys' "Twist and Shout"). None of the Twist's dance craze successors (some of which were launched by Chubby - The Hucklebuck, Pony, etc.) was able to repeat its success. Apart from that brief spell of chart and dance hall success in the early 1960s, I'm not aware of anything else much about Chubby. Happy birthday to him anyway, but I can't see a lot of relevance of his output to folk music, unless I'm missing something.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 10:51 AM

Ya' know Mick, maybe he has a point with the name thing. Bitch is a bit strong and offensive. Let me opt for Mudcat Piss&Moanmeister instead.

Otherwise, I'm with you......Carry on!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 10:40 AM

I am going to assume that it is fine to hold you to the same standard that you want others to be held to.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 10:38 AM

http://www.chubbychecker.com/

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 10:31 AM

Answer the question. It is fair given the number of threads you have hijacked over the years.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 10:27 AM

Mick - What do you think of Chubby Checker?

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 10:18 AM

So, then you have turned a corner, Shambles, and believe that threads should not be hijacked from their original subject? That would mean that when a mod transfers/deletes a post for being off topic, you will support that?

Mick

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 10:03 AM

Where did Joe refer to himself as The Current Chief of the Mudcat Editing Team?

Perhaps we can leave this thread to its subject. Ask me in the following thread (where you can also list all of the offensive names that I have called you on our forum). Or if you prefer - you can ask the current Chief of the Mudcat Editing Team himself.

Deleted posts & closed threads

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 09:47 AM

Where did Joe refer to himself as The Current Chief of the Mudcat Editing Team?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 09:45 AM

I refer to the current Chief of the Mudcat Editing Team as that is his title and the title that he has described himself as.

If you can find an example of me referring to myself as The Mudcat Bitchmaster _ or any of the other offensive and insulting terms you dream up in posts - and if you can produce some examples of me referring to you with such names - you can call me that by that title.

Unless and until then I would request formally that you do not post to call me or any other poster names. Thank you.


It is difficult now to appreciate just how well-known Chubby Checker was during that 'twist' period. I always thought that he had a good voice.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 09:28 AM

What name calling????

It's the same thing as you do when you refer to the Current Chief of the Mudcat Editing Team. I was just trying to follow your example as you often ask us to do. Isn't that what you want?

BTW, Chubby had a long and "checkered" career but he was mainly a one-trick pony with "The Twist" and all of its sequels like "The Peppermint Twist. Just want to stay on topic like you do Mudcat Bitchmaster.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 09:21 AM

Perhaps it is a good idea to been seen to just to encourage either the posting of something about the thread's subject or to be seen to be ignoring the thread altogether? As this is possibly the best judgement of all.

We can all learn something from these contributions. I have found out many things about Eddie Cochran, Helen Shapiro, Freddie King and Meatloaf from these threads - other posters (who did not know) have found out from these threads who they are.

We learn nothing from posts that only express judgements on the thread's subjects or posts that make only uninformed speculations about the thread originator's possible motivations.

Posters have found out things in this thread about Catspaw's paranoia and his need to publicly speculate about and to call his fellow poster's names - but many knew that anyway.

I have found out very little about Chubby Checker and his affect on posters' lives - as yet.

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 09:02 AM

The Current Mudcat Bitchmaster is starting these things to further some point or another on his agenda. LOL.......Personally, I expect Yoko Ono to show up before it's all over!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: Scrump
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 08:59 AM

But then neither would the names of Eddie Cochran, Helen Shapiro or Meatloaf, to name a few recent examples :)

Are there any limits as to what type of musicians or singers can be discussed in this forum? It doesn't seem like it from what I can see. I guess if "folk music" can't be defined, then neither can "folk singers", so that makes it OK to include anyone!

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 08:51 AM

His wouldn't be the first name to spring to mind if most people were asked to name a folk singer!!

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday (3 Oct 1941)
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 04:48 AM

Why - is Chubby the wrong colour?

Subject: RE: Chubby Checker's Birthday
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 04:55 AM

I think you've got the wrong website.

Subject: Chubby Checker's Birthday
From: The Shambles
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 01:51 AM

Chubby Checker was born on this day (October 3rd) in 1941.