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Chubby Checker

(b. 1941) Chubby Checker changed the way Americans danced with his hit record “The Twist,” which took the country by storm in the early 1960’s, launching a dance fad that lasted years and crossed social and racial boundaries. Checker’s recording was actually a cover of a song by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, who had released it only a few months earlier. Their version was a modest success, but it was Checker, a Philadephia-based singer who recorded for the local Cameo-Parkway label, who took it to the top of the Billboard singles chart, after he appeared singing the song and dancing...