What Is Chubby Checker's Net Worth?
Chubby Checker is an American singer and dancer who has a net worth of $4 million. Chubby Checker is widely known for popularizing many dance styles, including the Twist and the pony style dance, with his songs "The Twist" and "Pony Time." "The Twist" was named the biggest chart hit of all time by "Billboard" magazine in 2008. Checker was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2014.
Early Life
Chubby Checker was born Earnest Evans on October 3, 1941, in Spring Gully, South Carolina. He was raised by his parents, Raymond and Eartle Evans, in the projects of South Philadelphia with his two brothers. Checker was musically inclined from a young age. At age 11, he formed a street-corner harmony group and by the time he began high school, he had learned to play the piano after having taken lessons at Settlement Music School. Chubby also was proficient in performing vocal impressions of artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Fats Domino and would often perform these impressions for classmates.
Checker worked a number of jobs and would often perform for customers as well. He worked at Fresh Farm Poultry in the Italian Market and at the Produce Market in Philadelphia and would often sing and do impressions for shoppers. It was there that he earned the nickname "Chubby" from his boss. The owner of the Fresh Farm Poultry was so impressed with Checker's impressions that he arranged for him to do a private recording for "American Bandstand" host Dick Clark. At the recording session, it was Clark's wife who gave Checker the idea for his full stage name, Chubby Checker, after Checker had done an impression of Fats Domino. Given that "fats" and "chubby" are related as words, Clark suggested "checker" as it relates to "domino" as both are tabletop games. From then on, he went by Chubby Checker.
(Photo by Bill McCay/Getty Images)
Career
In December 1958, Checker privately recorded a novelty single for Clark in which the singer portrayed a school teacher with an unruly classroom of musical performers. Given the premise, Chubby was able to imitate such acts as Fats Domino, The Coasters, Elvis Presley, Cozy Cole, and The Chipmunks. Clark sent the song out as his Christmas greeting, and it was so well-received that Cameo-Parkway signed Checker to a recording contract. The song Checker had recorded for Clark was then titled "The Class" and released as Checker's first single in 1959.
In 1960, Checker recorded his version of "The Twist." The song went to the top of the "Billboard" Hot 100 in 1960 and again in 1961. The first time it topped the charts was because of Checker's large number of teenage fans. It charted again in 1961 after older audiences saw Chubby perform the song live on "The Ed Sullivan Show." "The Twist" had been originally recorded in 1959 by its author, Hank Ballard. However, it did not do nearly as well as Checker's version. Initially, Chubby was a bit overwhelmed with the success of the song, as he thought it would destroy his chances of being taken seriously as having talent. However, he soon followed up the single with more tracks that were also successful.
Checker had success with a succession of up-tempo dance tracks like "The Huckleback," "The Fly," "Dance the Mess Around," and "Pony Time." "Pony Time" became his second #1 single. In 1962, he released "Let's Twist Again." The song won the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Rock and Roll Recording. The same year, he released a duet with Dee Dee Sharp called "Slow Twistin'," which reached the third spot on the national charts. Some of his other hits throughout the mid-1960s include "Dancin' Party," "Popeye the Hitchhiker," "Twenty Miles," "Birdland," "Loddy Lo," and "Jingle Bell Rock."
(Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images)
Checker continued having top 40 hits until his last, "Let's Do the Freddie," in 1965. Changes in public taste, due primarily to the British Invasion and the counterculture era, essentially brought an end to his hit-making career. For much of the rest of the 1960s, Checker toured and recorded in Europe.
Beginning in the 1970s, Checker experienced a brief resurgence in his career after he rebranded himself as a disco artist. He also continued to be a superstar in Europe. In 1971, he recorded a psychedelic album that was initially only released in Europe. The songs were all written by Chubby and produced by former Jimi Hendrix producer Ed Chalpin. The album, unfortunately, flopped.
Over the next decades, Checker continued touring and rerecorded much of his earlier material to rerelease. He had a single take the top spot on the "Billboard" dance charts in July 2008 with "Knock Down the Walls." His most recent single is the 2013 track "Changes," which he performed on NBC's "Today" show. The same year, he received the prestigious Sandy Hosey Lifetime Achievement Award from the Artists Music Guild. In 2014, he was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
Personal Life & Real Estate
In December 1963, Checker proposed to Catharina Lodders, a 21-year-old Dutch model who had been Miss World 1962. The two had met in Manila the prior January. They were married in April 1964 at Temple Lutheran Church in Pennsauken, New Jersey. They had their first child, Bianca Evans, in December 1966. They later had two other children – Ilka and Shan. Later, Chubby fathered a child with Pamela Bass. Their daughter, Mistie Bass, went on to become a professional basketball player.
For several decades, Chubby's home has been a 4,000-square-foot estate set on over 11 acres in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Today, the estate is worth around $1.5 million.
