Let’s Twist Again: Chubby Checker will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

At long last, Chubby Checker is headed to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The South Philly-raised singer who scored a massive hit with “The Twist” — which topped the Billboard charts in 1960 and again in 1962 — is among the 2025 inductees to the Rock Hall announced Sunday night during the telecast of American Idol.

The 83-year-old Checker — born Ernest Evans in Spring Gully, S.C. — will be inducted into Cleveland’s Rock Hall in a ceremony in Los Angeles in November along with 1970s rock band Bad Company, English singer Joe Cocker, 1980s hitmaker Cyndi Lauper, Atlanta rap duo OutKast, Seattle grunge band Soundgarden, and 21st-century blues band the White Stripes.

Checker has been an outspoken advocate for his own induction. In 2001, he took out a full-page ad in Billboard saying, “I want my flowers when I’m alive. I can’t smell them when I’m dead.” He protested his exclusion from the Rock Hall at the induction ceremony in 2002. He was nominated for induction for the first time this year.

Checker is not the only Philadelphia honoree this year. Songwriter, producer, and arranger Thom Bell, a chief architect of what became known as the Sound of Philadelphia in the late 1960s and early 1970s — along with his partners Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff — will receive a Rock Hall Musical Excellence Award.

“I know there is a lot of joy in Philadelphia today with the news that Chubby Checker and Thom Bell have been selected for their well-deserved induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” said Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum president and CEO Greg Harris.

“Their music has impacted generations of artists and fans worldwide,” said Harris, a Bucks County native and Temple University grad. “Chubby got everyone moving freely on the dance floor and Thom touched our hearts with his soulful lyrics and arrangements. Congratulations!”

» READ MORE: Now’s the time to appreciate Philly soul great Thom Bell, one of ‘The Mighty Three’ alongside Gamble and Huff

Bell, who died in December 2022, is being honored in the category along with two other musicians. Carol Kaye is the nonagenarian bassist who played on over 10,000 recordings — from the Beach Boys to Frank Zappa to Frank Sinatra — with the Los Angeles studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. And Nicky Hopkins, who died in 1994, is a British pianist who played on many classic recordings with the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Who.

In 2008, Gamble and Huff were the first recipients of the Rock Hall’s Ahmet Ertegun Award, named after the Atlantic Record founder, which goes to a music industry nonperformer. This year’s honoree is Warner Bros. Records executive Lenny Waronker.

For many years, advocates for the late songwriter and pianist Warren Zevon have protested his absence from the Rock Hall. Zevon, who died in 2003, went unnominated again this year, but the “Werewolves of London” singer, who lived in Philadelphia for a time in the 1980s, will be honored with a Musical Influence Award, as will the New York rap trio Salt-N-Pepa, known for their hits “Push It” and “Whatta Man.”

Lauper is from Brooklyn but has deep Philadelphia connections. Her iconic feminist anthem “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was written by late Philly songwriter Robert Hazard (with added lyrics by Lauper) and “Time After Time” was penned with Rob Hyman of the Hooters.

Checker’s stage name was the idea of Barbara Clark, American Bandstand host Dick Clark’s wife, after she heard Evans do a Fats Domino impression as a teenager.

The argument for keeping him out of the Rock Hall over the years has been that his induction would largely be based on one song, which he did not write, or record, first.

It was written and originally cut by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, who had a Top 30 hit with it in 1959. It became a sensation, however, after Checker — who first performed it at the Rainbow Club in Wildwood in July 1960 — recorded it for Philly’s Parkway Records and gained exposure on the nationally televised Bandstand.

“The Twist” was unique and innovative among early rock and roll dance-craze songs in that it could be enjoyed as a solo experience, an invitation for listeners to dance by themselves, if need be. Anyone could swivel their hips and do “The Twist.” A partner was unnecessary.

Checker went on to have other hits, including “Pony Time,” “The Fly,” “Twistin’ U.S.A.,” and “Let’s Twist Again.” And Checker’s success with “The Twist” spawned knockoff hits such as Joey Dee and the Starliters’ 1961 “Peppermint Twist.”

Acts nominated this year that were not inducted included 1990s Southern rock band the Black Crowes; pop-R&B star and “Queen of Christmas” Mariah Carey; punk-turned-pop star Billy Idol; Joy Division & New Order, the 1980s post-punk Brits with shared membership; Mexican rock en español band Maná; brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis; and jam band quartet Phish.

Inductees are determined by the votes of 1,200 artists, historians, and music business professionals. Fans were also able to vote online, but the result of the hundreds of thousands of votes cast are counted as only the equivalent of one ballot among those 1,200. This year’s top vote-getter among fans was Phish, with Idol coming in third and Checker and OutKast in seventh and 12th, respectively.

This year’s Rock Hall Induction will be held on Nov. 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and stream on Disney+. To be eligible for induction, an artist or band must have released its first commercial recording at least 25 years prior to the year of nomination.