#inductchubbychecker

This combines bits from a couple of previous posts. I encourage you to visit Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Fan Vote and cast your ballot for Chubby Checker. You can vote once each day through April 21st.

The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame is a nice place to visit. But in terms of its relevance to the story (and history) of rock 'n' roll, people keep telling me it's unimportant, that I should ignore it, that its continuous chuckleheaded snubs of worthy acts are best shrugged off with extreme disdain. These folks are right.

And they're also wrong.

Yes, the Hall is irrelevant, bloated, a joke, a blight, and it probably has bad breath. None of that contradicts my conviction that, in all caps and in bold, ROCK 'N' ROLL SHOULD HONOR ITS OWN. That glorified Hard Rock Cafe on the banks of Lake Erie remains the best, highest-profile means to do that. They keep messing it up. I'm gonna keep on calling for them to get it right.

Right now, the Hall needs to finally get it right with Chubby Checker.

After the Monkees, Chubby Checker is likely my pick for the Hall's second-biggest snub to date. His 1960 hit "The Twist" is one of the most impactful singles of the rock 'n' roll roll era, and while it's good and proper that Hank Ballard and the Midnighters (who recorded the original version of "The Twist") are in the Hall, it was Chubby Checker's mass hit version that made history, broke barriers, changed the course of mighty rivers, bent steel in its bare hands, et cetera. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's wish to punish Chubby Checker for the mortal sin of not being Hank Ballard is brain-dead stupid. At long last, Chubby Checker has been nominated FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME [?!], and I pray he finally gets in this year.

(How seismic was Chubby Checker's "The Twist?" It is easily one of the all-time Top Five most impactful 45s, and you could make a case for it in the Top Three. "Heartbreak Hotel" by King Elvis I is # 1, and I don't consider that point subject to debate. Bill Haley and his Comets' "Rock Around The Clock" has to at least be in the discussion, just by virtue of being rock 'n' roll's first # 1 hit. And Beatlemania, of course, with either "She Loves You" in the UK or "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in America. Elvis, Beatles, Bill Haley, Chubby Checker. I think those are the four, and I don't even have a ready candidate for a fifth 45 (though it would probably be a hip-hop record). Impact. That's all I'm talking about here. There are records I like even more than I like these, but I can't think of any other picks that could rival their importance and effect upon the rock and pop world.)

#inductchubbychecker It's time. Come on baby; let's do this.

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