Clay Aiken tweeted Friday morning. Did you see it?
Changes – Single by Chubby Checker – Just heard this on the radio! THAT’S a LEGEND! 70 years old and still got it! itun.es/us/2NKXJ
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) June 7, 2013
Well, first I re-tweeted Clays tweet. It took all of 30 seconds and I know that re-tweet numbers are important.
But…then I slowed down and thought for a moment…Chubby Checker? …the twist guy? Why would I want to listen to him? However, I have learned that there is seldom a tweet from Clay that doesn’t lead me to opening my mind. So…off to iTunes. I listened to Chubby Checker’s new recording entitled “Changes.”
At first I thought maybe it was someone else singing the song. It was quite different from anything I’d heard Chubby Checker sing before.
But I quickly learned that the man who, back in the summer of 1960, created a dance craze with his hit song, The Twist, was performing “Changes”. Who knew that the man who had us all twisting the night away could sing this beautiful ballad?
Chubby Checker was born on October 3, 1941 in South Carolina. From biography.com:
“As a dance movement, “The Twist” revolutionized popular culture by giving couples the freedom to break apart on the dance floor. An appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand launched Checker’s version of “The Twist” to the No. 1 billboard spot in August 1961, where it remained on the charts for 18 straight weeks. In November of that year, it re-entered the charts again for a record-breaking 21 weeks. With this formidable achievement, “The Twist” became the first and only 45 single to ever appear in the No. 1 spot in two different years.”
Cindi Sansone is an inspirational blogger. She said:
“After hearing this song, most people seem to say, “It’s not what I would have expected from him.” And, yet, they are pleasantly surprised by the depth and maturity of the lyrics, and totally blown away by the sultry, I’ve been around the block a few times tone, in his still youthful sounding voice.
Chubby Checker knows, “the times they are a-changin,’” and we, too, must change along with them, or become in this digital age, a dinosaur sure to fall into extinction.”
There’ll be some changes
They’re long overdue
There’ll be some changes
Of what I’d need to do
There’ll be some changes, some changes.. in my life
Yeah, yeah, in my life
~
Summer 2013 will be here in 13 days. Maybe it’s time for Chubby Checker to have another summer hit. Please take a few minutes to listen to Chubby Checker’s new song. I think you will be pleasantly surprised!
So…thank you, Clay Aiken, for suggesting I listen to “Changes”. What a surprising twist. Besides listening to a lovely song, I was reminded of two important things:
- You are never too old to re-invent yourself!
- You’re never too old to put wow back in your life!