CAT FIGHT OVER `THE TWIST' DEVELOPING

CAT FIGHT OVER `THE TWIST' DEVELOPING

LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- Chubby Checker's recent declaration that he's decreed the next 40 months as "the Chubby Checker era" is drawing steam from the man who wrote the hit tune "The Twist." Musician and song writer Hank Ballard -- who first recorded "The Twist" two years before Checker in 1958 -- says Checker's claim that he created the Twist dance craze is ridiculous. According to Ballard, it only proves Checker "...has an ego bigger than James Brown and O.J. Simpson combined." Ballard's version did became a minor R&B hit, but "The Twist" didn't become a global smash until Checker's version was released in 1960 -- a point Checker says proves Ballard would have been forgotten if he hadn't done his own version. Meanwhile, Ballard claims that if Checker sincerely cares about history, he should admit that he didn't even learn the famous dance move until just minutes before his "American Bandstand" debut.