Tom Jones and Chubby Checker have little in common beyond their status as pop music legends, road warriors (both play more than 200 shows a year) and, along with Nancy Sinatra, the hottest old-school acts performing in Southern California on New Year's Eve.
A thousand fans will be swinging their hips, party favors and wine glasses to Jones' "Delilah" at the House of Blues tonight, while a different crowd will be twisting to Checker and his group, the Wildcats, at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. These shows are like festive party hats on the singers' career achievements.
Jones, 58, first hit big in 1965 with "It's Not Unusual," and overnight he went from playing pubs in his native South Wales to performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Since then he has delivered more than 50 albums, hung with Elvis, released dozens of hit singles and is worshiped by both over-50 fans and a whole new audience of Gen-Xers.
Checker, born Ernest Evans in 1941, became a phenomenon in 1960 after performing "The Twist" on "American Bandstand," and is largely responsible for the way we dance to music today--couples dancing apart to music with a beat. He has been entertaining audiences with that breakthrough song and dance ever since.
The L.A.-based Jones and Philadelphia's Checker discussed the aspects of New Year's Eve, their past successes and their career expectations for the new millennium.
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Question: Is a performance on New Year's Eve any different to you from one of your regular gigs?
Checker: I've played at least 38 [New Year's Eve] shows, and it's no different to me. I have this philosophy that every day is a new holiday. I'm the kind of guy that celebrates every day. I don't believe in holidays, they mean nothing to me. People are always asking, "Why are you so happy? What's the occasion?" and I say, "I'm just happy, leave me alone." New Year's is another day. By the time you get to Jan. 7, you forget the new year. The bills keep coming, you're trying to get skinny. . . . Life goes on.
Jones: This show at the House of Blues is actually the first pre-planned New Year's show I'm gonna do, so really, I can't say. But I'll also be on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" and England's "Jules Holland Show." That's the beauty of pre-recording. You can be in two places--no, three [laughs]--at once.
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Q: What would you normally do on New Year's Eve?
