Shake, Rattle and Roll
Encyclopedia
"Shake, Rattle and Roll" is a prototypical twelve bar blues
-form rock and roll
song, written in 1954 by Jesse Stone
under his assumed songwriting name Charles E. Calhoun. It was originally recorded by Big Joe Turner
, and most successfully by Bill Haley & His Comets
. The song as sung by Big Joe Turner is ranked #126 on the Rolling Stone
magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
of Atlantic Records
suggested to Stone that he write an up-tempo blues for Big Joe Turner
, a blues shouter
whose career had begun in Kansas City
before World War II
. Stone played around with various phrases before coming up with "shake, rattle and roll".
However, the phrase had been used in earlier songs. In 1919, Al Bernard
recorded a song about gambling with dice
with the same title, clearly evoking the action of shooting dice from a cup. The phrase is also heard in "Roll The Bones" by the Excelsior Quartette in 1922.
Stone stated that the line about "a one-eyed cat peepin' in a seafood store" was suggested to him by Atlantic session
drummer Sam "Baby" Lovett.
on February 15, 1954. The shouting chorus
on his version consisted of Jesse Stone, and record label
executives Jerry Wexler
and Ahmet Ertegün
. The saxophone
solo was by Sam "The Man" Taylor
. Turner's recording was released in April 1954, reached #1 on the US
Billboard
R&B
chart
on June 12, did not move for three weeks, and peaked at #22, nearly at the same time, on the Billboard pop chart (subsequently billed as the Billboard Hot 100
).
The song, in its original incarnation, is highly sexual. Perhaps its most salacious lyric, which was absent from the later Bill Haley
rendition, is "I've been holdin' it in, way down underneath / You make me roll my eyes, baby, make me grit my teeth". [It may actually be "Over the hill, way down underneath.] On the recording, Turner slurred the lyric "holdin' it in", since this line may have been considered too risqué for publication. The chorus uses "shake, rattle and roll" to refer to boisterous intercourse, in the same way that the words "rock and roll" was first used by numerous rhythm and blues
singers, starting with Trixie Smith
's "My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)" in 1922, and continuing on prominently through the 1940s and 1950s.
' cover version
of the song, recorded on July 7, 1954 (three weeks after Turner's version first topped the R&B charts), featured the following members of the Comets: Johnny Grande
(piano), Billy Williamson (steel guitar), Marshall Lytle
(bass), and Joey Ambrose (saxophone). It is known that Danny Cedrone
, a session musician who frequently worked for Haley, played lead guitar, but there is controversy over who played drums. Music reference books indicate that it was Panama Francis, a noted jazz drummer who worked with Haley's producer, Milt Gabler
, however in a letter written in the early 1980s, Gabler denied this and said the drummer was Billy Gussak
. Bill Haley's own stage drummer, Dick Richards, did not play on this record but may have provided backing vocals
since he participated in the recording of the song's B-side
, "A.B.C. Boogie". This was Cedrone's final recording session as he died only ten days later.
Haley's version was released in August, 21 and reached #7 on the Billboard
pop chart, spending a total of twenty-seven weeks in the Top 40
Gabler has explained that he would "clean up" lyrics because, "I didn't want any censor with the radio station to bar the record from being played on the air. With NBC a lot of race records wouldn't get played because of the lyrics. So I had to watch that closely"
and rhythm and blues
. Haley had started his career in country music
while Turner was a blues shouter
.
Comparing the two versions illustrates the differences between blues and rock 'n' roll. A simple, stark instrumental backing is heard on the Turner version. Where the Turner version uses a walking bass line, the Comets version, produced by Milt Gabler of Decca Records, features an energetic slap bass. A subdued horn arrangement in the Turner recording can be contrasted with a honking sax riff that answers each line of verse, and the entire band shouts "Go!" as part of the vocal backing.
Although musical revisionists and American media tried to paint Turner as a victim of the music industry due to Haley's covering of the song, in fact Haley's success helped Turner immensely although Turner was a well-established performer long before "Shake Rattle and Roll". Listeners who hear Haley's version sought out Turner's. The two men became close friends, and performed on tour together in Australia
in 1957. In 1966, at a time when Turner's career was at a low ebb, Haley arranged for his Comets to back the elder musician for a series of recordings in Mexico
, although apparently Haley and Turner did not record a duet version of "Shake Rattle and Roll".
Haley acknowledged Turner's version in later years by incorporating more of the original lyrics into his live performances, including adding the verse with the lines "I've been over the hill and I've been way down underneath" which was omitted from Haley's original recording, when he recorded the song for Stuart Colman
's BBC Radio program in October 1979. When he performed the song at the Bitter End
club in New York City in 1969 for his Buddah Records
album release Bill Haley's Scrapbook, Haley changed Turner's "I believe to my soul you're the devil in nylon hose" to "I believe you've been doin' me wrong and now I know". Both Turner's and Haley's versions contain the double entendre
"I'm like a one-eyed cat
peepin' in a seafood store
."
Both versions sold over one million copies, marking "Shake Rattle and Roll" the first giant rock'n'roll hit.
tenure (which was not released until the 1990s), and as a 1956 single for RCA Victor, although it was not a major hit. Both versions by Elvis used Turner's original lyrics combined with a faster-paced version of Haley's arrangement.
Introduced by Cleveland disc jockey, Bill Randle
, Presley, Scotty, Bill, and DJ performed the song on the January 28, 1956 broadcast of the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. Elvis recorded the song with these same musicians. Bill and Scotty had played with Elvis from his first professional sessions at Sun Studios. DJ joined the group late in 1954. These personnel performed and recorded with Elvis throughout 1955 and 1956. The song was released on September 8, 1956. Elvis sang lead vocal, and played rhythm guitar. Scotty Moore
played lead guitar. Bill Black
played stand-up bass. And D.J. Fontana provided percussion. Scotty, Bill and DJ also provide vocals for the chorus, as can be seen clearly in the recordings of the broadcast, rather than the Jordanaires, who began working with Elvis after he left Sun for RCA, but months after the Dorsey Brothers performance. DJ is on record saying "That's the first and last time he let us sing. I can't blame him for that."
" which was musically very similar to "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and followed the same simple verse-chorus form. Presley performed "Shake Rattle and Roll" on television as part of a medley with "Flip, Flop and Fly". Both Joe Turner (who co-wrote the song) and Bill Haley recorded this song in several versions. Other songs inspired by "Shake, Rattle and Roll" include "Bark, Battle and Ball" by The Platters
. Others in the same family include "Jump and Jive and Wail" by Louis Prima
and "Rock This Town
" by the Stray Cats
, a US and UK top 10 hit single in the 1980s. Stone/Calhoun is also credited as the writer of "Rattle My Bones", a 1956 recording by The Jodimars
(made up of former members of the Comets), that used a similar verse structure and a chorus that went, "We're gonna rattle, gonna shake, gonna rattle, gonna shake". Count Basie and Joe Williams recorded versions, the latter's was released in 1959.
Other notable recordings of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" include a version by Arthur Conley
which was a hit in 1968, as well as cover versions of Turner's and Haley's arrangements by The Beatles
, Sam Cooke
, Willy DeVille
, Johnny Horton
, The Swinging Blue Jeans
, Fats Domino
, Jerry Lee Lewis
, NRBQ
, Huey Lewis and the News
, Doc Watson
. An alternate recording of Bill Haley's version was also used as the closing theme music for the 1985 comedy film Clue
. The song was also performed by the Ray Ellington
Quartet in the episode 1985 (a parody
of George Orwell
's 1984
) of the popular BBC
radio comedy
series, The Goon Show
. Sam Cooke recorded a fine, clear version of the song.
Academy Award nominated animated short Disney musical film
, A Symposium on Popular Songs
, paid homage, with the song "Rock, Rumble and Roar" written by Robert & Richard Sherman.
Twelve bar blues
The 12-bar blues is one of the most popular chord progressions in popular music, including the blues. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics and phrase and chord structure and duration...
-form rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
song, written in 1954 by Jesse Stone
Jesse Stone
Jesse Stone was an American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres...
under his assumed songwriting name Charles E. Calhoun. It was originally recorded by Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...
, and most successfully by Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of...
. The song as sung by Big Joe Turner is ranked #126 on the Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Origins of the song
In early 1954, Herb AbramsonHerb Abramson
Herbert C. Abramson was an American record company executive and producer.He was born in 1916 in Brooklyn, New York City and initially studied to be a dentist but he landed a job with National Records producing such performers as The Ravens, Billy Eckstine and Joe Turner...
of Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
suggested to Stone that he write an up-tempo blues for Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...
, a blues shouter
Blues shouter
A blues shouter is a blues singer, often male, capable of singing with a band. The singer must project, or "shout", to be heard over the drums and musical instruments of the band. Blues shouting was a major pathway by which jazz music edged over into rock and roll...
whose career had begun in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Stone played around with various phrases before coming up with "shake, rattle and roll".
However, the phrase had been used in earlier songs. In 1919, Al Bernard
Al Bernard
Alfred A. Bernard was an American vaudeville singer, known as "The Boy From Dixie", who was most popular during the 1910s through early 1930s.-Life:...
recorded a song about gambling with dice
Dice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
with the same title, clearly evoking the action of shooting dice from a cup. The phrase is also heard in "Roll The Bones" by the Excelsior Quartette in 1922.
Stone stated that the line about "a one-eyed cat peepin' in a seafood store" was suggested to him by Atlantic session
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
drummer Sam "Baby" Lovett.
Original recording by Big Joe Turner
Turner's version was recorded in New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on February 15, 1954. The shouting chorus
Uncredited background singer
Uncredited background vocals are common in popular music, even when the unnamed performer adds significantly to the performance. It is uncommon for background singers to be credited. Usually credit is withheld so as to highlight the performance of the lead artist and sometimes the extra singer...
on his version consisted of Jesse Stone, and record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
executives Jerry Wexler
Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
and Ahmet Ertegün
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
. The saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
solo was by Sam "The Man" Taylor
Sam Taylor (jazz)
Sam Taylor best known as the tenor saxophonist Sam "The Man" Taylor, was an American jazz and blues player, whose honking style set the standard for tenor sax solos in both rock and roll and rhythm and blues....
. Turner's recording was released in April 1954, reached #1 on the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
R&B
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
on June 12, did not move for three weeks, and peaked at #22, nearly at the same time, on the Billboard pop chart (subsequently billed as the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
).
The song, in its original incarnation, is highly sexual. Perhaps its most salacious lyric, which was absent from the later Bill Haley
Bill Haley
Bill Haley was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".-Early life and career:...
rendition, is "I've been holdin' it in, way down underneath / You make me roll my eyes, baby, make me grit my teeth". [It may actually be "Over the hill, way down underneath.] On the recording, Turner slurred the lyric "holdin' it in", since this line may have been considered too risqué for publication. The chorus uses "shake, rattle and roll" to refer to boisterous intercourse, in the same way that the words "rock and roll" was first used by numerous rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
singers, starting with Trixie Smith
Trixie Smith
Trixie Smith was an African American blues singer, recording artist, vaudeville entertainer, and actress. She made four dozen recordings.-Biography:...
's "My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)" in 1922, and continuing on prominently through the 1940s and 1950s.
Bill Haley's version
Bill Haley & His CometsBill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of...
' cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the song, recorded on July 7, 1954 (three weeks after Turner's version first topped the R&B charts), featured the following members of the Comets: Johnny Grande
Johnny Grande
John A. Grande , better known as Johnny Grande, was a member of Bill Haley's backing band, The Comets.-Life and Career:...
(piano), Billy Williamson (steel guitar), Marshall Lytle
Marshall Lytle
Marshall Lytle , who also goes by the name Tommy Page, is an American rock and roll musician, best known for his work with the groups Bill Haley & His Comets and The Jodimars in the 1950s.-Career:...
(bass), and Joey Ambrose (saxophone). It is known that Danny Cedrone
Danny Cedrone
Danny Cedrone was an American guitarist and bandleader, best known for his work with Bill Haley & His Comets on their epochal "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954.-Biography:...
, a session musician who frequently worked for Haley, played lead guitar, but there is controversy over who played drums. Music reference books indicate that it was Panama Francis, a noted jazz drummer who worked with Haley's producer, Milt Gabler
Milt Gabler
Milton Gabler was an American record producer, responsible for many innovations in the recording industry of the 20th century.-Early life:...
, however in a letter written in the early 1980s, Gabler denied this and said the drummer was Billy Gussak
Billy Gussak
William "Billy" Gussak was an American jazz and recording session drummer, best known for being the drummer on the classic 12 April 1954 recording of "Rock Around The Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets...
. Bill Haley's own stage drummer, Dick Richards, did not play on this record but may have provided backing vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
since he participated in the recording of the song's B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
, "A.B.C. Boogie". This was Cedrone's final recording session as he died only ten days later.
Haley's version was released in August, 21 and reached #7 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
pop chart, spending a total of twenty-seven weeks in the Top 40
Gabler has explained that he would "clean up" lyrics because, "I didn't want any censor with the radio station to bar the record from being played on the air. With NBC a lot of race records wouldn't get played because of the lyrics. So I had to watch that closely"
Comparison of the Joe Turner and Bill Haley versions
Both recordings are considered classics. Haley's version is peppier and brighter. It fits the definition of rock and roll as a merger of country musicCountry music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
. Haley had started his career in country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
while Turner was a blues shouter
Blues shouter
A blues shouter is a blues singer, often male, capable of singing with a band. The singer must project, or "shout", to be heard over the drums and musical instruments of the band. Blues shouting was a major pathway by which jazz music edged over into rock and roll...
.
Comparing the two versions illustrates the differences between blues and rock 'n' roll. A simple, stark instrumental backing is heard on the Turner version. Where the Turner version uses a walking bass line, the Comets version, produced by Milt Gabler of Decca Records, features an energetic slap bass. A subdued horn arrangement in the Turner recording can be contrasted with a honking sax riff that answers each line of verse, and the entire band shouts "Go!" as part of the vocal backing.
Although musical revisionists and American media tried to paint Turner as a victim of the music industry due to Haley's covering of the song, in fact Haley's success helped Turner immensely although Turner was a well-established performer long before "Shake Rattle and Roll". Listeners who hear Haley's version sought out Turner's. The two men became close friends, and performed on tour together in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1957. In 1966, at a time when Turner's career was at a low ebb, Haley arranged for his Comets to back the elder musician for a series of recordings in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, although apparently Haley and Turner did not record a duet version of "Shake Rattle and Roll".
Haley acknowledged Turner's version in later years by incorporating more of the original lyrics into his live performances, including adding the verse with the lines "I've been over the hill and I've been way down underneath" which was omitted from Haley's original recording, when he recorded the song for Stuart Colman
Stuart Colman
Stuart Colman into a well-known musical family, took up piano and bass guitar, and enjoyed his first taste of success when he joined Pinkerton's Assorted Colours in 1966. Three years later, the group evolved into The Flying Machine and their first single under that name, "Smile A Little Smile For...
's BBC Radio program in October 1979. When he performed the song at the Bitter End
Bitter End
Bitter End was the second single released off 'Love/Hate' on 8 October 2007 by Manchester band Nine Black Alps.-Song:The song shows a very different side to Nine Black Alps...
club in New York City in 1969 for his Buddah Records
Buddah Records
Buddah Records was founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's founding...
album release Bill Haley's Scrapbook, Haley changed Turner's "I believe to my soul you're the devil in nylon hose" to "I believe you've been doin' me wrong and now I know". Both Turner's and Haley's versions contain the double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
"I'm like a one-eyed cat
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
peepin' in a seafood store
Vagina
The vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...
."
Both versions sold over one million copies, marking "Shake Rattle and Roll" the first giant rock'n'roll hit.
Elvis Presley versions
Elvis Presley recorded the song twice in a studio setting: a 1955 demo recorded during his Sun RecordsSun Records
Sun Records is a record label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, starting operations on March 27, 1952.Founded by Sam Phillips, Sun Records was known for giving notable musicians such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash...
tenure (which was not released until the 1990s), and as a 1956 single for RCA Victor, although it was not a major hit. Both versions by Elvis used Turner's original lyrics combined with a faster-paced version of Haley's arrangement.
Introduced by Cleveland disc jockey, Bill Randle
Bill Randle
Bill Randle was an American disc jockey, lawyer and university professor.He was born William McKinley Randle Jr. in Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit, he hosted a popular show on WJLB-AM radio called The Interracial Goodwill Hour, featuring rhythm and blues music and hot jazz...
, Presley, Scotty, Bill, and DJ performed the song on the January 28, 1956 broadcast of the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. Elvis recorded the song with these same musicians. Bill and Scotty had played with Elvis from his first professional sessions at Sun Studios. DJ joined the group late in 1954. These personnel performed and recorded with Elvis throughout 1955 and 1956. The song was released on September 8, 1956. Elvis sang lead vocal, and played rhythm guitar. Scotty Moore
Scotty Moore
Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III is an American guitarist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years...
played lead guitar. Bill Black
Bill Black
William Patton "Bill" Black, Jr. was an American musician who is noted as one of the pioneers of rockabilly music. Black was the bassist in Elvis Presley's early trio and the leader of Bill Black's Combo....
played stand-up bass. And D.J. Fontana provided percussion. Scotty, Bill and DJ also provide vocals for the chorus, as can be seen clearly in the recordings of the broadcast, rather than the Jordanaires, who began working with Elvis after he left Sun for RCA, but months after the Dorsey Brothers performance. DJ is on record saying "That's the first and last time he let us sing. I can't blame him for that."
Elvis Presley singles chronology
- Last single = "Money Honey" (1956)
- This single = "Shake, Rattle and Roll" (1956)
- Next single = "Love Me TenderLove Me Tender (song)"Love Me Tender" is a song recorded by Elvis Presley and published by Elvis Presley Music, adapted from the tune of "Aura Lee" , a sentimental Civil War ballad.- History :...
" (1956)
Other versions
Stone (as Calhoun) later co-wrote "Flip, Flop and FlyFlip, Flop and Fly
"Flip, Flop and Fly" is a jump blues-style song recorded by Big Joe Turner in 1955. Called a "prototypical rocker", the song was a hit reaching number two in Billboard magazine's R&B chart...
" which was musically very similar to "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and followed the same simple verse-chorus form. Presley performed "Shake Rattle and Roll" on television as part of a medley with "Flip, Flop and Fly". Both Joe Turner (who co-wrote the song) and Bill Haley recorded this song in several versions. Other songs inspired by "Shake, Rattle and Roll" include "Bark, Battle and Ball" by The Platters
The Platters
The Platters were a vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre...
. Others in the same family include "Jump and Jive and Wail" by Louis Prima
Louis Prima
Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...
and "Rock This Town
Rock This Town
"Rock This Town" is a song by the Stray Cats from their UK debut album Stray Cats. Its first U.S. release was on the 1982 album Built for Speed. It peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982, becoming the first of the band's three top ten hits in the U.S...
" by the Stray Cats
Stray Cats
Stray Cats are an American Rockabilly band formed in 1980 by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer , upright bassist Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia and the U.S...
, a US and UK top 10 hit single in the 1980s. Stone/Calhoun is also credited as the writer of "Rattle My Bones", a 1956 recording by The Jodimars
The Jodimars
The Jodimars was an American rock and roll band that was formed in the summer of 1955 and remained active until 1958. The band was created by former members of Bill Haley & His Comets who had quit that group in a salary dispute...
(made up of former members of the Comets), that used a similar verse structure and a chorus that went, "We're gonna rattle, gonna shake, gonna rattle, gonna shake". Count Basie and Joe Williams recorded versions, the latter's was released in 1959.
Other notable recordings of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" include a version by Arthur Conley
Arthur Conley
Arthur Lee Conley was an American soul singer, best known for the 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music".-Career:...
which was a hit in 1968, as well as cover versions of Turner's and Haley's arrangements by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
, Willy DeVille
Willy DeVille
Willy DeVille was an American singer and songwriter. During his thirty-five year career, first with his band Mink DeVille and later on his own, Deville created original songs rooted in traditional American musical styles. He worked with collaborators from across the spectrum of contemporary...
, Johnny Horton
Johnny Horton
John Gale "Johnny" Horton was an American country music and rockabilly singer most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs" which began the "historical ballad" craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s...
, The Swinging Blue Jeans
The Swinging Blue Jeans
The Swinging Blue Jeans were a four piece 1960s British Merseybeat band, best known for their hit singles with the HMV label; "Hippy Hippy Shake", the follow-up, Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly", and "You're No Good", a Clint Ballard song that provided a change of pace and furnished the...
, Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
, Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
, NRBQ
NRBQ
NRBQ is an American rock band founded in 1967. It is known for its live performances, containing a high degree of spontaneity and levity, and blending rock, pop, jazz, blues and Tin Pan Alley styles. Its best known line-up is the 1974–1994 quartet of pianist Terry Adams, bassist Joey Spampinato,...
, Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts...
, Doc Watson
Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...
. An alternate recording of Bill Haley's version was also used as the closing theme music for the 1985 comedy film Clue
Clue (film)
Clue is a 1985 comedy mystery film based on the board game of the same name . The film is a murder mystery set in a Gothic Revival mansion, and is styled after Murder by Death and other various murder/dinner parties of mystery...
. The song was also performed by the Ray Ellington
Ray Ellington
Ray Ellington was a popular English singer, drummer and bandleader. He is best known for his appearances on The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960...
Quartet in the episode 1985 (a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's 1984
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
) of the popular BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio comedy
Radio comedy
Radio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve sitcom elements, sketches and various types of comedy found on other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be conveyed on a small budget with just a few sound effects or some...
series, The Goon Show
The Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
. Sam Cooke recorded a fine, clear version of the song.
Homage
The 19621962 in film
The year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May - The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards are officially founded by the Taiwanese government....
Academy Award nominated animated short Disney musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
, A Symposium on Popular Songs
A Symposium On Popular Songs
A Symposium on Popular Songs is a special cartoon featurette made by the Walt Disney Company in 1962. It features songs written by the Sherman Brothers with music arrangements by Tutti Camarata. The Shermans also co-wrote the screenplay but are not credited for this...
, paid homage, with the song "Rock, Rumble and Roar" written by Robert & Richard Sherman.