Shake, Rattle and Roll

"Shake, Rattle and Roll" is a twelve bar blues-form song, written in 1954 by Jesse Stone (usually credited as Charles E. Calhoun, his songwriting name). 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 number 127 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

This article is about the song. For other uses (or variations of) this title, see Shake, Rattle and Roll (disambiguation).
"Shake, Rattle and Roll"
Single by Big Joe Turner
B-side"You Know I Love You"
ReleasedApril 1954 (1954-04)
RecordedNew York City, February 15, 1954
GenreRhythm and blues[1]
Length2:57
LabelAtlantic
Songwriter(s)Charles E. Calhoun a.k.a. Jesse Stone
Big Joe Turner singles chronology
"TV Mama"
(1954)		 "Shake, Rattle and Roll"
(1954)		 "Well All Right"
(1954)

Origins of the song

In early 1954, Ahmet Ertegun[2] of Atlantic Records suggested to Jesse 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".[3] (Stone used his real name for ASCAP songs, while using the pseudonym "Charles Calhoun" for BMI-registered songs, such as "Shake, Rattle and Roll".)

However, the phrase had been used in earlier songs. In 1910, vaudeville performer "Baby" Franklin Seals published "You Got to Shake, Rattle and Roll", a ragtime tune about gambling with dice, in New Orleans;[4] in 1919, Al Bernard recorded a version of the song.[5][6]

Original recording by Joe Turner

Turner's version[7] was recorded in New York City on February 15, 1954. The shouting chorus on his version consisted of Jesse Stone, and record label executives Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun. The saxophone solo was by Sam "The Man" Taylor. Other players included McHouston "Mickey" Baker ("Love is Strange") on guitar and drummer Connie Kay (later from the Modern Jazz Quartet). Turner's recording was released in April 1954, reached number one on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart on June 12, did not move for three weeks, and peaked at number 22, nearly at the same time, on the Billboard singles chart[8] (subsequently billed as the Billboard Hot 100).

Bill Haley's version
1954 release by Bill Haley and His Comets on Decca Records

Bill Haley & His Comets' cover version of the song,[7] recorded on June 7, 1954[9] (the same week Turner's version first topped the R&B charts), featured the following members of the Comets: Johnny Grande (piano), Billy Williamson (rhythm 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 and reached number seven on the Billboard singles chart, spending a total of twenty-seven weeks in the Top 40.[9]

Comparison of Joe Turner and Bill Haley versions

Both recordings are considered classics.[7] While Turner sings about "all that mess" that "belongs to you" as "the sun comes shinin' through" "those dresses," Haley notes the dresses and "hair done up so nice", "You look so warm, but your heart is cold as ice". Turner concludes that he "can look at you tell you ain't no child no more, while Haley can tell "you don't love me no more".

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 heard 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".[10]

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 are doing 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". John Swenson's biography of Bill Haley, Father of Rock and Roll suggests Haley kept the line in because he was himself blind in one eye. In Turner's version, the girl is ordered to "get out of that bed"; Haley changes it "get out in that kitchen", nonetheless, in his version she is directed to "roll my breakfast cause I'm a hungry man". In other words, she has spent the night with the singer in both versions. When Joe Turner performed the song in the 1955 film Rock 'n' Roll Revue, he chose to sing the Bill Haley version of the opening verse.

Both versions sold over one million copies, making "Shake, Rattle and Roll" the first giant rock 'n' roll hit.[11]

Elvis Presley versions
"Shake, Rattle And Roll"
Single by Elvis Presley
B-side"Lawdy Miss Clawdy"
ReleasedSeptember 8, 1956 (1956-09-08)
GenreRockabilly[12]
Length2:27
LabelRCA Victor
Songwriter(s)Charles E. Calhoun a.k.a. Jesse Stone
Elvis Presley singles chronology
"Don't Be Cruel"
(1956)		 "Shake, Rattle And Roll"
(1956)		 "Blue Suede Shoes"
(1956)

Elvis Presley recorded the song[7] twice in a studio setting: a demo recorded at radio station KDAV in Lubbock, Texas in January 1955 [13] while under contract with Sun Records (this recording 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 mixed Haley's and Turner's lyrics with a faster-paced version of Haley's arrangement. Although the commercially released 1956 version used Turner's "bed" version of the opening verse, alternate takes released by RCA in the 1990s indicate Presley originally intended to begin the song with Haley's "kitchen" verse.

Introduced by Cleveland disc jockey, Bill Randle, Presley, Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana performed the song in medley with the similar "Flip, Flop and Fly" on the January 28, 1956 broadcast of the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show (Haley's "kitchen" opening verse was sung).[14] Presley recorded the song with these same musicians.[15] Shorty Long played piano on the RCA recording.

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See also
  • First rock and roll record

References
  1. Campbell, Michael; Brody, James (2007). Rock and Roll: An Introduction. Cengage Learning. p. 77. ISBN 0-534-64295-0.
  2. Robert Greenfield, The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun (Simon & Schuster November 8, 2011, ISBN 1416558381) Chapter 7
  3. Nick Tosches, Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll (2nd ed. 1991), page 12-21.
  4. Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff, The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville, University Press of Mississippi, 2017, p.127
  5. David Wondrich, Stomp and Swerve: American Music Gets Hot, 1843-1924, Chicago Review Press, 2003, p.138
  6. "Al Bernard's song - audio file". Cylinders.library.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2011-08-21.
  7. Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 4 - The Tribal Drum: The rise of rhythm and blues. [Part 2]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries.
  8. Dawson, Jim, and Steve Propes, What Was The First Rock 'n' Roll Record ? (Faber and Faber, 1992, p. 128 and 130) ISBN 0-571-12939-0.
  9. Dawson, Jim. Rock Around the Clock : The Record that Started the Rock Revolution (Backbeat Books, 2005, pp. 95–96), ISBN 0-87930-829-X.
  10. BBC Radio, "My Top Ten" interview with Bill Haley, March 1974
  11. Dawson, Jim, and Steve Propes, What Was the First Rock 'n' Roll Record? (Faber and Faber, 1992, p. 130)
  12. Birnbaum, Larry (2013). Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-8108-8638-4.
  13. "Elvis Day By Day". Randomhouse.com. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  14. Roger Lee Hall, Shake, Rattle and Roll: Electric Elvis and Bill Randle PineTree Press, 2010, pages 7-9
  15. Elvis Presley DVD 46:26
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