Shake, Rattle and Roll

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]

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).

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]

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 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.

• First rock and roll record