Wednesday, April 11, 2007

ELVIS Shake Rattle And Roll - Extended


Edited version from 1956 TV appearance
"Shake, Rattle and Roll" is a prototypical twelve bar blues-form rock and roll song written by Jesse Stone (under his working name Charles E. Calhoun). The song was first recorded in 1954 by Big Joe Turner, a blues shouter whose career began in Kansas City before World War II, and this version, at least, features simple verse-chorus form. Bill Haley and the Comets' cover version, released later in the year, had partly sanitised lyrics in an attempt to be more palatable to white audiences as well as a less bluesy, more "pop" arrangement.

This cleanup of lyrics meant removal of references considered sexual in nature, such as lines about "the devil in nylon hose", "you make me roll my eyes, baby make me grit my teeth", and "you wear those dresses, the sun comes shining through". The most provocative sexual simile in Turner's version of the song, "I'm like a one-eyed cat, peeping in the sea food store", was left untouched in the Haley version, but the following line, "I can look at you 'n' tell you ain't no child no more" was changed. Haley was blind in one eye, which may account for retaining the line. Elvis Presley's 1956 version, which had only limited success, combined Haley's arrangement with Turner's lyrics, though Elvis used Haley's lyrics when performing the song on his first national television appearance.(more...)

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