All Shook Up

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“All Shook Up” is a song recorded by Elvis Presley, published by Elvis Presley Music, and composed by Otis Blackwell. The single topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on April 13, 1957, staying there for eight weeks. It also topped the Billboard R&B chart for four weeks, becoming Presley’s second single to do so, and peaked at No. 3 on the country chart. It is certified 2X Platinum by the RIAA.

It was ranked #352 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

History

Blackwell wrote the song at the offices of Shalimar Music in 1956 after Al Stanton, one of Shalimar’s owners, shaking a bottle of Pepsi at the time, suggested he write a song based on the phrase “all shook up.”

According to Peter Guralnick the song has a different origin. In his book “Last Train To Memphis” he wrote that Elvis thought “All Shook Up” was a good phrase for a refrain. For this he received a co-writing credit, his last.

Elvis himself, during an interview on October 28, 1957, said: “I’ve never even had an idea for a song. Just once, maybe. I went to bed one night, had quite a dream, and woke up all shook up. I phoned a pal and told him about it. By morning, he had a new song, ‘All Shook Up’.”

Future Last House on the Left actor David Hess, using the stage name David Hill, was the first to record the song and release it a few weeks before Elvis on Aladdin Records, titled “I’m All Shook Up“.

Vicki Young recorded a different song with the same title, “(I’m) All Shook Up“, on Capitol Records with Big Dave and His Orchestra, written by Bill Bellman and Hal Blaine in 1956.

On January 12, 1957, Presley recorded the song at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. The duet vocal on the record is by the Jordanaires first tenor Gordon Stoker. Take 10 was selected for release, and in March the song entered Billboard’s Top 100 chart at #25. Within three weeks it had knocked Perry Como’s “Round and Round” off the top spot, and stayed there for eight consecutive weeks. The song also became Presley’s first No. hit on the UK Singles Chart, remaining there for seven weeks. Sales of the single exceeded two million, and the song was named Billboard’s Year End number one song for 1957.

Beatles cover version

According to biographer Mark Lewisohn in “The Complete Beatles Chronicle” (p. 361), The Beatles (first as The Quarrymen) regularly performed the song, from 1957 through 1960 (possibly later) with Paul McCartney on lead vocal, sadly there is no known recorded version from that time. However Quarryman Len Garry (in his book “John, Paul & Me” p.154) states that it was one of the songs the group played on July 6, 1957, the day John Lennon met Paul McCartney and that the song was recorded then (but was erased later). Author Doug Sulpy (in “Drugs, Divorce And A Slipping Image” sec. 3.13) adds that on Jan. 13, 1969 during the massive Get Back sessions, they did record a “spirited” version of it with Paul McCartney and George Harrison sharing vocals, John Lennon did not join in the recording as he was literally sitting watching while having his tea. That version of the song remains officially unreleased (due to it being in mono and Paul and George not remembering all the lyrics by that late date). In 1999 Paul McCartney cut a hard-rocking version on the album Run Devil Run, while his surviving former bandmates of The Quarrymen recorded it in 2004 on Songs We Remember. […]

From the liner notes of “Run Devil Run“:

This song gave Elvis his first British No. 1, in June 1957 – the week Paul celebrated his 15^th birthday. “Me and a mate used to go around the fairgrounds of Liverpool trying to pick up girls; we got the blues ‘cause we couldn’t even get arrested. We’d go home, depressed, and put on this records and it lifted us, got rid of the blues.”

From an interview with Laura Gross (promotional interview for “Run Devil Run” in 1999):

Paul McCartney: Oh yeah. I tell you why I have the loveliest memory of All Shook Up. I mean, we were, we were mad Elvis fans before he went in the army. We kind of thought that made too much of a change. ‘Cause we were kids and he was a little bit more grown up than we were. But we still identified to the kind of youthfulness of him. So we just loved him. He could do nothing wrong. We just thought he was fantastic. I had a mate of mine, who I still know, he’s called Ian James, and he was my best mate. So we used to wander round like these fairgrounds, you know, hoping, thinking the girls would come flooding to us, ’cause they never took any notice of us. I remember feeling bad one day, me and Ian, it’s like, you know, it’s teenage blues, it’s like, what’re we gonna do, man. It was like, so he said, we’ll go back to his place. And he lived in the Dingle, where round by, where Ringo lived. This little terrace house, his granny’s house. And we went in there and he had All Shook Up, Elvis. He said, just put that on. Well, after we put that on, I swear, the blues had gone, the headache had gone, we were like new people. And, so, you know, I just love that song so much for being able to do that. Loved the pop, which is like the snare. It’s like, pop, I’m all shook up. There’s a little, pop, but it’s not a snare. Often it was just a cardboard box or something they hit. Later, with the Beatles, we would often do that, you know. Use that, that’s as good as a snare, you know. On the record, we often just, hit on knees and stuff. And that’s all, came out of that. So I remember All Shook Up for that little snare beat. But mainly just for the joy it brought, these two teenage lads, you know, turned our day around. I just thought, wow, that’s gonna be a good song. And then when we recorded it, me and Dave Gilmour, doing the backing harmonies, again, no time, five minutes, let’s do it, guys. We don’t know how the harmonies go. Sure you do. You got five minutes, starting now. So we went down there and the bit I loved, we’re having a lot of fun, just working together, you just do the end of the line, ta-da-da-da-la-da, and the line is, ta-da-da a volcano when it’s hot, ’cause you can’t, you just got to sing, ‘cano when it’s hot. Which is lovely, you know, very surreal little lyric. ‘Cano when it’s hot. We’re looking at each other, giggling, you know, so, you know. There’re just good little moments like that, very reminiscent of the kind of moments you had when you were just starting a band. It’s all sudden, it’s all suddenly upon you.

Last updated on September 19, 2016

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