“Shake, Rattle and Roll” is a twelve bar blues-form song, written in 1954 by Jesse Stone (usually credited as Charles F. Calhoun, his songwriting name). The original recording by Big Joe Turner is ranked number 127 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In early 1954, Ahmet Ertegun 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”. (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; in 1919, Al Bernard recorded a version of the song.
Songs with Banjo from Harold Hagler
