How Much Shakin’?

Song 281: If you’re feeling some rumblings, it might be this week’s playlist track Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On by Jerry Lee Lewis, written by Dave “Curlee” Williams. The writing credit on this song is sometimes shared between Mr. Williams and James Faye “Roy” Hall, and Mr. Hall is also sometimes referred to as Sunny David in the songwriting credits. For a good long time in my teenage years, I thought the Beatles and their companion English bands had invented rock and roll. I knew nothing of the ’50s rockers except Elvis, and “Hound Dog” being the only Presley track I had heard then, I thought Elvis was some kind of hick singer. It truly surprised me in late ’68 when the official Beatles biography landed and I read about how much the fab four idolized EP. Devouring that book, I slowly began to get a clearer sense of the origins of the musical style that had started shaking my world back in February of 1964.That process continued over the next few years, particularly as the early ‘70s brought along a revival of interest in the ’50s rockers. During that era, more than once I heard the radio play the Woodstock recording of the 10 Years After cut “I’m Going Home” which seemed to incorporate (or steal) some ’50s references. I had also read in the Beatles book about Jerry Lee Lewis’s attempted English tour that came to a quick end due to a scandal generated by press revelations about his 13-year-old bride. Getting to know the ‘50s rockers, when I got to this record, I had to admit it sounded really good. I liked his other hits too, but I didn’t truly appreciate Jerry Lee until I saw an old video of him around 1975 or so which conveyed a Madman at the Piano energy that just about knocked me over. At that moment I very well understood why Lewis had created such a sensation during his hit record days, prior to the marriage scandal that scuttled his career, and I had to wonder what else he might have done if that scandal hadn’t broken his momentum. It also seemed highly ironic to contemplate that kind of history during a time when rock promoters had perfected the art of scandal publicity for grabbing headlines and furthering careers, but then maybe someone had to set the stage first, and get a whole lotta shakin’ going’ on, which is what Jerry Lee did, and what got people to notice him — everyone could tell when they saw him perform that he surely wasn’t fakin’.