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Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
Whole Lotta Big Maybelle.jpg
Single by Big Maybelle
B-side "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show"
Released 1955
Genre R&B
Length 3:00
Label Okeh Records
Songwriter(s) Dave "Curlee" Williams
Big Maybelle singles chronology
"Don't Leave Poor Me"
(1955)
"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
(1955)
"Such a Cutie"
(1956)
"Don't Leave Poor Me"
(1955)
"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
(1955)
"Such a Cutie"
(1956)
"Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On"
Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On single.jpg
Single by Jerry Lee Lewis
B-side "It'll Be Me"
Released April 15, 1957
Genre Rock and roll, rockabilly, rhythm and blues
Length 2:52
Label Sun Records
Songwriter(s) Dave "Curlee" Williams, James Faye "Roy" Hall
Jerry Lee Lewis singles chronology
"Crazy Arms"
(1956)
"Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On"
(1957)
"Great Balls of Fire"
(1957)
"Crazy Arms"
(December 1956)
"Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On"
(April 1957)
"Great Balls of Fire"
(November 1957)

"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" (sometimes rendered "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On") is a song written by Dave "Curlee" Williams and usually credited to him and James Faye "Roy" Hall. The song was first recorded by Big Maybelle, though the best-known version is the 1957 rock and roll/rockabilly version by Jerry Lee Lewis.

The origins of the song are disputed, but the writing is usually co-credited to singer/songwriter Dave "Curlee" Williams, and pianist and club owner James Faye "Roy" Hall. Hall said:

We was down in Pahokee, on Lake Okeechobee.. out on a damn pond, fishin' and milkin' snakes .. drinkin' wine, mostly.. This guy down there had a big bell that he's ring to get us all to come in to dinner, an' I'd call over [and] say, 'What's goin' on?' Colored guy said, 'We got twen'y-one drums, we got an old bass horn, an' they even keepin' time on a ding-dong.' See, that was the big bell they'd ring to git us t'come in.

On 21 March 1955, Big Maybelle made the first recording for Okeh Records. The songwriting was credited to D. C. Williams, and the record was produced by Quincy Jones. Roy Hall made a recording of the song in September 1955 for Decca Records and maintained that he had written it and had secured the legal copyright as co-writer under the pseudonym of "Sunny David". However, a Decca sample copy of Hall's recording lists Dave Williams as the sole writer. On the Pop Chronicles documentary, Jerry Lee Lewis incorrectly credited Big Mama Thornton. All subsequent recordings of the song (including Lewis' recording for Sun Records) list the composers as Sunny David and Dave Williams. Hall was also a Nashville club owner, who later claimed to have employed the young piano player Lewis at some point around 1954.

Lewis had been performing the song in his stage act and recorded it at his second recording session for Sun Records in February 1957. The release is reviewed in Billboard magazine on 27 May 1957. Supervised by producer Jack Clement, Lewis radically altered the original, adding a propulsive boogie piano that was complemented by J.M. Van Eaton's energetic drumming and Roland Janes' "muted" guitar and also added suggestive spoken asides. Lewis later stated: "I knew it was a hit when I cut it. Sam Phillips thought it was gonna be too risqué, it couldn't make it. If that's risqué, well, I'm sorry." The song was engineered by Jack "Cowboy" Clement, who told Lewis when he entered the studio, "We don't do much country around here. We're in the rock & roll business. You ought to go home and work up some rock & roll numbers".


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