Shake It All Over (Listen/Vote)
Shakin’ All Over, written by Johnny Kidd, is such an iconic garage-band rock song that many people are surprised to learn an Englishman wrote it then a Canadian rock band introduced it to the US.
Despite modest chart success in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Johnny Kidd & The Pirates were incredibly influential, with good reason: the two-chord, pentatonic scale structure allows beginners to sound incredibly good.
For first-year guitarists, the song consists of arpeggios in the keys A minor & E minor; and the shakin’ guitar effect happens thanks to guitarist Joe Moretti sliding bassist’s Brian Gregg’s Zippo lighter across his guitar strings.
As for the song’s muse, Johnny has claimed a primal source, “When I was going round with a bunch of lads and we happened to see a girl who was a real sizzler we used to say that she gave us ‘quivers down the membranes’. It was a standard saying with us referring to any attractive girl…..I can honestly say that it was this more than anything that inspired me to write ‘Shakin’ All Over’.” The song reached #1 on the UK charts in August 1960.
Johnny Kidd & The Pirates (1960)
Chad Allan covered the song with his band, The Expressions, who would eventually become The Guess Who. The song’s power and simplicity sent it to #1 on the Canadian pop charts, and became a mainstay of The Guess Who live sets. This version entered the US charts reaching #22. It’s very faithful to the original; however, the shakin’ effect is thanks to a Bigsby vibrato throughout the song. Also, Chad Allan’s performance has a more desperate need for release from his unrequited conquest.
Chad Allan & The Expressions (1965)
Considered by many to be the greatest live album, Live at Leeds by The Who shows them at their bombastic best. The song’s dramatic effect is pushed by their 1970s narcissism, but it might be the best version of this song.
The Who (1970)
