"Shakin' All Over" is a song originally performed by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates.[1] It was written by leader Johnny Kidd, and his original recording reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in August 1960.[2] The song is sometimes credited to Frederick Albert Heath, which is Kidd's real name. Kidd's recording was not a hit outside Europe. In other parts of the world the song is better known by recordings from other artists.
A version by Chad Allan and the Expressions, later known as The Guess Who, was recorded in December 1964. It reached #1 in Canada in the spring of 1965,[3] #22 in the US and #27 in Australia. Another famous recording by The Who was featured on their 1970 album Live at Leeds.
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".[4]
The Twiliters version
In 1964, a band from Plattsburgh, New York called the Twiliters recorded a version of "Shakin' All Over" and released it on the B-side of a single. Bill Kennedy, the leader of the group, had heard the song while stationed in Germany with the US Air Force. The A-side was called "(Everybody's Goin' To) Rollerland" and the songs were recorded before a crowd at the local Rollerland skating rink featuring Bruce Danville on lead guitar.[5] It was released by Empire Records and gained some regional success but did not chart.
The Guess Who version
The song gained more fame after it was recorded in Winnipeg in December 1964 by a group called Chad Allan and the Expressions. In the spring of 1965 the record became a #1 hit in Canada.[6] The group's label Quality Records credited the artist as "Guess Who?" in an attempt to disguise their origin and hint that the group might be a British Invasion act. The actual name was revealed a few months later, but radio DJs continued to announce the artist as "Guess Who?". This prompted the group to change their name to The Guess Who. This version was also a #22 hit in the United States.[7] In 1975 The Guess Who recorded a new song called "When The Band Was Singin' 'Shakin' All Over'". Though it makes lyrical reference to the original, this is a distinctly different song.[8]
Mae West Version
Actress and singer Mae West released a version of "Shakin' All Over" on the LP Way Out West, released in the US by Tower Records in 1966. In the UK it appeared on the Stateside label.
Normie Rowe version
The Guess Who's version also became a #27 hit in Australia, but another version became a national #1 hit in late 1965 for Normie Rowe. Rowe's version (backed by "Que Sera Sera") was one of the biggest-selling singles of the decade in that country. Rowe had recorded his take on the song before The Guess Who, and based his release on a 1962 version by Johnny Chester.
The song has been performed many times by The Who, starting in the 1960s, (sometimes in a medley with "Spoonful"). The best known performances were at Woodstock in 1969 and on Live at Leeds in 1970. In Randy Bachman's autobiography, he says that when he met Who bass player John Entwistle, he was told that people constantly got The Who and The Guess Who mixed up. Tired of being yelled at for not playing the song, the Who started playing it just to keep the crowd happy. Bachman responded that the Guess Who had the same reasons for playing "My Generation". Entwistle, a fan of 1950s and 1960s rock and roll and rockabilly music, also performed the song with his solo band and incorporated a bass solo into the middle of the song, accompanied only by his drummer Steve Luongo.
The song was referenced in a 1975 song by The Guess Who titled "When The Band Was Singin' 'Shakin' All Over'".
"Shakin' All Over" was featured several times in the UK TV series Heartbeat (1992 - 2007) (usually the version by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates) and in the first ever episode of the UK TV series The Royal on 19 January 2003.
Shakin' All Over is the name of a CBC Television documentary on Canadian rock music in the 1950s and 1960s.
