MU106 Great Composers
Sixties British Songwriters
"Shakin' All Over"
Songwriter: Frederick Heath
Publisher(s): Belwin Mills Music, Ltd.
Musicians: Johnny Kidd and the Pirates: Johnny Kidd (vocals), Joe Moretti (lead guitar), Alan Caddy (rhythm guitar), Brian Gregg (bass), and Clem Cattini (drums).
YouTube: No video available of this song.
Date of Recording: 13 May 1960
Location of Recording: EMI Recording Studios, Abbey Road, London
Date of Release: 10 June 1960
Label and Number: HMV POP 698
Charts: 16 June 1960; UK #1
Producer: Peter Sullivan [Wally Ridley, Executive Producer]
Music Director / Arranger:
Engineer(s): Malcolm Addey
Other Information:
Brian Gregg (Hogg 1992): We got to the day before the session and still hadn't come
up with any ideas.
Hogg (1992): Sitting in Soho's Frieght Train coffee bar, the group began putting
some rough ideas together, and arrived at the studio with a sketch of "Shakin' All
Over." The song debuted on Jack Good's BBC television show, Wham. [Good may have been
responsible for the theatrical transformation of Kidd and, in particular, his eye
patch.]
Joe Moretti: Well, across the road again from the 2I's was a restaurant called the Golden Egg. It sold breakfast and waffles and syrup and cream and we'd go in there and smoke cigarettes and hang around and wait for something to happen. And in comes Clem with Johnny Kidd, Brian Greg, and Art Caddy. And it's the same old story. They said, "Listen, we've got a recording at EMI." Now Alan wasn't, God bless him, he wasn't the greatest solo guitar player. So we used him on rhythm and again I got together with the guys and we rehearsed "Shakin' All Over" and I put the intro together, which was really a nick from "Move It" mixed with some other Dewey and Eddie sort of thing. Anyway, I came up with the introduction. It's almost the same notes in the same position, just a little bit of variance on them in the time and the feel, but that's where it came from. I put it together in desperation, simply because I had to do something. So we recorded that at EMI in the same big studio. I overdubbed the sliding cigarette lighter on the "bow." [Interview 17 July 2003]
Lyrics
a. When you move in right up close to me; That's when I get the shakes all over me.
b. Quivers down my backbone, I got the shakes [/shivers] down my knee bone,
I have the tremors in my thigh [/back] bone: Shakin' all over.
c. Just the way that you say good night to me; Brings that feelin' on inside of me.
d. Well you make me shake and I like it baby (repeat).
Form
| Section | Meas. | Text | Description |
| intro | 2+8 | -- | introductory descending guitar theme> drums and bass with guitar doubling |
| verse | 16 | a | descending vocal melody alternating with descending guitar hook |
| intro | 2 | -- | variation on introductory descending guitar motif concludes with bent guitar chord |
| chorus | 15 | b | vocal with gent guitar responses |
| intro | 8 | -- | opening drum and bass theme with guitar |
| verse | 16 | c | as in verse above |
| intro | 2 | -- | as in intro above |
| chorus | 15 | b | as in chorus above |
| bridge | 4 | -- | drum fill (repeated threes) |
| solo | 24 | -- | guitar solo in 12-bar blues format with drums and bass |
| intro | 4 | -- | as in intro variations above |
| chorus | 15 | b | as in chorus above |
| coda | 12+ | d | variation on verse melody over intro1 motif: repeat and fade |