when “whole lotta shakin” hit the air waves no one had ever heard any thing like it before. the more the dj’s played it the better it sounded. they could play it all day and get no complaints. the song started off like a five point hurricane coming to shore at two hundred and five miles per hour and blew away every rock n roll song ever recorded before it. shakin was fast paced and rocked with every note played. jerry lee screaming with the confidence of a man posessed “come on over baby a whole lotta shakin goin on” and that wasn’t all he said, no he had more to say, a lot more, he had the bull by the horn, and baby you can’t go wrong we got a whole lotta shakin goin on. when lewis said all you gotta do is stand in one spot and wiggle around just a little bit that’s when you got something, shake it baby, shake it,shake it, shake it. every teenager in america knew exactly what he was taking about. the song had sex, romance, and temptations that went right to the core of what was on every male teenager in the country, how do you get in a girls pants ? jerry lee and “shakin” showed us how to get done in 2 minutes and 15 seconds. whole lotta shakin was recorded in january of 1957 with jerry lee lewis on piano roland janes on guitar and jimmy van eaton on drums. much has been said about “the sun sound” well it’s all true every bit, every note played, every bar used to express the music that came from the studio at 706 union ave in memphis. it was a small place uninhibited and every artist who recorded there did what they felt was right for them. sam or jack clement turned on the tape and said do it boys do what you feel like doing. that was the atmosphere at sun records no time limit on anything or anybody any artist who might be there when another artist was recording could pitch in and help out where needed. that all helped to make sun records different from any other record company on the planet. just pick up a guitar or bass and join in. and there was plenty of talent at sun. sun records most likely had the most talented artist on one label than any other record company in the history of recorded music. certainly no other independent record label had the talents of elvis, carl perkins johnny cash and jerry lee lewis. every one of them made it to the rock & roll hall of fame. elvis and johnny made it to the country music hall of fame. such was the time frame when jerry lee recorded “shakin”. just three instruments made that “big” sound. roland janes a fine guitarist always seemed to know the ins and outs of lewis’ music, he knew when to let up, he knew when to get down and he did it with exact precision. roland janes always knew where lewis was headed on every song they recorded. there was no better drummer than jimmy van eaton, he provided the full driving rhythm section, he had to, his drumming typically was the entire rhythm section. shakin was written by (david williams and sunny david) it was issued as sun 267. there were four warm up versions of ” shakin ” recorded none were accepted as commerical enough for release. then came take number 5 and that one had all the commerical appeal that was needed. sun 267 had no bass guitar jerry lee played bass on the piano. probably no one has played more aggressively on piano than jerry lee lewis on the four opening bars of “whole lotta shakin”. jimmy van eaton follows pounding away on the drums and is very forceful in the bar fill between the first and second verses. he slams into a schuffing rhythm between the snare and bass drums that shows everyone he has charge of the situation. his drumming explodes to the point that when lewis goes into his solo it sounds like the drum roll will continue through the entire 12 bar break. rolands guitar sounds great not loud but rather subdued notice how he lays back playing after the line “we got chicken in the barn”, then he comes out front with some great bluesly guitar work during his solo. jack clement added a bit of “echo” to jerry’ piano when he stuck a microphone under the key board. and i’ll bet piano players all over the world pulled their hair out trying to get their piano to sound like lewis’s did on “whole lotta shakin” but you’ll never get that sound unless you got jack clement at the controls recording the session and you must have the “sun sound” found only at the sun studio in memphis. “cowboy” jack clement was way ahead of his time when he was an “engineer” at sun. jack clement wrote the flip side “it’ll be me” sun 267. shakin went on to sell 6 million copies, it made jerry lee lewis a “super star”. it was and is to this day “the greatest rock n roll record ever recorded”. what was done in the studio that day has never been duplicated in any shape fashion or form. not even jerry lee lewis on his best day has ever been able to record “shakin” again as he did in january of 1957. try as many have tried to, but none have done it. “whole lotta shakin goin on” is he real thing and the original cannot be done again. if you don’t have it, go buy it. put on some ear phones and turn it up loud and enjoy jerry lee lewis, roland janes, and jimmy van eaton making history that will last as long as mankind has ears to hear.

~ Widmarc Clark