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t’s a curious fact that some of the
most enduring songs were written in
a matter of minutes, such as The
Beatles’ Yesterday, the Stones’
Satisfaction, Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll
and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. Another one
is Johnny Kidd & The Pirates’ classic from
1960, Shakin’ All Over. Knocked together
hastily in a cellar at midnight, it was
intended as a throwaway B-side. Instead it
became a monster hit and a foundation
stone of British rock‘n’roll.
“I’d asked our studio engineer, Peter
Sullivan, if we could write the B-side of our
next single,” explains bassist Brian Gregg.
“But we were so busy doing gigs that we
never got round to writing it until the night
before the recording session at Abbey
Road. We got back to London at midnight,
after a gig in Aylesbury, and Alan Caddy
[guitarist], myself and Johnny Kidd went to
the Freight Train coffee bar in Soho.
Downstairs was an unused basement with
no lighting, full of old chairs and Coca-
Cola crates. All our instruments were still
outside in the van, so the three of us sat
there and came up with the guitar intro
and bass line.”
All they needed were some lyrics. Then
Kidd had an idea.
“He had a part of his stage act called
dynamic tension,” says Gregg. “Johnny
would hold himself really stiffly and then
shake during the guitar solo. So he told us
he’d like to do a song where he could do
this routine, because it used to go down
really well with the girls. Suddenly we had
Shakin’ All Over as a title, and started
slotting words in between these two riffs.
We were a bit ashamed of it, to be honest,
because by 1960 the term ‘shakin’’ was so
passé; Jerry Lewis had already done Whole
Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On and Bill Haley had
covered Shake, Rattle And Roll. But we
thought: ‘Oh well, it’s tucked away on
a B-side, so it won’t bloody matter.’”
The band still hadn’t played Shakin’ All
Over by the time they arrived at Abbey
Road at 10.30 the next morning. The main
focus of the session was the A-side, Yes Sir,
That’s My Baby, an American standard that
their label EMI had insisted they cover.
Luckily, they were given a little extra time
to work up Shakin’ All Over, due to another
artist running late in their studio.
Repairing to the canteen, the Pirates
were joined by guitarist Joe Moretti,
who they’d called in to play lead. “It
wasn’t that Alan Caddy wasn’t capable
of doing it,” states drummer Clem Cattini.
“But he had this nervousness in the
studio, so we got Joe in to do the solo. It
just came out off the top of his head.
Once we got in there, we had a little run
through and that was it.”
Shakin’ All Over was nailed by the second
take, and the finished item was
extraordinary. Led off by a goose-bumpy
riff and Gregg’s equally memorable bass
line, with Kidd’s lust-ridden protagonist
quaking into the chorus, it was
quintessential rock’n’roll drama. The use
of echo, allied to Cattini’s drum fill and
Moretti’s solo,
heightened the effect.
“Wally Ridley gets
credited as producer
on Shakin’ All Over, but
he wasn’t even there
when we did it,”
reveals Cattini. “It was
Peter Sullivan, Wally’s
assistant. There was
a bare room at the back that you could use
as an echo chamber, and that’s how we got
the atmosphere on the record.”
Gregg adds: “Clem went into this drum
break and ended up doing two bars instead
of one, but Peter said: ‘That doesn’t matter.
I like it. That long drum break gives it
a feeling of anticipation, like something is
about to happen.’ And he was right.”
Sullivan also recognised a hit when he
heard one, and immediately advised EMI to
promote it to the A-side. It was left to
influential TV producer Jack Good to
green-light his suggestion.
“EMI sent him the single,” says Gregg.
“Jack hated Yes Sir, That’s My Baby – as we all
did – but he thought Shakin’ All Over was
fantastic. Then he booked us on to Wham!,
his current show, and it just took off.”
“Next thing we knew,” says Cattini, “the
single was zooming up the charts.”
Shakin’ All Over reached the top spot in
the UK in August 1960, making a huge star
of the charismatic Kidd. Wearing his
trademark eye patch, he and the band – all
decked out in pirate gear – were a live
sensation, a precursor to the advent of
theatrical rock. “We used to go down an
absolute storm,” Cattini recalls. “Johnny
was so popular, not only with girls but
with guys as well. I don’t think he ever
really got the credit he deserved.”
“Johnny Kidd was such an exciting guy
on stage,” adds Gregg. “Freddie Mercury
reminded me of him very much. They had
the same style, the attitude was so similar.”
Tragically, Kidd died in a car crash in
Lancashire in 1966, aged just 30. His legacy
lives on in a number of distinguished
recordings, none more so than Shakin’ All
Over. Among those who’ve covered the
song over the years are Led Zeppelin,
David Bowie, Iggy Pop and The Who. The
latter, called the The Detours in the early
60s, had supported Johnny Kidd & The
Pirates in late 1962 and early ’63.
“The three true British rock’n’roll
records were Cliff Richard’s Move It,
Brand New Cadillac by Vince Taylor and
Shakin’ All Over,” asserts Gregg. “A lot of
bands copied us afterwards. Roger Daltrey
gave up guitar and became The Who’s
lead singer, because they wanted a trio
behind him to get the same sound as us.
Led Zeppelin had the same set-up too.
Jimmy Page had been with Neil Christian
& The Crusaders, who were often our
support band when we played locally to
London. He used to stand at the side of the
stage and watch our every move.
I remember Jimmy saying to me: ‘One
day I’m gonna have a band like this.’”
Clem Cattini’s biography, My Life,
Through The Eye Of A Tornado, is out
now, published by Mango Books.
Knocked up in a hurry, intended as a B-side and with a title the band were all originally “ashamed
of”, it was an instant hit and became one of the great British rock’n’roll records of the early 60s.
Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
Shakin’ All Over
“Jimmy Page used to stand at the
side of the stage and watch our
every move. He said: ‘One day
I’m gonna have a band like this.’”
Words: Rob Hughes
THE MAN WHO
TURNED DOWN
JOINING LED ZEP
Post-Pirates, drummer
Clem Cattini became
one of the most prolific
session men in history.
In 1968 he also turned
down the chance to
join Led Zeppelin.
“I got a phone call
from Peter Grant,
saying: ‘I’ve got this
new project I’m putting
together. I want to take
you to lunch and talk
about it,’” he explains.
“Unfortunately I was
literally doing sessions
from ten a.m. till ten
p.m. every day, so
I never had the chance
to meet him. I saw Peter
about a year later and
asked him if it was Led
Zeppelin, and he just
went: ‘Yeah.’ I think it
was Jimmy Page who’d
instigated it, because I’d
done sessions with him.
And John Paul Jones
and I used to be in
Lulu’s band.”
20 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
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