Download Instrumental    Imagine it’s 1957 and you’ve wandered into the local diner for a burger and a coke –  maybe some fries on the side. The jukebox stands in the corner,  beckoning you to put in a dime and spin your favorite record.  You sigh just a little  ’cause you’ve heard all the songs on that box a thousand times – seems nothing new is happening these days in the music biz.  You slide on over anyway and see something called “All Shook Up” by none other than Elvis Presley.  Hmmmm… something new.  In goes the coin and suddenly everything’s fun again.  You’re “all shook up”…  and that’s a good thing!

Songwriter Otis Blackwell put this one together for Elvis by accident.  Someone walked into Blackwell’s office one day shaking a bottle of Pepsi (Now, why would anyone want to do that?).  Blackwell was struggling to write a followup to “Don’t Be Cruel” at the time and this guy – we’ll call him “Shaky” – suggested he write a tune called “All Shook Up”.  Clever fellow.  The song was written in two days and became Elvis’ second biggest hit.  Ain’t life funny?

Elvis contributed the line “itchin’ like a man on a fuzzy tree” and therefore shared songwriting credit with Blackwell.  Doesn’t seem fair, but Colonel Tom Parker insisted on it.  What a guy.  Who made Tom Parker a Colonel anyway?  He was bounced from the Army for desertion.  And what’s a “fuzzy tree”?  I’m still working on why anyone would shake a Pepsi.  So many questions – so little time.