"Shakin' All Over" is a song originally performed by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. It was written by leader Johnny Kidd, and his original recording reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in August 1960. Kidd's recording was not a hit outside of Europe. In other parts of the world the song is better known by recordings of other artists. In 1964, a band from Plattsburgh, New York called the Twiliters recorded a live version but it did not chart. 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, #22 in the US and #27 in Australia. Normie Rowe's 1965 version reached No. 1 in Australia as a double A-side with "Que Sera Sera".
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".
The Twiliters version
The Twiliters, a band from Plattsburgh, New York, recorded "Shakin' All Over" live, in early 1964, before a crowd at a local skating rink called "Rollerland". Bill Kennedy, the leader of the group, had been stationed in Germany in the Air Force and had heard several songs from the UK that he wanted to record. It was released on Empire Records E-4 and gained some regional success. On the flip side was a song called "Rollerland" that was recorded by at least two other acts.
The Guess Who version
The song gained more fame after it was recorded in Winnipeg, Canada in December 1964 by a group called Chad Allan and the Expressions. The group's record labelQuality Records credited the artist on the label as "Guess Who?" in an attempt to disguise the group's origin. The label thought the record would be better received if the group were thought to be a British Invasion act. The actual name of the group was revealed a few months later, but radio DJs continued to announce the artists as "Guess Who?". This prompted the group to change their name to The Guess Who. In the spring of 1965 the record became a #1 hit in Canada. This version was also a #22 hit in the United States. The song would later rechart in the U.S., reaching #102 in 1975.
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 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,. 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 playerJohn 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.
