1957 Elvis Presley: All Shook Up

John Lennon once famously said 'Before Elvis there was nothing'. I can't say I agree with that; we've just seen that there was plenty before Elvis, albeit not necessarily the sort of stuff Lennon would want to listen to. But wherever you place him in the chronology of the development of Western popular music there's no question that he presented an iconic magnetic north to which generations of musician turned their heads to the first time they picked up a guitar.

There was plenty before 'All Shook Up' too. Presley first troubled the UK charts in 1956 with 'Heartbreak Hotel' and it took nine subsequent singles before he got his first number one. 'All Shook Up' itself only reached number 24 before a re-entry took it to the top and it seems strange that with fayre like 'Heartbreak Hotel' and 'Mystery Train' on offer that the UK still preferred Pat Boone and Guy Mitchell (America itself had no such trouble in giving him number ones galore). But if this little project of mine has taught me anything, it's that there's no accounting for taste.

I know purists wave their copies of 'The Sun Sessions' aloft as the motherlode, but it's the post Sun, pre join up years at RCA that I return to most often and it's a period that 'All Shook Up' falls four square into. Written by Otis Blackwell (Presley's writing credit shouldn't be fooling anyone at this stage of the game) what I love most about 'All Shook Up' is that deep, sensuous voice spouting the confused "Well a bless my soul what's a wrong with me?" nonsense of a man so in love he doesn't know what he's saying; "I'm itching like a man on a fuzzy tree. My friends say I'm acting wild as a bug" Huh? "I'm in love, I'm all shook up". Ah!

Even in half mumble mode, Elvis sounds effortless, a star still in first gear and it's to those Mms and Uh-huh's that 90% of Elvis impersonators namecheck, even when they're wearing skin tight white jump suits. As a foundation for rock & roll it sinks twelve feet deep and the music too is understatement personified with a loose and low key boogie woogie piano rolling away in the background only broken by a frequently out of time percussive slap that sounds as confused as Elvis does. In fact, the song as a whole is littered with missed beats and stumbled meters ("Her lips are like a volcano and it's hot") that give it the feeling of a first take rehearsal instead of a finished product, but to my mind the lack of polish only adds to the mystery, one more thing for Elvis to try and make sense of. A fine debut number one - come in Mr Presley, we've been expecting you.