"Shake, Rattle and Roll" is a prototypical blues-form rock and roll song written by Jesse Stone (under his working name Charles Calhoun). The song was first recorded in 1954 by Big Joe Turner, a "blues shouter" whose career began in Kansas City before World War II. Bill Haley and the Comets' cover version, released later in the year, had sanitised lyrics in an attempt to be slightly more palatable to white parents. (Among other things, Haley took out references to nylon hose, eye-rolling and the gritting of teeth.)
