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Whole Lot of Shaking Going On

This was Jerry Lee Lewis's first big hit, and I think it really exemplifies his rock and roll style. It's a great starting point to enter into his world of rock and roll.

The Piano Part

The piano part you hear in the introduction is something that Jerry Lee uses in a lot of his rock and roll tracks. Interestingly, he first introduced this in his very first recording for Sun Records, Crazy Arms. While it was a slower tempo with a slightly different feel, it was very much the same part.

• Crazy Arms:
  You'll hear it in Crazy Arms, which goes like this:
  "sa"

You can hear that the piano part in Crazy Arms is essentially the same idea as in A Whole Lot of Shaking Going On. However, in Crazy Arms, it's a little slower, and obviously, the chord sequence is different, giving it a much more country flavor.

Other Recordings

He also used this part in the recording of End of the Road, which I think was the B-side of Crazy Arms. The piano part from Whole Lot of Shaking is the same kind of tempo, so you can hear it's basically the same thing.

You might ask, "Oh, why wasn't End of the Road a hit while A Whole Lot of Shaking was?" It's not necessarily the piano part; it's the song. End of the Road has a different chord sequence and is much more influenced by country music.

Slap Back Echo

If we go back to A Whole Lot of Shaking, you'll notice something very different in the introduction compared to both Crazy Arms and End of the Road. That is the massive slap back echo that Sam Phillips at Sun Records had begun introducing in his recordings.

You can hear this effect clearly in the introduction to A Whole Lot of Shaking. I'm going to ask the good folks at Music Gurus to put a bit of slap back echo on this next little bit so you can grasp the effect it has on the sound.

• Effect:
  So, you can hear that it sounds much more identifiable as A Whole Lot of Shaking Going On.

There's something about that rock and roll slap back echo that truly defines it and gives it that unmistakable sound of rock and roll.