The Hippy Hippy Shake

From Wikipedia:

“Hippy Hippy Shake” is a song written and recorded by Chan Romero in 1959. That same year, it reached #3 in Australia. Romero was just 17 when he wrote the song.

The Beatles version

A live version of “Hippy Hippy Shake” can be found on The Beatles album Live at the BBC. This version was recorded in July 1963, almost certainly pre-dating the Swinging Blue Jeans recording. The Beatles also played this song in their early days when they performed in small clubs. Another version, recorded on 10 September 1963 for “Pop Go The Beatles” can be found on On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.

There were millions of groups around at that time – The Blue Angels, The Running Scareds – but they were mostly lookalike groups; The Shadows and Roy Orbison had a lot of followers. Then there were groups like us, more into the blues and slightly obscure material. And because we had the unusual songs, we became the act you had to see, to copy…

We had too much material anyway. We couldn’t record it all when we did get a deal, so other groups took songs from our act and made hits out of them – like The Swinging Blue Jeans with The Hippy Hippy Shake, which was one of my big numbers.

From the liner notes of On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2:

Although not a hit, “The Hippy Hippy Shake” by Chan Romero became popular in Liverpool when DJ Bob Wooler played it at The Cavern Club. He recalled lending his copy of the UK Columbia single to Paul so the group could learn it. When The Beatles appeared on the BBC TV programme Juke Box Jury in December 1963, they reviewed “The Hippy Shake” by their Mersey mates The Swinging Blue Jeans. Their unanimous judgement that it would be a hit proved to be true, both in the UK and America. Chan Romero had recorded his song in 1959 at Gold Star studio in Los Angeles with the same musicians who played on “La Bamba” by his hero Ritchie Valens.

Lyrics

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

“The Hippy Hippy Shake” has been played in 10 concerts.

Latest concerts where “The Hippy Hippy Shake” has been played

Going further

Valdimir D'Angelo • 3 years ago

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