When Big Joe Turner recorded "Shake Rattle and Roll" it made him an unlikely rock star at the age of 43. It shot to the top of the rhythm-and-blues charts in America, becoming a teenage anthem for the 1950's. The song received heavy airplay on jukeboxes and records throughout the States. It was a record that helped to transform popular music at the time.
Elvis Presley recorded it later in the 50's, Bill Haley and The Comets had a more sanitised version, but still that reached top of the charts in the UK and began the popularising of Rock and Roll throughout Europe.
Big Joe Turner was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, he died on 23 November 1985.
Here is a high quality film of him performing the hit on television in the 1950's just as if it were yesterday. As Keith Richard once said "I hear plenty of Rock but not much Roll". Big Joe Turner had plenty of both.
