Johnny Kidd & The Pirates Shakin’ All Over
It’s a curious fact that some of the most enduring songs were written in a matter of minutes, such as The Beatles’ Yesterday, the Stones’ Satisfaction, Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. Another one is Johnny Kidd & The Pirates’ classic from 1960, Shakin’ All Over. Knocked together hastily in a cellar at midnight, it was intended as a throwaway B-side. Instead it became a monster hit and a foundation stone of British rock‘n’roll.
“I’d asked our studio engineer, Peter Sullivan, if we could write the B-side of our next single,” explains bassist Brian Gregg. “But we were so busy doing gigs that we never got round to writing it until
