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JOHNNY O'KEEFE
Shake Baby Shake (Champion Jack Dupree) Australia 1963 #21 Sydney #8 Melbourne #21 Brisbane #26 Adelaide Single on Leedon label. Double-sided hit in Sydney with Good Luck Charm. An earlier version of Shake Baby Shake was released by Johnny O'Keefe & The Deejays in 1958, on Festival EP Whole Lotta Shakin'. It was also released in the UK and USA as the B-side of Wild One. Johnny O'Keefe (1935-1978), known in Australia as "The Wild One", "The King of Rock'n'Roll" or just "J. O'K.", was a pioneer Australian rocker, a chart topping artist in his home country. The TV mini-series Shout! The Story of Johnny O'Keefe (1985) was adapted as a stage musical in 2001. The definitive biography is Damian Johnstone's The Wild One (2001). Thank you to Tony Watson for clarification.
JESSE LEE TURNER
Shake Baby Shake (Champion Jack Dupree) USA 1959 Single on Carlton label, B-side of The Little Space Girl.
CHAMPION JACK DUPREE
Shake Baby Shake (Champion Jack Dupree) 1952 Original version Single on Red Robin label; also on Vik label, 1957 (see below). Blues singer and pianist, former boxer from New Orleans born William Thomas Dupree (c.1910-1992). He recorded for several labels from the 40s, including Okeh, King and Atlantic. Later in life he lived in the UK and continued to record there. (ER1)  
JERRY LEE LEWIS
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (Dave Willliams - Sonny David [Roy Hall]) USA 1957 Red herring #3 USA #8 UK #19 Sydney #5 Melbourne #30 Brisbane [1970] Not to be confused with 'Shake Baby Shake'.
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On was first recorded by Big Maybelle on Okeh in 1954. Co-writer Roy Hall also recorded it in '55. A version by Doug Ashdown charted in Adelaide in 1969 (#18). Thanks to Joop Jansen. Corrections or comments? Contact the writer. |
The idea that Champion Jack Dupree's Shake Baby Shake was recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis seems to be a misunderstanding based on the repetition of the words "Shake, baby, shake" in Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On. Jerry Lee Lewis appears to have substituted the line at the point where Big Maybelle's original recording has (as I hear it) "Fakin' it, baby, shakin' it". It is reasonable to speculate (as Joop Jansen suggests) that Champion Jack Dupree's 1957 rerelease of his Shake Baby Shake may well have been a response to to the success of Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On.