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On August 31, 1956 RCA Victor released eight singles in one swoop. Besides "Shake, Rattle & Roll" / "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" the label also issued all tracks of the album "Elvis Presley". The most successful one was "Blue Suede Shoes" / "Tutti Frutti", which didn't chart but sold more than a million copies in the US and was certified Platinum by the RIAA. The other ones didn't even came close to this number, but nevertheless the label sold several 100,000 units of each single.

The single is not available on the streaming platforms since the tracks can be found on the album "For LP Fans Only". In 2016 the complete Presley catalogue was restored and remastered by Vic Anesini for a boxed set of 60 compact discs called "The Album Collection". Sony Music Entertainment provides the streaming platforms with the same versions of the individual tracks, albeit in 24 bit/90 khz flac. That means, if the platform of your choice supports high resolution audio, you can enjoy the songs in the same quality Sony used to scan and master them. On Spotify, which has a market share of approximately 30% and is the only platform that publishes streaming figures, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" accumulates 9 million streams, "Shake, Rattle And Roll" clocks in at 4 million.

The records were sold in simple brown paper sleeves, nobody bothered to design proper covers. The whole idea was to generate some extra money by releasing the tracks in another format.  

Lawdy Miss Clawdy

Lloyd Price had written and recorded the song in 1952. On February 3, 1956 Elvis put 12 takes on tape at the RCA Studio 1 in New York and selected number 10 as the master. I like the song very much, RCA Victor released it in 1959 on the album "For LP Fans Only". Live performances can be found on "Elvis" (1968) and "Elvis As Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis" (1974). In the movie "Change Of Habit" (1969) Dr. John Carpenter (Elvis) plays a few bars of "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" on the piano, a complete version could be seen in "Elvis On Tour" (1972).

Shake, Rattle & Roll

This one is a cover version, too. Joe Turner recorded "Shake, Rattle & Roll" in 1954, the composer is named Carles Calhoun. The rock'n'roll pioneer Bill Haley had the biggest hit with the song, even though he alleviated the lyrics a bit. In his version the lady is in the kitchen instead of the bed and the see-through dress is substituted by a nice hairdo. Elvis also left out the raunchy dress, but the lady was back in the bed and the verse with the one-eyed cat and the seafood store (at the time extremely suggestive paraphrases of the male and femal genitals) was also used. This recording was also made on February 3, 1956 and take 12b was chosen as master take. On the same day Elvis, Scotty, Bill and D.J. overdubbed the backup vocals.

 

Verdict

 "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" / "Shake, Rattle & Roll" is a great release and certaily would have been a hit if it had not been released in tow with seven other singles.

 (C) RCA Victor