Jailhouse Rock

Posted on by

“Jailhouse Rock” is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that first became a hit for Elvis Presley. The song was released as a 45rpm single on September 24, 1957, to coincide with the release of Presley’s motion picture, Jailhouse Rock.

The song as sung by Elvis Presley is #67 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

The single, with its B-side “Treat Me Nice,” was a US #1 hit for 7 weeks in the fall of 1957, and a UK #1 hit for three weeks early in 1958. In addition, “Jailhouse Rock” spent one week at the top of the country charts and reached the #2 position on the R&B charts.

Also in 1957, “Jailhouse Rock” was the lead song in an EP (extended play single), together with other songs from the film, namely “Young and Beautiful,” “I Want to be Free,” “Don’t Leave Me Now,” and “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care.” It topped the Billboard EP charts, eventually selling an additional two million copies and earning another double-platinum RIAA certification.

In 2005, the song was re-released in the UK and reached #1 for a single week. The song, which is an example of simple verse form, eventually sold four million copies in the US, thus earning a Double Platinum certification by the RIAA. The video of the song by Elvis is known as the first music video. The song and the famous Elvis performance in the movie bear a remarkable resemblance to the theme and performance of a song called “Rock Around the Rockpile” from the movie The Girl Can’t Help It, released one year earlier. In that performance, a villain played by Edmond O’Brien seeks to escape an assassination attempt by jumping on stage and singing the lyrics, “rock, rock, rock around the rockpile,” while backed up by The Ray Anthony Band wearing striped inmate uniforms. O’Brien even includes some of the hip-swiveling and leg motions for which Elvis became famous. Reportedly, the producers had wanted Elvis for The Girl Can’t Help It, but Elvis’s manager Tom Parker had demanded too much money. Two uncredited composers on the film, Hugo Friedhofer and Lionel Newman, had also composed music for the Elvis classic movie, Love Me Tender, in the same year, 1956.

“Jailhouse Rock” was performed regularly in a medley along with many old rock and roll hits by Queen and was the opening song on Queen’s 1980 North American tour for The Game. It was the last song in the motion picture The Blues Brothers. This song was featured on American Idol when Season 5 contestant Taylor Hicks performed it on May 9, 2006 and when Season 7 contestant Danny Noriega performed it on February 20, 2008. The song was also featured in Disney’s animated film Lilo & Stitch during the ending credits. In an episode of Full House Jesse and Becky sing this song at their wedding reception. The song was included in the musical revue “Smokey Joe’s Cafe”.

The German rock band Spider Murphy Gang is named after one of the characters in the lyrics.

In Stephen King’s novel Christine, “Jailhouse Rock” is playing when the car runs down Buddy Repperton, one of the guys who smashed up the car at the garage.

American rock and roll revival act Sha Na Na performed “Jailhouse Rock” live at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969.

Westlife performed the song for the medley part of their Where the Dreams Come True Tour.

Chris Brown covered the song at the 2007 Movie’s Rock.

Scratch Track added this song to their live performance of “Love Someone.”

Dwayne Johnson performed a parody of the song that pokes fun at his Wrestlemania XXVIII opponent John Cena during the Rock Concert on an episode of WWE Raw in March 2012. WWE later released this version on iTunes as “Rock’s Concert.”

By Elvis Presley

Lyrics

The warden threw a party in the county jail.
The prison band was there and they began to wail.
The band was jumpin’ and the joint began to swing.
You should’ve heard those knocked out jailbirds sing.
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.
Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone,
Little Joe was blowin’ on the slide trombone.
The drummer boy from Illinois went crash, boom, bang,
the whole rhythm section was the Purple Gang.
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.
Number forty-seven said to number three:
“You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see.
I sure would be delighted with your company,
come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me.”
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.
The sad sack was a sittin’ on a block of stone
way over in the corner weepin’ all alone.
The warden said, “Hey, buddy, don’t you be no square.
If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair.”
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.
Shifty Henry said to Bugs, “For Heaven’s sake,
no one’s lookin’, now’s our chance to make a break.”
Bugsy turned to Shifty and he said, “Nix nix,
I wanna stick around a while and get my kicks.”
Let’s rock, everybody, let’s rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.

Leave a Reply