YouTube Gold: Shake, Rattle And Roll By Big Joe Turner

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images CIRCA 1960: American blues musician Big Big Joe Turner circa 1960.Big Joe Turner is a somewhat obscure figure today but a towering giant musically. A native of Kansas City, he began to sing early and was known as the Singing Bartender. It may have been that making himself heard over the din of a bar helped him to develop such a powerful voice.

When he teamed up with brilliant pianist Pete Johnson, the two began to develop an iconic sound: a driving piano paired with a ridiculously powerful voice. They did a lot of slow blues numbers of course but their greatest influence came from songs like Shake, Rattle and Roll which was covered by Jerry Lee…