Shake That Thang
Story behind the song
Here is a song I wrote after my son heard me say the phrase and said I should write a song about it. He asked me if I made that phrase up and I told him I had been hearing this phrase all my life. Anyway, I wrote the song, and then got to thinking, I’ll bet this has been done before. So I did a search on it and found that the first time it was done was in 1942 by the Glenn Miller band. Channy Macgregor and George Williams wrote it. In 1944 Woody Herman did a remake of it and added lyrics written by Sunny Skylar. I kept searching and found that Frankie Ford did another version as did Norman Blake, The Hip Cats, Charley Lincoln and a Grunge Band called Bide. These are all different songs about the same Idea. Although my version has a different title, “ It’s Got to be Jelly” opposed to “It Must Be Jelly” and is different from the rest, it is still about the same subject. I started to trash it, but decided to keep it and share since I had already written it. I also did a search in the BMI catalog and found 3 different titles of “It Must Be Jelly” but none for “ It’s got to be Jelly”. Anyway, although it has been done 7 or 8 times and is not a new idea, here is my version. Give it a listen and enjoy.
Lyrics
Got to be Jelly
© Charles Kirkland 2008
We fell in behind her she was walking down the street
My eyes caught the rhythm and they never missed a beat
Not to thin and not to fat
It’s got to be jelly cause jam don’t shake like that
Her long black hair and those ruby red lips
Was not enough to take my eyes off of those swinging hips
I tried to look away but I kept looking back
It’s got to be jelly cause jam don’t shake like that
My girlfriend hit me then she looked at me and said
Boy you better get your eyes back in your head
I know exactly what you’re looking at
I said it’s got to be jelly cause jam don’t shake like that
Her long black hair and those ruby red lips
Was not enough to take my eyes off of those swinging hips
I tried to look away but I kept looking back
It’s got to be jelly cause jam don’t shake like that
Instrumental
With a little jiggle wiggle she walked out of sight
But she left my thoughts a shaking much to my delight
All night long my mind kept gnawing at
It’s got to be jelly cause jam don’t shake like that.
Her long black hair and those ruby red lips
Was not enough to take my eyes off of those swinging hips
I tried to look away but I kept looking back
It’s got to be jelly cause jam don’t shake like that