The Bigger Picture

45 Insert: The Swinging Blue Jeans/Chan Romero

by Bob Moses

The Swinging Blue Jeans: “Hippy Hippy Shake”

45 InsertOne of the most infectious tunes of the Merseybeat era came straight outta East L.A.

The Swinging Blue Jeans had the biggest hit with “Hippy Hippy Shake,” seeing their take on the twitchy call to the dance floor rise to number 2 in the UK and number 24 in the US. That resulted in their appearance on the debut show of the BBC’s long-running Top of the Pops (along with The Rolling Stones). In the modus operandi of the time, British bands scoured US rock and roll and R&B releases for fresh material, and The Beatles got to “Hippy Hippy Shake” first, performing it at the Cavern and Hamburg’s Star Club. A live recording from July 1963 ended up on The Beatles Live at the BBC, released in 1994. In this (and only this) case, The Beatles have to take a back seat to The Swinging Blue Jeans, their version a bit strained and ponderous, missing the essential rockabilly strangeness and abandon.
Chan Romero
Both British versions, though, pale compared to the original single by Chan Romero. Bracingly weird, with whoops and yips drenched in reverb accompanied by trebly guitars mixed way up, this is the rattletrap-rock real thing. It’s not quite rockabilly, but shares that genre’s wild sense of all control going out the window at any moment. While visiting relatives in East LA, Romero heard Ritchie Valens’s “Come On, Let’s Go,” and his musical direction was sealed. Romero shared Valens’s Latino heritage, his musical inclinations, and eventually his band. After Valens died in 1959, a DJ in Romero’s hometown of Billings. Montana, sent a tape to Valens’s label, Del-Fi which jumped at “Hippy Hippy Shake.” Romero’s first real sessions were in June of 1959 at Hollywood’s Gold Star studios. He was accompanied by the same musicians that recorded with Valens: Rene Hall on lead guitar and six string bass; Irving Ashby, from the Nat King Cole Trio on stand-up bass; Barney Kissel on rhythm guitar; and Earl Plamer on drums. Hall played a Danelectro bass for the leads. "It is what he used for the lick that starts out Ritchie's 'La Bamba',” recalled Romero.

Chan Romero: "Hippy Hippy Shake"

Previously in 45 Insert:
Nino Tempo and April Stevens
Sugarloaf
Emitt Rhodes
Classics IV

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