My Own Lyrics Challenge 1957 - Jailhouse Rock - Mike Stoller & Jerry Leiber

The lyrics of the song “Jailhouse Rock” tell the tale of a party in a jail where all the inmates join in to the fun of singing and dancing to pass the time. This novelty hit was written and released to coincide with the opening of Elvis Presley’s movie of the same name.

The popularity of Elvis meant about anything he appeared in was a guaranteed hit at that time.

My Own Lyrics Challenge is going through the years to spotlight cool songs and this post is for 1957. “Jailhouse Rock” was an international hit, and rose number 1 on the Billboard chart and many others upon release. It was the number 16 song of the year on the Billboard Hot 100, accompanied by many other Elvis songs of the same time.

Rolling Stone magazine lists “Jailhouse Rock” as number 67 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and it is on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" list. It is also included in the Grammy Hall of Fame

Presley's performance of the song in the film is choreographed as a dance routine involving himself and a large group of other prisoners. He was responsible for a lot of the moves in this piece, though he had nothing to do with writing the song itself.

Jailhouse Rock - Mike Stoller & Jerry Leiber

[Verse 1]
The warden threw a party in the county jail
The prison band was there and they began to wail
The band was jumping and the joint began to swing
You should've heard those knocked out jailbirds sing

[Chorus]
Let's rock, everybody, let's rock
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancing to the Jailhouse Rock

[Verse 2]
Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone
Little Joe was blowing on the slide trombone
The drummer boy from Illinois went crash, boom, bang
The whole rhythm section was the Purple Gang

[Chorus]
Let's rock, everybody, let's rock
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancing to the Jailhouse Rock

[Verse 3]
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"

[Chorus]
Let's rock, everybody, let's rock
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancing to the Jailhouse Rock

[Verse 4]
The sad sack was a sitting on a block of stone
Way over in the corner weeping all alone
The warden said, "Hey, buddy, don't you be no square
If you can't find a partner use a wooden chair"

[Chorus]
Let's rock, everybody, let's rock
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancing to the Jailhouse Rock

[Verse 5]
Shifty Henry said to Bugs, "For Heaven's sake
No one's looking, now's our chance to make a break"
Bugsy turned to Shifty and he said, "Nix nix
I want to stick around a while and get my kicks."

[Chorus]
Let's rock, everybody, let's rock
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancing to the Jailhouse Rock

[Outro]
Dancing to the Jailhouse Rock
Dancing to the Jailhouse Rock
Dancing to the Jailhouse Rock
Dancing to the Jailhouse Rock

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