Buffalo Boy's Blog

This song got a lot of airplay over the holiday as we tried to come up with the original artist who wrote it. The most popular version was the Beatles 1963 Live at the BBC cover of the tune. It had been done no fewer than three times before that.

The original was done in 1959, come you know the guy, he goes by Chan Romero, perhaps you know him by his other name....Robert Lee? No? Don't feel bad because neither did anyone else who was sitting around on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.

After that? Little Tony, I couldn't find anything on him but apparently it was a moderate hit in Italy and the UK.

Then the Swingin Blue Jeans in 1963 did their version. This version actually did a little better. It made the British top 5 and went to number 21 here in the US.

Then in the same year (1963) Live at the BBC featured a version by the Beatles which is the one that is best known:

There was more.....The Georgia Satellites gave it a shot as well in 1988 on the soundtrack for the movie Cocktail:

Oh but there is more, check out this song by the B 52's called Dance This Mess Around. It keeps repeating phrases from Hippy Hippy Shake. "Hippy hippy forward, hippy hippy hippy hippy hippy shake" referring to the Hippy Hippy Shake:

Now you have the complete history of the song Hippy Hippy Shake. Who knew it had all that history to it. I believe Chan Romero is actually in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a rock and roll pioneer.....I'll have to verify that one to believe it. The song has been used in various movies including Uncle Buck, Cocktail and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.