|
 1957. Otis Blackwell is sitting in his office at Shalamar Music, desperately trying to come up with a follow-up to his composition "Don't Be Cruel". It wasn't going to be easy to match; recorded by Elvis, "Don't Be Cruel" had been #1 on the charts for eleven weeks, making it the top song of 1956. Now Presley wanted another song and Otis wanted to give him one. But nothing came. Then Al Stanton, one of the partners at Shalamar, happened to wander in.
BLACKWELL: "He walked in with a bottle of Pepsi, shaking it as they did at the time. Al said, 'Otis, I've got an idea. Why don't you write a song called "All Shook Up"?' A couple of days later I brought the song in and said 'Look man, I did something with it!'" So did Presley. It hit #1 and stayed there for nine weeks, enough to make an Otis Blackwell song the most popular record of the year again!
 | | |
