This song was written by the prolific R&B songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and
Mike Stoller. They came to the first recording session for the film "Jailhouse
Rock" on April
30, 1957 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. This was their first meeting with
Elvis, whom they had predetermined to be "musically ignorant". They were
surprised to find immediately that Elvis was knowledgeable of even the most
obscure R&B songs and was a big fan of the genre. At these sessions were Elvis
regulars Scotty Moore, Bill Black, DJ Fontana and The Jordanaires. Dudley Brooks
played piano.
It was during one of these sessions that Elvis walked out, not come back for
several days, when he found out that an MGM representative had admonished The
Jordanaires for wasting time singing gospel songs with Elvis instead of
recording the material at hand. That executive did not appreciate the fact that
this was Elvis' way of relaxing and getting energized to work. Later, Bill Black
walked out in frustration from switching over from playing his usual upright
bass to his new electric Fender bass. Much to everyone's surprise, Elvis calmly
picked up the thrown instrument and played the bass line for Bill.
Take 6 of "Jailhouse Rock" was the single shipped on September 24, 1957 with "Treat
Me Nice"as the flip side. Elvis had believed that "Treat Me Nice" would be one
of his biggest hits from the film, but peaked only at only #18 on the pop chart
in the U.S. "Jailhouse Rock" was the big hit. In its 27-week run on Billboard's
pop singles chart it hit #1 for 7 weeks. It charted country for 24 weeks,
peaking at #1. It charted R&B for 15 weeks with a 5-week run at #1. On the
British pop singles chart it was #1 for 3 weeks.
Others to record the song since then include: Jeff Beck, The Blues Brothers,
Eric Burdon and the Animals, John Cougar Mellencamp, Tom Jones, Carl Perkins
with Michael Bolton, Twisted Sister, ZZ Top and Motley Crue.