(O’Kelly Isley, Rudolph Isley, Ronald Isley)
Song written in 1959 by O’Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph and Ronald Isley who were members of the popular group The Isley Brothers. It was released on an album of the same name in 1959.
The song came about from when The Isley Brothers were performing their music shows and their last song of the night would be a cover of “Lonely Teardrops” by Jackie Wilson. One night while giving a show they decided to have an interaction with the audience in a call-and-response to the line “You know you make me wanna..” with the response being “Shout”. It became a popular part of the show so they extended it with “We-eee-ll” which they used from “I Got a Woman” by Ray Charles. The line “Say You Will” was later used in the chorus of the song and taken from Jackie Wilson’s song “Lonely Teardrops”.
The group could see how this performance was becoming such an enjoyable part of the night for the audience that they approached the producers Hugo & Luigi and made the suggestion of recording it as a song in its own right rather than as a section of their final song in the show “Lonely Teardrops”. It was agreed for the recording to go ahead and after The Isley Brothers had asked the organist Herman Stephens to perform along with the studio musicians provide by Herman & Luigi the song was finalised and released as “Shout – Part 1” with “Shout – Part 2” on the B side.
The song was released in August 1959 and became their first chart hit when it reached No. 47 in the Billboard Hot 100. It was later re-released in 1962. Just a month after it was released it was recorded by the Australian TV show Johnny O’Keefe and reached No. 2 in Australia. That same year it was recorded by Joey Dee and the Starliters and reached No. 6 in the USA. It was then recorded in 1964 in the UK by Lulu and the Luvvers, when Lulu was just fifteen, which reached No. 7 in the UK singles chart and charted again at No. 8 when it was re-released in 1986. Also in 1964 it was recorded by The Beatles for the TV special Around the Beatles and appeared on the album Anthology 1 in 1996. Many other versions have been recorded by a whole range of artists including The Shangri-Las and Tommy James & The Shondells.
It has been used on the soundtracks of the 1978 film National Lampoon’s Animal House, 1982’s Diner and Sister Act in 1992 and a cover version in 1988’s Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.
The song has been ranked No. 118 of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” by Rolling Stone magazine and in 1999 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The Isley Brothers recordings
RCA Victor 47-7588 (US single)
Sources: