1.Bill Haley and The Comets changed both music and song lyrics of the song “Shake, Rattle and Roll” (sang by Turner)
Billy Haley and His Comets changed the lyrics and music of the song “Shake, Rattle and Roll” (sang by Turner) to make it brighter and peppier. Haley changed Turner’s simple instrumental music with energetic slap bass and exchanged his horn sound with honking riff and shouts of word “Go!” by all band members at the end of the each line of verse.
As for lyrics, Haley changed the lyrics but put emphasis on the same words, creating different pictures. For example, while Turner sings “Way you wear those dresses, the sun come shining through/I can't believe my eyes all that mess belongs to you”, Haley puts also emphasis on the dress but changes the picture: Wearing those dresses/Your hair done up so nice/You look so warm/ But your heart is cold as ice”
2.They made these adjustments to avoid censorship and to make the song more of Haley’s country style.
Haley’s producer Milt Gabler said that he "cleaned up" lyrics because he “didn't want any censor with the radio station to bar the record from being played on the air. With NBC a lot of race records wouldn't get played because of the lyrics. So I had to watch that closely". They also made the song to fit the definition of rock and roll that merged with country music which was close to Haley’s sentiments as he started his career in country music.
