Now let me get this straight, I never heard a word spoken about Shakin' Stevens in the 80's. I've never heard a song by Shakin' Stevens. And yet according to DJDaffy's posts, Shakin' Stevens had 27 top 40, 14 top 10 and 3 number 1 hits in the UK. Shakin' Stevens even had 9 top 20 hits in Germany. So who is Shakin' Stevens? Help me out UK Xchangers!!

According to the Guiness book of British singles. Shaken Stevens, real name Michael Baratt, was born in Glamorgan, Wales and was the most successful 80's UK act. I knew him in the 80's because of the Christmas song "Merry Christmas everyone" which was on a compilation CD I bought. He is pop music at it's finest. I now have tons of his songs but would like to know what our European friends think.

I remember at the time thinking he was cute!

Ahh...the phenomena that was Shakey. He had a ton of hits in the UK charts, and even hit number 1 as late as 1985 with 'Merry Christmas Everyone'.

The mistake was that when Shakey first hit the scene, the 'old lady' brigade labelled him the 'New Elvis'. Yeah, right.

Still, a decent entertainer and a nice guy.

He also did a duet with Bonnie Tyler (they are both Welsh, btw), called "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall In Love)"

Yup! Shaky was pretty big here in the '80s. His style owes a lot to early Elvis and rockabilly.

all the best
Huw

So Shakin' Stevens was a rockabilly Evlis wannabe?

Yes, he was in a lot of repects Greenway.

- That duet with Bonnie Tyler 'A Rocking Good Way' was just about his worst single ever - that stunk big-time!

Oh Guys!! Did you have to bring this up???? You know when we talk about how great the 80's were??? Why do you think we kept quiet about ol' Shakey??? Who could ever forget his dazzling rendition of that ol' track "This old House"????????

:lol:

Not one of my favs from the 80's!!!

Trivia fact: Shakey did a cover of an old hit called 'Behind The Green Door'. I recently discovered (it was on a radio programme) that the song was written about a private Lesbian club in London in the '50s and '60s. Apparently the club had a green door and there was much curiosity among the heterosexual male population at the time about what went on (as the song says) "behind the green door".

I promise you, I am not making this up. If the BBC had known what Shakey's song was about back then they would probably have banned it! :)

all the best
Huw