"Shake Your Moneymaker" or "Shake Your Money Maker" is a song recorded by Elmore James in 1961 that has become one of his best-known pieces. Inspired by earlier songs, it has been interpreted and recorded by several blues and other artists.

"Shake Your Moneymaker"
Single by Elmore James
A-side	"Look on Yonder Wall"
Released	December 1961 (1961-12)
Recorded	June–September 1961
Studio	J&M Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana
Genre	Blues
Length	2:30
Label	Fire
Songwriter(s)	Elmore James
Producer(s)	Bobby Robinson
Elmore James singles chronology
"Done Somebody Wrong" (1960) "Shake Your Moneymaker" (1961) "Stranger Blues" (1962)

"Shake Your Moneymaker" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" and in 2019, the Blues Foundation inducted it into the Blues Hall of Fame as a "Classic of Blues Recording".

Earlier songs

Blues historian Gerard Herzhaft suggests that "Shake Your Moneymaker" is a variation on songs that have been traced back to Charlie Patton (1929 "Shake It and Break It") and Bukka White (1937 "Shake 'Em on Down").[1] In 1958, Chicago blues singer and harmonica player Shakey Jake Harris recorded "Roll Your Moneymaker" with a band including Magic Sam on guitar and Willie Dixon on bass.[2] The song, a twelve-bar blues with breaks, featured the chorus "roll your moneymaker". However, the song has been also identified as an Elmore James "original".[3]

Elmore James song

"Shake Your Moneymaker" is an up-tempo 12-bar blues featuring slide guitar. James frequently repeats the phrase "shake your money maker" throughout the song, but provides little context for the lyrics. The tune became one of James' most well-known songs and a popular dance number. Activist and author James Meredith described witnessing James "working the crowd into a frenzy at Mr. P's, a humble Mississippi juke joint" with the song.[4]

James recorded the song at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios in New Orleans, Louisiana in the summer of 1961.[3] James assembled a Mississippi version of his backing band, the Broomdusters, for the recordings: Johnny "Big Moose" Walker on piano, Sammy Lee Bully on bass, and Sam Myers on drums.[3] After one false start, the second take provided the master used for the single. Although several songs were recorded during the session, only "Shake Your Moneymaker", together with "Look on Yonder Wall", was released at the time.[3]

Recognition and legacy

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included "Shake Your Moneymaker" on its list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".[5] In 2019, the Blues Foundation inducted "Shake Your Moneymaker" into the Blues Hall of Fame as a "Classic of Blues Recording". The induction statement describes it as "an exuberant, uptempo departure from slide guitar master Elmore James' deep blues recordings" and notes its popularity among rock musicians, including Fleetwood Mac (1968, Fleetwood Mac), George Thorogood (1988, Born to Be Bad), the Black Crowes with Jimmy Page (1999, Live at the Greek), and Rod Stewart (2013, Time).[6] The Black Crowes named their 1990 debut album after the song.[7]

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