Chan Romero, the Billings, Montana-born writer of the 1959 hit song “Hippy Hippy Shake†has died. He was 82 and living in California.
“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of rock and roll legend Chan Romero,†a statement on his Facebook page said. “…His spirit and legacy will forever resonate through his music.†The statement didn't say when he died, or the cause.Â
As a 17-year-old student at Billings Senior High School, Romero played the song live for the first time in 1958 during a show at the downtown Billings Eagles Club.
“Edna Best had a women’s club and she used to hear us practice across from her house on South 25th Street,†Romero recalled in a 2014 story published in the Billings Gazette. “Edna asked if we could play for a little fundraiser they were having and we were like, you’ve got to be kidding. We were just learning how to play.â€
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From there, Romero and his band the Beltones, started getting regular calls to perform at various school functions and then began touring around the state and Wyoming.
Buzz from the song was enough to prompt the band to record a demo of the song which he mailed to Del-Fi records in California and to his surprise, the label signed him to a recording contract and released the 1-minute 44-second song as a single, he said.
The song did OK in the U.S., but in Australia it went to number-three on the charts. The song got another boost when it was recorded in 1963 by The Swinging Blue Jeans.
Then came The Beatles who launched the song into immortality with a version for their 1963 “Live at the BBC†album. Paul McCartney performed the song in his solo shows until as late as 2008.
A glam rock band called Mud also covered the song, along with Billy Childish and his band The Milkshakes in 1984. Teen idol Davy Jones recorded a post-Monkees version as a B-side to his “After Your Heart.†The rockingest version came in 1988 with a rowdy version by the Georgia Satellites and there was a hip-hop version by Mare Dayco in 2016.
The song had a second life in movie and TV soundtracks, including “Uncle Buck,†“Angels in the Outfield,†“Austin Powers,†and episodes of “The Simpsons†and “Full House.â€
And, if Montana Legislator Jacob Backmeier had gotten his way, “Hippy Hippy Shake†would have become the state song. He introduced a bill in 2019 with language that began: “WHEREAS, Montanans shake it to the left and shake it to the right and do everything with all of their might."
Romero once told a reporter he’d written as many as 700 songs and he was the first Latino singer inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
He said his hit song came to him when as a young teenager he left Billings to spend vacation with relatives in East Los Angeles. Its opening line was inspired by the 1957 Academy Award-winning movie “Bridge Over the River Kwai.†A cut girl in the film, when she got excited, would say “For goodness sake.â€
“I was thinking of that one day and just started writing,†Romer said. “For goodness sake, I got the hippy hippy shake. I got the shake, the hippy-hippy shake ...â€
He figures it took him between 15 and 20 minutes to write the song.
“That song has opened a lot of doors for me. It’s been a way for me to meet a lot of people who have been a joy to know and perform music with,†he said. “That song has been performed all over the world, which is pretty special for a kid from Billings, Montana.â€
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