Chords + Lyrics | Shake A Tail Feather
Intro
| D7 | D7 | G7 | D7 | A5 |
Verse 1 (Fender Roades only)
| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | G (G6) |
Well, I heard about the fellow you’ve been dancin’ with, all over the neighborhood.
| D5 (D6) | Bm (Bm7) | E (E7) | A (A7) |
So why didn’t you ask me, baby? Didn’t you think I could?
Verse 2 (Band in)
| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | G (G6) |
Well, I know that the boogaloo is outta sight. But to shake a leisure thing tonight.
| D5 (D6) | Bm7 (Bm) | E7 (E) |
Would it happen to me and you baby? I want to show you how to do it right.
Pre-chorus 1
| A5 | A5 | A | A | A | A | A7 | A7 | A (lick) | A (lick) |
Do it right. Uh-huh. Do it right. Do it right, do it right, do it right, do it right! Uhhh!
Chorus 1
| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | A |
Twist it! Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby!
| G | G | D | D | G | G |
Here we go loop di loo! Shake it out, baby! Here we go loop di lie!
Pre-chorus 2
| A5 | A5 |
Bend over, let me see you shake your tail feather.
| A | A |
Bend over, let me see you shake your tail feather.
| A | A |
Come on, let me see you shake your tail feather. Uh!
| A7 | A7 | A (lick) | A (lick) |
Come on, let me see you shake your tail feather. Uh!
Chorus 2 (as chorus 1)
Twist it! Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby!
Here we go loop di loo! Shake it out, baby! Here we go loop di lie!
Pre-chorus 3 (as pre-chorus 2)
Bend over, let me see you shake your tail feather.
Bend over, let me see you shake your tail feather.
Come on, let me see you shake your tail feather. Uh!
Come on, let me see you shake your tail feather. Uh!
Outro
||: D5 (D6) | G (G6) :||
Come on! Come on babe!
Come on! Yeah, come on babe! Alright!
Do the twist! Do the fly! Do the swim! (Ha! Ha! Ha!)
And do the bird! (Oh!) Do the duck!
(Ah!) Do the monkey!
(Hey! Hey!) Watootsie!
And the… what about the food?
Do the mashed potato! What about the boogaloo?
The Boney Muroney! Come on let’s do the twist!
| A5 | A5 |
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
End
||: D5 (D6) | G (G6) :|| to fade
Twist it! Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it baby!
(Oh!) Twist it! Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it baby!
Shake a Tail Feather Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Shake a Tail Feather. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, horns, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
Primarily played on the electric piano (by the legendary Ray Charles), Shake a Tail Feather can be approached in different ways on guitar, depending on whether a keyboard player is present at the gig or not (yes!).
I’ve designed some TAB arrangements to cover both situations, including how to play the intro keyboard part on guitar. Keep scrolling down this guitar lesson to find it.
The Chords
The verse revolves around a I – IV progression, using the honky-tonk rhythm popularised by Chuck Berry. To keep things clear, I’ve marked the 6-chord in brackets instead of repeating it with every instance of the lyrics.
After the honky-tonk section, the progression moves to VI – IIx – V, like this:
| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | G (G6) |
| D5 (D6) | Bm (Bm7) | E (E7) | A (A7) |
Verse 2 ends early, transitioning into the A chord and pre-chorus, similar to Twist & Shout.
Pre-Chorus
The key feature here is a root – 3rd – 5th – b7 lick, which is best understood with TAB. If reading chord names alone, it looks like this:
| A5 | A5 | A | A |
| A | A | A7 | A7 |
| A lick | A lick |
The last two bars use the three-against-four rhythm lick.
Chorus
The chorus follows a similar honky-tonk approach over D6 – G6, moving to A earlier before stripping the honky-tonk feel, alternating between D and G:
| D5 (D6) | G (G6) | D5 (D6) | A |
| G | G | D | D | G | G |
| A5 | A5 | A | A |
| A | A | A7 | A7 | A lick | A lick |
The outro fades out with the honky-tonk feel returning.
Mastering the Groove
Just looking at the chords isn’t enough—these changes need the right rhythmic feel. To develop this, play along with the backing tracks and compare similar honky-tonk grooves in songs like:
- I Can’t Stand the Rain – Ann Peebles
- Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield
- You Never Can Tell – Chuck Berry
- Nutbush City Limits – Tina Turner
- Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry
Once you’ve got the feel down (with help from the TAB), this chord chart will be a great reference.
Shake A Tail Feather Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Shake A Tail Feather chord chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: Shake A Tail Feather iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Shake a Tail Feather | TAB
In my opinion, it’s far better for your development to transcribe parts from other instruments to guitar, rather than just sticking with studying guitar parts. With that in mind, here’s the keyboard intro from Shake A Tail Feather, adapted for guitar!
For the verse, I got a bit carried away and wrote out three versions—even though there are only two in the tune!
Here’s verse 1. You might use this if you’ve lost (or finally fired) your keyboard player on the way to the gig.
Notice how the 6 chords fall on beats 2 and 3+. The Bm is followed by a Bm7, and the E is followed by an E7. The A chord leads us into verse 2.
Here’s verse 2. Now that the full band has joined in, we need a smaller guitar part, or we won’t cut through the mix. The G chord here is played using an E shape.
The Bm7 is followed by a Bm this time (not the other way around). This is very similar to the D – D6 part. The E is followed by an E7 again, and the A chord begins the pre-chorus.
Next, here’s another way to approach the verse. The Bm is again followed by a Bm7, and the E by an E7. The A chord leads into the pre-chorus.
Let’s now look at a way to build intensity in the pre-chorus, using this TAB. Notice how the top voice of the chord moves: root – 3rd – 5th – flat 7th – lick.
Finally, here are the chorus chords in TAB:
The honky-tonk style is now different from what we played in the verse—the 6 chords hit on beats 2 and 4, not 3+. The final G – D chords are played without the honky-tonk feel, creating more space in the arrangement.
When you can play all this TAB, try it out using the backing tracks, with only the chord chart as your guide.
Shake A Tail Feather Chords: Continue Learning
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