TALENT OF TONY JOE WHITE - How Could It Be Like That* - SHAKIN' STEVENS* (V-3)

HOW COULD IT BE LIKE THAT
(shakin' stevens)
guitar: TONY JOE WHITE
vocals: SHAKIN' STEVENS

Michael Barratt (born 4 March 1948), known as Shakin' Stevens, is a platinum-selling Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter who was the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s. His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s, although it was not until 1980 that he saw commercial success in his native land.

In the UK alone, Stevens has charted 33 Top 40 hit singles including four chart topping hits This Ole House, Green Door, Oh Julie, and Merry Christmas Everyone; his last Top 40 single was "Trouble" in 2005, and his Christmas song has re-entered the UK Top 40 chart each December since 2007.

Life and career
Early days
Michael Barratt, who would later adopt the stage name "Shakin' Stevens", was the youngest of 11 children born in Ely, Cardiff to Jack and May Barratt. His father was a First World War veteran who by 1948 was working in the building trade, having previously worked as a coal miner. The oldest of his siblings were born in the later part of the 1920s, and by the time of his birth some of them were already married and had children of their own. Jack Barratt died in 1972, aged 75, while May lived until 1984, dying at age 79.

As a teenager in the mid-1960s, Stevens formed his first amateur rock and roll band with school friends and became its vocalist and frontman. Originally named the Olympics, then the Cossacks, the short-lived band finally renamed as the Denims and performed gigs in the local Cardiff and South Wales area. In the late 1960s Stevens was associated with the Young Communist League (YCL), the youth wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain through playing at YCL events. At the time the YCL was associated with several leading music industry figures, including Pete Townshend.

Stevens married his wife, Carole, on 7 October 1967, and they have three children. At the time of their marriage, his official occupation was a milkman, and they lived in a flat which formed part of an office block in inner-city Cardiff. The office block was demolished several years later. He is a lifelong supporter of his local football team Cardiff City F.C.

"Elvis!" and a hit record
In 1977, after seven years of constant touring and recording, "Shaky", as he was also being called by this time, had been spotted during a London Sunsets gig by Jack Good who personally invited him to attend a London audition for his planned new West End Elvis! musical. Three actors were to portray Elvis's life during the course of the show and Shaky landed one of the lead roles, playing Elvis in his prime charting, army and movie star years, with young actor Tim Whitnall covering the earlier formative years and veteran 1960s singer P J Proby taking over the part for Elvis's 'Las Vegas' years.

During the "Elvis!" show's highly successful and then twice-extended two-year run Shaky made regular TV appearances, firstly on Good's revived British ITV show Oh Boy! and later on his follow-up 30-week-long series Let's Rock that was syndicated in thirty two countries, including the United States. This led almost inevitably to his first major chart success with a cleverly reworked version of a Buck Owens song "Hot Dog", which Owens would re-record using the arrangement created by pedal steel guitar player B.J. Cole.

Looking back, when the times we’re good
We grew up together in our neighbourhood
Being friends and our love was strong
But then came the day when you we’re gone, yeah gone, yeah gone
How could it be like that, how could it be like that
Be like that
Remember when we couldn’t do no wrong
Like everything, like in a real love song
Ooh sweet little woman when you we’re mine
Thought we had a love till the end of time, yeah time, yeah time
How could it be like that, how could it be like that
Be like that
We talked on the phone, we said we’d meet again
Down by the river, when we met back then
I closed my eyes, and you weren’t there
I’m burning inside knowing that you care, yeah care, yeah care
How could it be like that, how could it be like that
Be like that
How could it be like that, how could it be like that
Be like that
Be like that
Be like that
How could it be like that!...