Country Girl (Shake It For Me)

Album: Tailgates & Tanlines (2011)
Charted: 22
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the opening track from Luke Bryan's third album. The Georgia native told The Boot how the tune was influenced by some very un-country music: "What's interesting is, I wrote it with my buddy Dallas Davidson, who I wrote 'Rain Is a Good Thing' with," he explained. "Me and Dallas, heck, we always listen to crazy music, and we were on iTunes one day listening to some hip-hop songs. We said, 'We need to talk about getting some Country girls to shake it a little bit.' We just laughed about it. And then we started working on it, and we wrote it."
  • Bryan initially lacked confidence in the song. "I am the world's worst at going, 'Oh my God, what are we doing?'" he told The Boot. "I started freaking out, because I said, 'Come on, Dal, we can't talk about country girls shaking their butts all over the place in Country music.' Dallas is rooting me on, and we kept on working on it. I played it for my producer and my wife and everybody. Everybody's saying, 'That thing's going to be crazy.' It's a fun song, and it certainly adds to the live show and get some old country girls shaking a little bit."
  • Bryan explained the inspiration behind the fun tune in an interview with The Boot: "Me and my co-writer, Dallas Davidson, often times we'll sit in a songwriting room and we'll pull up fun rap and dance songs. I've been in so many honky tonks where right when I get off stage, they put on rap music and the dance floor fills up. I'll never forget, I played a private party one time, and it was a pool party for some young kids who had some money. Their parents wanted Luke Bryan to surprise them, and the time I got done playing, they put on dance music and rap and the pool party was just rocking! I was like, 'I've gotta try to write some music that maybe some kids like that will want to rock at their pool party or play at a honky tonk.' I told that to Dallas, and we went on that. We didn't have a title. If you had told us the title, 'Country Girl Shake it For Me,' we'd have said that's too cheesy."
  • This was the biggest song of 2011 in Country dance clubs, according to the Marco Club Connection, which keeps track of these things. The #2 Country stomper that year was Blake Shelton's cover of "Footloose."
  • Colorado-raised singer-songwriter Clare Dunn sang background vocals on this while she was still in college. Dunn recalled: "I was writing a lot at the time with Jeff Stephens, who is Luke's producer. Jeff and I had been working together and then one day he just said,'Hey, I've got this song that I'm working on with Luke, and maybe you want to sing a part? You want to sing backup?' And I said,'Sure! Tell me where to be and what time to be there.' I showed up to the studio a couple of days later and sang the song."

    Dunn only knew her vocals made the song she heard it on the radio. "Me and my sister were in her pickup cruising down the road," she recalled. "She'd picked me up from the airport and we were in the Oklahoma Panhandle somewhere, and she was flipping through the radio stations. And I heard about two seconds of it, and I was like,'Wait a minute. I know that song.' I said,'Taylor, go back.' So, she put it back on the station, and right then, the chorus kicked in and I heard myself," she says. "I was like,'WWHaat?!' And so that was the first time I heard myself on the radio, and I was like,'I know that voice! Wait a minute! That's me! They kept my part! Ahhhh!' So, I knew then that they kept it." [laughs]
  • Luke Bryan grew up listening to hip-hop acts such as N.W.A, the Beastie Boys, and Heavy D & the Boyz as well as country stars such as Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks. He explained to the Los Angeles Times how this song integrated the two genres.

    "I would go play college bars, honky-tonks - a thousand people dancing, partying their ass off, spraying beer. And the second I got offstage, the DJ would play the biggest hip-hop songs in the world, and everybody wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots and Wranglers with dip rings, they were all out there grinding and humping one another. And nobody ever had a problem with it. So 'Country Girl (Shake It for Me)' kind of does all that."

Comments: 2

  • AnonymousYou lacked confidence because you stole it from a rapper
  • Megan from Stevenson, AlHa! Me and a buddy sang this for our high school football game, but changed all the "girls" to "boys"! lol It was awesome! Great game too! :)
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith

Steven Tyler of AerosmithSongwriter Interviews

Tyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art.

Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire

Verdine White of Earth, Wind & FireSongwriter Interviews

The longtime bassist of Earth, Wind & Fire discusses how his band came to do a holiday album, and offers insight into some of the greatest dance/soul tunes of all-time.

Benny Mardones

Benny MardonesSongwriter Interviews

His song "Into The Night" is one of the most-played of all time. For Benny, it took him to hell and back.

Rosanne Cash

Rosanne CashSongwriter Interviews

Rosanne talks about the journey that inspired her songs on her album The River & the Thread, including a stop at the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Soul Train Stories with Stephen McMillian

Soul Train Stories with Stephen McMillianSong Writing

A Soul Train dancer takes us through a day on the show, and explains what you had to do to get camera time.

Steve Morse of Deep Purple

Steve Morse of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple's guitarist since 1994, Steve talks about writing songs with the band and how he puts his own spin on "Smoke On The Water."