Lyrics to
Jailhouse Rock

This version of Jailhouse Rock was released by Zz Top in 1975.

Our About Zz Top page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Jailhouse Rock from 1975 as well as all of the other lyrics from Zz Top that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Zz Top or about the 1970s in general.

Goin’ to a party in the county jail,
Prison band was there and they began to wail.
Kid is shakin’ and began to sing;
You should’ve heard them knocked out jailbirds sing.
Let’s rock! Everybody, let’s rock!
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the jailhouse rock.

Spider Murphy sittin’ on a block of stone;
Little Joey blowin’ on a slide trombone.
Come on, Silly Willy, don’t you be no square.
If you cannot find a partner, use a wooden chair.
Let’s rock! Everybody, let’s rock!
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the jailhouse rock.

Shifty Henry said to Bugs,”For heaven’s sake,
No one’s lookin’; now’s our chance to make a break.”
Bugsy turned to Shifty and he said, “Nix nix. I
Wanna stick around awhile and get my kicks.”
Let’s rock! Everybody, let’s rock!
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the jailhouse rock.

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Zz Top has released many songs over the years besides Jailhouse Rock. Zz Top released songs from 1971 to 2003 spanning across albums like ZZ Top's First Album, Rio Grande Mud, Tres Hombres, Fandango!, Tejas, Deguello, El Loco, Eliminator, Afterburner, Recycler, Antenna, Rhythmeen, XXX, and Mescalero. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Zz Top.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1975 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Jailhouse Rock by Zz Top

The lyrics to Jailhouse Rock are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Zz Top used when the song was created in 1975. The lyrics to Jailhouse Rock have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Zz Top and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Jailhouse Rock by Zz Top. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Jailhouse Rock" means the words set to the music of Jailhouse Rock, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Zz Top. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Jailhouse Rock and the lyrics to Jailhouse Rock are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Zz Top who came here looking just for the lyrics to Jailhouse Rock, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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