Then in the UK in 1964, a teenage Lulu did a quite good belting version that gave the singer her first British hit, reaching the Top Ten although it wasn't a hit in the States. This was hardly the end of the line for "Shout," as Joey Dee & the Starliters took a brash cover version, emphasizing the organ more than the Isley Brothers had, into the Top Ten in 1962. "Shout" grew out of an improvisation the Isleys were doing onstage based on a line ("say you will") in Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops," and for their recording of the song, they actually used the organist from their Cincinnati church, Professor Herman Stevens. Just at the point where the record seems to be on the verge of fading out altogether, the singer asks everyone to get louder, as indeed they do, in the ebb-and-flow manner of a tent revival, ending in all-out celebratory mode as the track finally fades for good. It started with some drawn-out vocalizing, backed by an organ, that sounded straight from the pulpit, then exploded back into the fully arranged raveup, then calmed down to a near whisper as the lead singer instructed proceedings to get softer and softer. Although the second part/side was pretty much a continuation of the frenetic chant/sung section, it wasn't redundant.
The surprise ending is when the instruments and harmony vocals come to a halt, and the lead singer announces in lingering phrasing, "now wait a minute." That was the end of "part one" of the track, which was long enough (four-and-a-half minutes) that it was split into two parts, each presented on a different side of the same 45. Then suddenly it revs right back up into the hyper-fast revival-like section that opened the tune. Then the song slows pace fairly drastically into a dynamic midtempo soul-blues groove - the "I want you to know" section, it could be called. The verses start off pretty much as chants, but go into a somewhat more straightforward section in which, for some unclear reason, the singer starts reminiscing about when his girl was nine years old, and how even then he was a fool for her. The structure of the song is very much in gospel, but the lyrics are indeed secular: it's a woman who makes the Isleys want to shout, not god. Then the whole group comes in, with the ebullient soulful lead vocal playing off the stirring backup harmonies in a furious clapalong rhythm. The song starts off with a super-elongated "welllllllll," as if in preparation for some serious testifying. Though "Shout" was recorded for the pop market, it is at its core a gospel revival chant, beefed up with some rock'n'roll instrumentation and energy. There's probably no better example of how gospel fed into early rock'n'roll and the birth of soul than the Isley Brothers' "Shout." It only made #47 in the charts in 1959, but it's had an influence, and has stuck around as a standard, to a far larger degree than that modest placing might indicate.
The relationship between gospel and rock'n'roll's birth has been given short shrift by critics, who have much more frequently outlined the influence of R&B, blues, and country and western music on rock's birth.
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