Released on 13 February 1990 "Shake Your Money Maker" was the debut studio album by US rock band the Black Crowes. It is the only album by the band to feature guitarist Jeff Cease. Curiously, the album is named after a classic blues song written by Elmore James. The album spawned five singles "Jealous Again", "Hard To Habdle", "Twice As Hard", "She Talks To Angels" & "Seeing Things". The album peaked at No. 4 on Billboard 200 and two of its singles, "Hard to Handle" and "She Talks to Angels", reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. "Jealous Again", "Twice As Hard" and "Seeing Things" were also charting singles in the United States. Until now Shake Your Money Maker is the Black Crowes' best selling album, having sold more than 5 million copies.
Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson had formed Mr. Crowe's Garden in 1984. In 1988 George Drakoulias saw the band at a show they did in New York City and had them signed to Def American the same year; they changed their name to the Black Crowes shortly after. The recording sessions began in the summer of 1989 in Atlanta and Los Angeles, with Drakoulias producing the album. Some tracks include retained songs from the Mr. Crowe's Garden era such as "Could I've Been So Blind" and "She Talks to Angels", whose riff had been written years ago by then-17 year old Rich Robinson with lyrics written by Chris, which were inspired by a heroin-addicted girl he "kinda knew" in Atlanta. The band also chose to record a cover version of Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle", which would prove to be their breakthrough single.
Four music videos for "Twice As Hard", "Jealous Again", "Hard to Handle" and "She Talks to Angels" were filmed to promote the band and the album, and subsequently aired on MTV.
The Black Crowes unleashed their blistering debut, Shake Your Money Maker,
on Rick Rubin’s Def American label and a rock revival was born. No doubt the Crowes were about bringing the genre back to basics.
Thanks to four hit singles, heavy video play on MTV and 14 months of touring, Shake Your Money Maker went on to sell more than 5 million copies, reaching triple platinum status. The Crowes were always conspicuous crate diggers and ardent students of music history. They even named Shake Your Money Maker after a song by legendary blues guitarist Elmore James. The Crowes were equally adept at blending rock, soul, country and gospel into something that felt new and electric. With swagger to spare, the very first track opens the album as a declaration and a promise to rock "Twice As Hard".
From the screeching sounds of a car crash on "Thick N’ Thin" to Rich Robinson’s wondrous dexterity on "Struttin Blues", the whole album has that lighting in a bottle feeling and the raw energy of a live band who can’t be contained. But the real success of the album relied upon a pair of No.1 mainstream rock singles, "She Talks to Angels" and "Hard To Handle", which reached number one on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and No.26 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Otis Redding song had been covered by a number of top artists, from Etta James to Tom Jones and was a mainstay of the Grateful Dead’s live set, but the Crowes’ blues-rock riff on the soul standard made it theirs alone.
It’s hard to emphasize enough the omnipresence of "Hard To Handle". It was piped through the speakers of college stations and pool halls around the country, there are some quieter moments with the weary and wistful "Sister Luck" and "Seeing Things" which both show off the brothers' lyricism and Chris Robinson's whiskey worn vocals. Several of the songs on the album, including "Could I've Been So Blind" and the surprisingly affecting ballad "She Talks to Angels", come from the band’s original incarnation when they were just teens.
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