Shake it up, baby,

Twist and shout;

Come on baby, now,

Come on and work it on out.

Well, work it on out honey

Yeah, you look so good

You know you got me goin'

Like I knew you would.

Only "Hold on Baby" saves the Twist and Shout album from total intellectual aridity. The song presents a character delineation next to which Hamlet pales by comparison. The speaker implores:

Held on, baby,

Held on, my little honey,

He's only trying to take your love from me.

When he tries, baby, please don't let him,

When he tries, baby, better forget him...

The song evolves from a tone of calm suggestion to one of a frantic plea. But after a highly evocative sexual passage--which cannot be transmitted to the printed page--he closes with almost defiant self-assertion:

I don't blame him, baby, you're so fine.

If he thinks he's gonna get you

He's out of his mind.

No one can question the superiority of the Isley Brothers, but the relative merits of Shout and Twist and Shout is a moot point. We shall leave it to our discerning readership to decide