'Cause it's Saturday nite and I just got paid
Fool about my money don't try to save
My heart says go, go
Have a time 'cause it's Saturday nite
And I'm feelin' fine

I'm gonna rip it up
I'm gonna rock it up
I'm gonna shake it up
I'm gonna ball it up
I'm gonna rip it up
And ball tonite

I got a date and I won't be late
Pick her up in my '88'
Shag it on down to the union hall
When the music starts jumpin'
I'll have a ball

Along about 10 I'll be flying high
Rocking on out into the sky
I don't care if I spend my gold
'Cause tonite I'm gonna be one happy soul

RCA LPM-1382, 1956, Elvis

Radio Recorders, Hollywood, September 3, 1956

Composer John Marascalco drove to Los Angeles in 1955 to sell Ready Teddy to Specialty Records as a tune for Little Richard to record. After selling the song to Specialty, Robert (Bumps) Blackwell, the label's A&R man, asked Marascalco if he had any other songs. Marascalco told him he had a country tune called Rip it Up that he could rework to suit Little Richard. After spending a week rewriting the song at a fleabag motel in Hollywood, Marascalco went back to Specialty and Blackwell bought it, taking partial writing credit, as he had for Ready Teddy. Little Richard's Rip it Up (Specialty 579) sold over a million copies in 1956 and hit number one on Billboard's rhythm & blues chart and #17 on the Top 100 chart. Bill Haley and His Comets' cover version of Rip it Up (Decca 30028) peaked at #25, also in 1956.

Elvis recorded Rip it Up at Radio Recorders on September 3, 1956. Take #19 is the master. Occasionally over the years, Elvis sang Rip it Up in concert. Some of these performances have surfaced on bootleg albums. Rip it Up was one of the many songs performed during the Million Dollar Quartet session on December 4, 1956.