--- title: Motown Cover of Shake It Off by Taylor Swift: Video description: Shake It Off by Taylor Swift gets a Motown cover in Postmodern Jukebox video canonical: https://time.com/3481903/shake-it-off-motown/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-09T13:53:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:40.756Z og:title: The Best Cover of "Shake It Off" So Far og:description: The Motown version of the Taylor Swift hit og:url: https://time.com/3481903/shake-it-off-motown/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Best Cover of "Shake It Off" So Far twitter:description: The Motown version of the Taylor Swift hit twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Motown Version of "Shake It Off" You Didn't Know You Needed by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 9, 2014 1:53 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 9, 2014 1:53 PM UTC It’s a sign of good songwriting that “Shake It Off” is as catchy in Taylor Swift’s head-bopping pop version as it is in a new retro take on the song by [Postmodern Jukebox](http://www.postmodernjukebox.com/). The video from the talented crew is filled with vintage glamour, Motown style and undeniably catchy harmonies courtesy of the back-up singers and horn section. Debonaire singer Von Smith belts out the tune, gleefully reminding the world that players are gonna play play play. [YouTube poster](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCORIeT1hk6tYBuntEXsguLg) and pianist Scott Bradlee accompanies him to deliver a jazzy rendition that will have you wanting to shake shake shaking it off on the dance floor (or at your desk). The smooth remake of Swift’s song somehow manages to sound even more upbeat than the original. The retrofitting of the song is so seamless it’s easy to imagine that “Shake It Off” will be a jazz standard soon enough. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3481903/shake-it-off-motown/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3481903/shake-it-off-motown/"},"headline":"The Motown Version of \"Shake It Off\" You Didn't Know You Needed","datePublished":"2014-10-09T13:53:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:40.756Z","description":"Taylor Swift's song goes retro","url":"https://time.com/3481903/shake-it-off-motown/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","viral","Taylor Swift","Videos","Viral Videos","shake it off"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3481903/shake-it-off-motown/","name":"The Motown Version of \"Shake It Off\" You Didn't Know You Needed"}}]}] ```