It was covered the following year by Ian Matthews for his album Stealin' Home and became a top 20 hit single in February 1979.

Concurrent with his top 40 success with "Shake It", Ian Matthews would tell Rolling Stone: "I don’t think I did anything different [to record a hit single].

After Matthews phoned the radio station for info on the track the disc jockey sent him a copy of the Terence Boylan album from which Matthews would "cover" two songs: "Shake It" and "Don't Hang Up Your Dancing Shoes", for his album Stealin' Home[6] recorded in the summer of 1978.

(The Boylan composition "Don't Hang Up Your Dancing Shoes", the third single release off Stealin' Home afforded Matthews his final appearance on a Billboard chart, peaking at #42 on the magazine's Easy Listening hit ranking, where "Shake It" had reached #21 and "Give Me an Inch" #43.

"Shake It" would afford Matthews a top ten hit in Canada, peaking at #6:[11] the track had been especially popular in New Brunswick, reaching #1 on CIHI in Fredericton.