Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an
American
rock and roll and
country music singer, pianist and songwriter.
An early
pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis was inducted into the
Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame
in 1986 and his pioneering contribution to the
genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In
2004,
Rolling Stone Magazine
ranked him number 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of
All Time. In 2003, they listed his box set
All Killer, No Filler: The
Anthology number 242 on their list of "
500 greatest
albums of all time".
Biography

The Jerry Lee Lewis Drive in
Ferriday
Lewis was
born to the poor family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis in Ferriday
in Concordia Parish
in eastern Louisiana
, and began playing piano in his youth with his two
cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. His parents
mortgaged their farm to buy him a
piano. Influenced by a piano-playing older cousin Carl
McVoy, the radio, and the sounds from the black
juke joint across the tracks, Haney's Big House,
Lewis developed his own style mixing
rhythm and blues,
boogie-woogie,
gospel, and
country
music, as well as ideas from established "country boogie"
pianists like recording artists
Moon
Mullican and Merrill Moore. Soon he was playing
professionally.
His mother
enrolled him in Southwestern
Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas
, secure in the knowledge that her son would now be
exclusively singing his songs to the Lord. But Lewis
daringly played a boogie woogie rendition of "My God Is Real" at a
church assembly that sent him packing the same night.
Pearry Green, then president of the student
body, related how during a talent show Lewis played some "worldly"
music. The next morning, the
dean
of the school called both Lewis and Green into his office to expel
them both. Lewis said that Green shouldn't be expelled because "he
didn't know what I was going to do." Years later Green asked Lewis:
"Are you still playing the devil's music?" Lewis replied "Yes, I
am. But you know it's strange, the same music that they kicked me
out of school for is the same kind of music they play in their
churches today. The difference is, I know I am playing for the
devil and they don't."
After that incident, Lewis stopped performing religious music.
He played
at clubs in and around Ferriday and Natchez, Mississippi
, becoming part of the burgeoning new rock and roll
sound and cutting his first demo recording in 1954.
He made a
trip to Nashville
around 1955 where he played clubs and attempted to
drum up interest, but was turned down by the Grand Ole Opry
as he had been at the Louisiana Hayride country stage and radio
show in Shreveport. Recording executives in Nashville
suggested he switch to playing a guitar.
Lewis
travelled to Memphis,
Tennessee
in November 1956, to audition for Sun Records. Label owner Sam Phillips was away on a trip to Florida
, but
producer and engineer Jack Clement
recorded Lewis's rendition of Ray Price's
"Crazy Arms" and his own composition "End
of The Road". During December 1956, Lewis began recording
prolifically, both as a solo artist and as a
session musician for such Sun artists as
Carl Perkins and
Johnny Cash. His distinctive piano playing can
be heard on many tracks recorded at Sun during late 1956 and early
1957, including Carl Perkins' "
Matchbox", "Your True Love", "You Can Do No
Wrong", and "Put Your Cat Clothes On", and
Billy Lee Riley's "Flyin' Saucers
Rock'n'Roll". Until this time,
rockabilly
had rarely featured piano, but it proved a highly influential
addition and rockabilly artists on other labels soon also started
working with pianists.
On December 4, 1956,
Elvis Presley
dropped in on Phillips to pay a social visit while Perkins was in
the studio cutting new tracks with Lewis backing him on piano. The
three started an impromptu
jam session,
and Phillips left the tape running. He later telephoned
Johnny Cash and brought him in to join the
others. These recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs,
survived, and have been released on CD under the title
Million Dollar Quartet. Tracks
also include Elvis Presley's "
Don't Be
Cruel" and "Paralyzed",
Chuck
Berry's "
Brown Eyed Handsome
Man",
Pat Boone's "Don't Forbid Me"
and Presley doing an impersonation of
Jackie Wilson (who was then with
Billy Ward and the Dominoes)
impersonating him on "Don't Be Cruel".
Lewis's own singles (on which he was billed as
Jerry Lee
Lewis and his Pumping Piano) advanced his career as a
soloist during 1957, with hits such as "
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
and "
Great Balls of Fire", his
biggest hit, bringing him to national and international fame,
despite criticism for the songs' overtly sexual undertones which
prompted some radio stations to boycott them. In 2005, "Whole Lotta
Shakin' Goin' On" was selected for permanent preservation in the
National Recording
Registry at the Library of Congress.
According to several first hand sources, including
Johnny Cash, Lewis himself, who was devoutly
Christian, was also troubled by the sinful nature of his own
material, which he firmly believed was leading himself and his
audience to hell. This aspect of Lewis's character was depicted in
Waylon Payne's portrayal of Lewis in
the 2005 film
Walk the Line,
based on Cash's autobiographies.
Lewis would often kick the piano bench out of the way to play
standing, rake his hands up and down the keyboard for dramatic
accent, sit down on the keyboard and even stand on top of the
instrument. His first TV appearance, in which he demonstrated some
of these moves, was on
The
Steve Allen Show on July 28, 1957, where he played the
song "
Whole Lotta Shakin'
Goin On".
Jerry Lee Lewis – Greatest Live Performances of
the '50s, '60s and '70s – DVD, 2007.
"The Steve Allen Show" (1956-1957)
(Retrieved on January 31, 2008) He is also reputed
to have set a piano on fire at the end of a live performance, in
protest at being billed below
Chuck
Berry.
His dynamic performance style can be seen in films such as
High School
Confidential (he sang the title song from the back of a
flatbed truck), and
Jamboree. He has been called "rock
& roll's first great wild man" and also "rock & roll's
first great eclectic." Classical composer
Michael Nyman has also cited Lewis's style as
the progenitor of his own aesthetic.
Scandal
Lewis's
turbulent personal life was hidden from the public until a May 1958
British
tour where
Ray Berry, a news agency reporter at London
Airport
(the only journalist present), learned about
Lewis's third wife, Myra Gale
Brown. She was Lewis's
first cousin
once removed and only 13 years old. (Brown, Lewis, and his
management all insisted she was 15.) Lewis was nearly 23 years old.
The publicity caused an uproar and the tour was cancelled after
only three concerts.
The scandal followed Lewis home to America, and as a result, he was
blacklisted from radio and almost vanished
from the music scene. Lewis felt betrayed by numerous people who
had been his supporters.
Dick Clark
dropped him from his shows. Lewis even felt that
Sam Phillips had sold him out when the Sun
Record patriarch released "The Return of Jerry Lee," a bogus
"interview" cut together by
Jack
Clement from excerpts of Lewis's songs, which made light of his
marital and publicity problems. Only
Alan
Freed stayed true to Jerry Lee Lewis, playing his records until
Freed was removed from the air because of
payola allegations.
Even though Jerry Lee Lewis was still under contract with Sun
Records, he stopped recording. He had gone from $10,000 a night
concerts to $250 a night spots in beer joints and small clubs. He
had few friends at the time whom he felt he could trust. It was
only through Kay Martin, the president of Lewis's fan club, T. L.
Meade,
(aka Franz Douskey) a sometime
Memphis
musician and
friend of Sam Phillips, and Gary Sklar, that Lewis went back to
record at Sun Records.
By this time, Phillips had built a new state-of-the-art studio at
639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, thus abandoning the old Union Avenue
studio where Phillips had recorded
B.
B. King,
Howlin' Wolf,
Elvis Presley,
Carl
Perkins, Lewis,
Johnny Cash and
others. It was at the new Madison Avenue studio that Lewis recorded
his only major hit during this period, which was a rendition of
Ray Charles' "
What'd I Say" in 1961. In Europe other
updated versions of "Sweet Little Sixteen" (September 1962 UK) and
"Good Golly Miss Molly" (March 1963) entered the Hit Parade. On
popular EPs, "Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes", "I've Been
Twistin'", "Money" and "Hello Josephine" also became turntable
hits, especially in nascent
discothèques. Another recording of Lewis
playing an instrumental boogie arrangement of the
Glenn Miller Orchestra favorite "In
the Mood," was issued by Sun under the pseudonym of "The Hawk," but
disc jockeys quickly figured out the distinctive piano style, and
this gambit failed.
Lewis's Sun recording contract ended in 1963 and he joined Smash
Records, where he made a number of rock recordings that did not
further his career.
His popularity recovered somewhat in Europe, especially in the UK
and Germany, during the mid-1960s. A concert album,
Live at the Star Club,
Hamburg (1964), recorded with
The Nashville Teens, is widely
considered one of the greatest live rock and roll albums ever.
Music critic
Stephen Thomas
Erlewine writes: "
Live at the Star Club is
extraordinary, the purest, hardest rock & roll ever committed
to record."
Family
Lewis has been married six times. First to Dorothy Barton for 20
months from February 1952 to October 1953. His second marriage to
Jane Mitchum was of dubious validity because it occurred 23 days
before his divorce from Barton was final. They were married 4 years
from September 1953 to October 1957. They had two children. He then
married Myra Lewis in Dec. 1957. She was his first cousin once
removed, and thirteen at the time of the marriage. This marriage
caused a scandal which destroyed his career for a decade. They had
two children and divorced in December 1970 after 13 years of
marriage. His fourth marriage was to Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, and
ended when she drowned in the swimming pool at their home. They
were married for 11 years from October 1971 to August 1983, and had
one child. His fifth wife was Shawn Stephens. This marriage also
ended with her drowning in the swimming pool at their home. They
were married for three months, from June to August 1983. His sixth
marriage was to Kerrie McCarver, with whom he had one child. This
marriage lasted 20 years and ended in divorce.
Lewis has had four children. In 1962 his son Steve Allen Lewis
drowned in a swimming pool accident when he was three, and in 1973
Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. was killed in a car accident at the age of 19.
His current living children are a daughter, Phoebe Lewis, and a
son, Jerry Lee Lewis III.
Later career
In the 1960s, Lewis's attempts at a comeback as a rock and roll
performer had stalled during four years with
Smash Records until he began recording country
ballads.
He had already recorded an LP for the label,
Country Songs for City Folks.
In 1968, his single "Another Place, Another Time" became a Top Ten
success and led to a string of Top Ten singles including the 1968
number-one country single "To Make Love Sweeter For You" that
brought Lewis renewed stardom among country music fans, much like
that which ex-rockabilly
Conway Twitty
began to cultivate during that same time.
His shift to country
reflected the fact that he had grown up listening to the Grand
Ole Opry
. Lewis's country hits during this period
include "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out of
Me)," "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye," "Middle Age Crazy," "Me
& Bobby McGee," "She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left of
Me)", "There Must Be More to Love Than This" and "39 &
Holding". By the early 1970s, Lewis had become so popular that Sun
(Entertainment Holding Corporation) Records was reissuing old
country ballads like "Invitation to Your Party" on singles that
also did well on the country music charts. During this era Lewis
recorded what many collectors consider his ultimate achievement in
country music, the LP "Killer Country". Lewis's successes continued
throughout the decade and he eventually began to re-emphasize his
rock and roll past with hits like his 1972 revival of the
The Big Bopper's rock classic "
Chantilly Lace" as well as looking at
middle age with the 1977 "Middle Age Crazy." Lewis's singles and
albums were issued on Mercury records instead of Smash from 1971
on. In 1979, he signed with Elektra Records and had his last major
country hit with 1981's "Thirty-Nine and Holding." He spent a very
brief period with
MCA Records in 1983
but left the label due to unspecified differences.
In 1989, a major motion picture based on his early life in rock
& roll,
Great Balls
of Fire, brought him back into the public eye, especially
when he decided to re-record all his songs for the movie
soundtrack. The film was based on the book by Lewis's ex-wife, Myra
Gale Lewis, and starred
Dennis Quaid as
Lewis,
Winona Ryder as Myra, and
Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Swaggart. The
movie focuses on Lewis's early career and his relationship with
Myra, and ends with the scandal of the late 1950s.
The very public downfall of his cousin, television evangelist
Jimmy Swaggart, resulted in more
adverse publicity to an already troubled family. Swaggart is also a
piano player, as is another cousin, country music star
Mickey Gilley. All three listened to the same
music when they were growing up and frequented Haney's Big House,
the Ferriday club that featured black blues acts. Lewis and
Swaggart have had a complex relationship over the years.
Lewis's sister,
Linda Gail Lewis
has recorded with Jerry Lee, toured with his stage show for a time
and more recently recorded with
Van
Morrison. In 1990, Lewis made minor news when a new song he
co-wrote called "It Was the Whiskey Talking, Not Me" was included
in the soundtrack to the hit movie
Dick Tracy. The song can be
heard in a scene from the movie in which it is playing on the
radio.
Despite the personal problems, Lewis's musical talent is widely
acknowledged. "The Killer", a nickname he's had since childhood, is
known for his forceful voice and piano production on stage; he was
described by fellow artist
Roy Orbison
as the best raw performer in the history of rock and roll
music.
In
1986, Lewis was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame
.
That same year, he returned to Sun Studio in Memphis to team up
with Orbison, Cash, and Perkins along with longtime admirers like
John Fogerty and
Ricky Nelson to create the album
Class of '55, a sort of followup to the
"Million Dollar Quartet" session, though in the eyes of many
critics and fans, lacking the spirit of the old days at Sun.
Lewis has never stopped touring, and fans who have seen him perform
say he can still deliver unique concerts that are unpredictable,
exciting, personal and still rock & roll. On February 12, 2005,
he was given a
Lifetime Achievement Award
by
The
Recording Academy (which also grants the
Grammy Awards). On September 26, 2006, a new
album titled
Last Man
Standing was released, featuring many of rock and roll's
elite as guest stars. Receiving positive reviews, the album charted
in four different Billboard charts, including a two week stay at
number one on the Indie charts.
A DVD entitled
Last Man Standing
Live, featuring concert footage with many guest artists,
was released in March 2007, and the CD achieved Jerry's 10th
official gold disk for selling over half-a-million copies in the US
alone.
Last Man Standing is Lewis's biggest selling album
of all time. It features contributions from
Mick Jagger,
Willie
Nelson,
Jimmy Page,
Keith Richards and
Rod
Stewart, among others.
On
November 5, 2007, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
and Case Western University
in Cleveland, Ohio
honored Jerry Lee Lewis with six days of
conferences, interviews, a DVD premier and film clips, dedicated to
him entitled The Life And Music of Jerry Lee Lewis.
He is the first living artist to be so honored. On November 10, the
week culminated with a tribute concert compered by
Kris Kristofferson. Lewis was present to
accept the American Music Masters Award and closed his own tribute
show with a rendition of "
Somewhere Over the
Rainbow".
On February 10, 2008, he appeared with
John
Fogerty and
Little Richard on the
50th Grammy Awards Show, performing "Great Balls of Fire" in a
medley with "
Good Golly Miss
Molly".
Lewis now
lives on a ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi
with his family.
On June 4, 2008, Jerry Lee Lewis was inducted into The
Louisiana Music Hall of
Fame.
On July 4, 2008, Jerry Lee appeared on
A Capitol Fourth and performed the
finale's final act with a medley of "
Roll Over Beethoven", "Whole Lotta
Shakin' Goin On" and "Great Balls of Fire".
In October 2008 as part of a very successful European tour, Jerry
Lee Lewis returned to the UK, almost exactly 50 years after his
ill-fated first tour that saw the scandal with Myra (see above).
He
appeared at two London shows: a special private show at the
100
Club
on October 25 and at the London Forum
on October 28 with Wanda
Jackson and his sister, Linda Gail
Lewis.
2010 will see a new CD album and DVD release as Jerry continues his
career. 2009 also marks the sixtieth year since Jerry Lee's first
public performance when he performed "“Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee"
at a car dealership on November 19, 1949 in Ferriday
Louisiana.
In August 2009, in advance of his new album, a single entitled
"Mean Old Man" was released for download. It was written by Kris
Kristofferson. An EP featuring this song and four more was also
released on amazon.com on November 11.
On
October 29, 2009, Lewis opened the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th
Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden
in New York.
Discography
Hits and awards
Between 1957 and 2006, the date of his latest release "Last Man
Standing", 47 singles plus 22 albums (The Session counted as 2
albums) made the Top Twenty Pop, Jukebox, Rock, Indie and/or
Country charts in USA or UK. Fourteen reached the number 1
position. He's had ten official gold disks, the latest being for
the 2006 album 'Last Man Standing', plus unofficial ones issued by
his record company Mercury for albums which sold over a quarter of
a million copies. His 2006 duets CD
Last Man Standing has
sold over half a million worldwide, his biggest selling album ever.
Jerry Lee Lewis is also among the Top 50 all-time Billboard Country
artists. It is also rumored that the soundtrack album to the movie,
Great Balls Of Fire, has now sold over a million copies.
The original Sun cut of "Great Balls of Fire" was elected to the
Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and Jerry's Sun recording of "Whole
Lotta Shakin' Goin On" received this honor in 1999. Only recordings
which are at least 25 years old and have left a lasting impression
can receive this honor. Along with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and
Roy Orbison, Jerry received a Grammy in the spoken word category
for the very rare album of interviews released with some early
copies of the
The Class of 55 album in 1986. On February
12, 2005, Jerry received the Recording Academy's Lifetime
Achievement Award the day before the Recording Academy's main
Grammy Awards ceremony, which he also attended, picture below. On
October 10, 2007, Jerry received the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame's
American Music Masters Award.
Compositions by Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis has written or co-written several songs during his
career:
- End of the Road, 1956 - this is indeed an original song and not
the same as Irving Berlin's song (that inspired it) as the lyrics
and melody are totally different apart from the refrain "the way is
dark and the night is long" (which Lewis turns around) and "Waiting
at the end of the road".
- Jerry's Boogie (a.k.a. 'Black Bottom Stomp'), 1956 - was
previously recorded as Black Bottom Stomp by Jelly Roll Morton but
Jerry Lee's rendition is his own and changes a lot of the old
song.
- Lewis Boogie, 1956
- Pumpin' Piano, 1957
- All night long, 1957
- High School Confidential, 1958
- Live & Let Live, 1958 - sometimes credited to Jerry Lee but
this actually was recorded by Bill Monroe, Moon Mullican, Sullivan
& Wiley and Jimmie Davis before.
- Memory Of You, 1958
- Hello, hello baby, 1958
- Baby, Baby, Bye, Bye, 1960
- Lewis Workout, 1960
- Whole Lotta Twistin' Goin' On, 1962
- He Took It Like a Man, 1963
- Baby, Hold Me Close, 1965
- My Baby Don't Love No One But Me, 1965
- Rockin' Jerry Lee, 1966
- What a Heck of a Mess, 1966
- Lincoln Limousine, 1966
- Alvin, 1970
- Pilot baby, 1980s
- Crown Victoria Custom '51, 1995
- New Orleans Boogie (Jerry Lee's Boogie), 1952
- Blues like midnight, 1980s-2000s - a 12 bar blues often done by
Jerry Lee in concert. It is sometimes entirely based around Jimmie
Rodgers verses but not recorded by Rodgers in this form. On other
versions, Lewis adds in original verses as well.
Footnotes
References
External links and sources