Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, and pianist, as well as an early pioneer of the rock and roll movement.

Contents

1 History 2 Hit singles 3 References 4 External links

History

Born in Ferriday, Louisiana, Jerry Lee Lewis showed a natural talent at the piano early in life. Although his parents were poor, they took out a loan to buy him a piano and within a year he had developed his mature style of playing. Like Elvis Presley, he was raised singing the Christian gospel music of integrated southern Pentecostal churches. In 1950 he attended Southwestern Bible Institute in Texas but was expelled for misconduct, including playing rock and roll versions of hymns in church.

Leaving religious music behind, he became a part of the burgeoning new rock and roll sound, cutting his first record in 1954. Two years later, at Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee, producer and engineer Jack Clement discovered and recorded Lewis for the Sun label while owner Sam Phillips was away on a trip to Florida. As a result, Lewis joined Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash as stars who began their recording careers at Sun Studios around this same time.

Lewis' first recording at Sun studios was his own distinct version of the country ballad "Crazy Arms". In 1957, his piano and the pure rock sound of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" propelled him to international fame. "Great Balls of Fire" soon followed and would become his biggest hit. Watching and listening to Jerry Lee Lewis play, Elvis said if he could play the piano like that, he'd quit singing. His early billing was Jerry Lee Lewis and his Pumping Piano.

Lewis's performances were dynamic. He kicked the piano bench out of the way to play standing, raked his hands up and down the keyboard for dramatic accent, and even sat down on it. His dynamic performing style can be viewed in films such as High School Confidential (he sang the title song from the back of a flatbed truck) and the big-budget film The Girl Can't Help It.

Lewis’ turbulent personal life was always hidden from the public until a 1958 British tour when the press learned that the 23-year-old star's third wife, Myra Gale Brown, was also his 13-year-old second cousin. The situation caused a public uproar and the tour was cancelled after only three concerts.

The scandal followed Lewis home to America and, as a result, he almost vanished from the music scene. His only hit during this period was a cover of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" in 1961. His popularity recovered somewhat in Europe, especially in the UK and Germany in the mid 1960s. A live album from this period, Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1964), recorded with The Nashville Teens, is widely considered one of the greatest live rock and roll albums of all time. However, success eluded him in the USA. After more than a decade playing rock and roll, in 1968 Lewis began focusing on country and western music with reasonable success. He achieved many No. 1 and Top 10 country hits. Although he toured and played many sold-out concerts, he never again achieved the heights of success that he had prior to the 1958 scandal (despite a major international hit with "Chantilly Lace" in 1973).

Plagued by alcohol and drug problems after Myra divorced him in 1970, tragedy struck when his 19-year-old son, Jerry Lee Lewis Jr., was killed in a road accident in 1973. Earlier in the sixties his first son Steve Allen Lewis drowned in a swimming pool accident. Lewis' own erratic behaviour during the latter part of the 1970s led to his being hospitalized after near-death from a bleeding ulcer. Following this, his fourth wife drowned in a swimming pool under suspicious circumstances. Little more than a year later, his fifth wife was found dead at his home from a methadone overdose. Addicted to drugs too, Jerry Lee Lewis checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic.

While celebrating his 41st birthday in 1976, Lewis accidentally shot his bass player, Butch Owens in the chest. Thinking the gun was unloaded, he playfully pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger. Owens miraculously survived. A few weeks later on November 23, Lewis was again involved in a gun-related arrest at Elvis Presley's Graceland residence. Lewis had been invited to visit by Presley but a security guard was unaware of this. When questioned about why he was at the front gate, Lewis displayed a gun and jokingly told the guard he had come to kill Presley.

In 1989, a major motion picture based on his early life in rock & roll titled Great Balls of Fire brought him back into the public eye. The film was based on the book by Lewis' ex-wife Myra and starred Dennis Quaid as Lewis, with Winona Ryder and Alec Baldwin.

The very public downfall of his cousin, television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, resulted in more adverse publicity to an already deeply troubled family. Swaggart is also a piano player, as is another cousin, country music star Mickey Gilley. Jerry Lee's sister, Linda Gail Lewis, is also a piano player and has recorded with Van Morrison.

Despite the personal problems, his musical talent is unquestioned. Nicknamed The Killer 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 music. In 1986 Jerry Lee Lewis was part of the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

That same year, he returned to Sun Studios in Memphis to team up with Orbison, Cash, and Perkins to create the album Class of '55. This was not the first time that he had teamed up with Cash and Perkins at the Sun Studios. On December 4 1956, Elvis Presley was returning from filming Love Me Tender and he dropped in on Phillips to pay a social visit. At the time, Perkins was in the studio, cutting some new tracks, with Lewis backing him on piano. The three started an impromtu 'jam session' and Phillips left the tapes running. He later telephoned Cash and brought him in to join the others. These recordings, over half of which are gospel songs, survived and have been released on CD under the title Million Dollar Quartet. Tracks also include Chuck Berry's Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Pat Boone's Don't Forgive Me and Elvis doing an impersonation of Jackie Wilson, who was then with Billy Ward and the Dominoes, singing Don't Be Cruel.

He has never stopped touring and can still deliver great unique concerts that are always unpredictable, exciting and personal.

After several years of inactivity in the studio, Lewis plans to put out a new album in 2005. In February 2005 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award, by the Recording Academy that also gives the Grammy Awards. At the presentation it was announced that his new album would be made with a line-up that will include Eric Clapton, B. B. King, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The 20-track album will be titled "The Pilgrim".

Hit singles

• "Crazy Arms"
• "End of the Road"
• "It'll Be Me"
• "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On"
• "Great Balls of Fire"
• "Breathless"
• "High School Confidential"
• "Another Place, Another Time"
• "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out of Me)"

References

• Nick Tosches Hellfire, 1982 for the first edition, Grove Press, USA, ISBN 0802135668

External links

• The Jerry Lee Lewis Start Page (http://www.jerryleelewis.nl/). Features a links archive, news section, show dates, fan club information, picture gallery, and mailing list,
• Rockin' My Life Away (http://guterman.com/guterman_jerrylee/guterman_jerrylee.html) by Jimmy Guterman, a full biography, online.de:Jerry Lee Lewis

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