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Jerry Lee Lewis - "Killer"

• 1935--born in Ferriday, LA
• only 3 Top 10 hits!!
  • incredible impact on Rock music, considering this fact
• white counterpart to Little Richard
  • overactive heterosexual
• marital escapades

Like Little Richard, Lewis attended a sacred school

• fundamentalist Southwestern Bible Institute in Waxahachie, TX
  • purpose was probably just to assuage parental discontent with the fact that he had just married a preacher's daughter (Dorothy) at 16 yrs of age (she was 17)
  • he was soon expelled
  • during this period, he referred to Rock as "the Devil's music"
• married a high school junior before his first divorce was final (!!)
• 1956—headed to Memphis (21 yrs old) to audition for Sam Phillips at Sun Records
• marital escapades continue
  • 3^rd marriage … this time, to his 13 year old third cousin, Myra Gail (he was 22)
  • essentially destroyed his career
    • when the British Press became privy to this info & Jerry Lee disappointed a sold out crowd at the Regal Cinema in Edmonton, his career as a leading rock star was essentially ended (see below for how he continued to produce music)

Performance Style:

• tough, rowdy performer
• flamboyant piano style
• musical style was a blend of C&W and R&B
• influential on many up-and-coming artists
  • piano style
  • vocal style
  • life style

Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On ()

(#3, 1957; #1 Country; #1 R&B)

cover of a song released two years earlier by the Commodores

sold 100,000 copies in the South

after an appearance on Steve Allen, sold 6 million nationally

 

Great Balls of Fire

(#2, 1957)
sold 5 million copies

• continued touring relentlessly ("the greatest show on earth"); developed a drinking problem
• late 60s - abandoned rock for country music
  • between late 60s & early 80s, he had over 30 Country Hits ...

Early Morning Rain

• 1981 - hospitalized with a perforated stomach ulcer
  • received two operations, given a 50/50 chance of survival
  • 4 months later he was touring again!
• 1982 - appeared on the Grammy Awards with his cousin, Mickey Gilley (another cousin is TV evangelist, Jimmy Swaggert)
• 1986—one of the first inductees into the R&R Hall of Fame
• 1989—Great Balls of Fire is released, starring Dennis Quaid1995—released "Young Blood;" health poor, sales slow, little touring

Jerry Lee Lewis' life was marked with tragedy:

• 1962 - 3 year-old son drowns
  • named Steve Allen, after talk show host
• 1973 - Jerry Jr. (drummer in Jerry Sr.'s band) dies in auto accident
  • Lewis' brother had died in auto accident when he was 2
• 1976 - Lewis accidentally shot his bass player in the chest
• 1982 - estranged 4^th wife drowned in pool shortly before the divorce settlement was completed
  • mysterious circumstances--even with mounting evidence of possible wrong-doing, the case was never reopened
• 5^th wife found dead at home less than 3 months after wedding
• married a 6^th time
  • resulting in his only surviving son, Jerry Lee Lewis II

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