Post by erik on Jun 19, 2021 20:31:44 GMT -5
The last surviving member of that first big wave of rock and roll in the 1950's is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with the biggest hit of his career. It is a "killer" (LOL).
WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOIN’ ON (Jerry Lee Lewis; Sun; 1957)—With Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry now gone from the scene, Jerry Lee Lewis, a.k.a. The Killer, is arguably the last-standing artist of the first big wave of rock and roll that overtook American popular music in the mid-1950’s. The legendary Sam Phillips, who signed him to his Sun Records label in 1956, said that Lewis actually as much talent as any of his other artists, including Elvis. Some say that Lewis might have gotten just as big commercially as Elvis if his piano-pounding style and his public behavior hadn’t been so threatening. He had such a litany of pounding rock and roll hits, including “Breathless” and “Great Balls Of Fire”; but the biggest hit he had during this period of popularity was a hugely influential song called “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”. Written by Dave “Curlee” Williams and first recorded the previous year by Big Maybelle (whose 1953 recording of Leiber and Stoller’s “Hound Dog” predates Elvis’ far more famous version by three years), “Whole Lotta Shakin’” became a huge barn-burning anthem, managing to go to #3 on the Billboard pop charts, as well as topping both the R&B and country singles charts in July 1957. But Lewis’ career was almost crushed at its outset when a British tabloid revealed that he had actually married his underage cousin Myra; and it became a major-league scandal. The Killer’s career, while not exactly destroyed, was definitely stalled for a long time; and although he did score a minor 1961 hit with a cover of the 1959 Ray Charles classic “What’d I Say”, he didn’t exactly come back from his long drought until he signed with Smash Records in 1967 and then court the country music market exclusively. He had huge successes with songs like “Another Place, Another Time”, “One Has My Name”, “She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye”, “Would You Take Another Chance On Me?” and a pounding version of the Big Bopper’s 1958 hit “Chantilly Lace”; although none of them charted particularly high on the overall Billboard Hot 100, Lewis nevertheless regained his stature during the 1970’s. The Killer even survived quadruple heart bypass surgery in 1981, though his singular appearance on the Grand Ole Opry in 1973 remains legendarily controversial for his breaking the Opry rules of doing nothing but country material.
WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOIN’ ON (Jerry Lee Lewis; Sun; 1957)—With Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry now gone from the scene, Jerry Lee Lewis, a.k.a. The Killer, is arguably the last-standing artist of the first big wave of rock and roll that overtook American popular music in the mid-1950’s. The legendary Sam Phillips, who signed him to his Sun Records label in 1956, said that Lewis actually as much talent as any of his other artists, including Elvis. Some say that Lewis might have gotten just as big commercially as Elvis if his piano-pounding style and his public behavior hadn’t been so threatening. He had such a litany of pounding rock and roll hits, including “Breathless” and “Great Balls Of Fire”; but the biggest hit he had during this period of popularity was a hugely influential song called “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”. Written by Dave “Curlee” Williams and first recorded the previous year by Big Maybelle (whose 1953 recording of Leiber and Stoller’s “Hound Dog” predates Elvis’ far more famous version by three years), “Whole Lotta Shakin’” became a huge barn-burning anthem, managing to go to #3 on the Billboard pop charts, as well as topping both the R&B and country singles charts in July 1957. But Lewis’ career was almost crushed at its outset when a British tabloid revealed that he had actually married his underage cousin Myra; and it became a major-league scandal. The Killer’s career, while not exactly destroyed, was definitely stalled for a long time; and although he did score a minor 1961 hit with a cover of the 1959 Ray Charles classic “What’d I Say”, he didn’t exactly come back from his long drought until he signed with Smash Records in 1967 and then court the country music market exclusively. He had huge successes with songs like “Another Place, Another Time”, “One Has My Name”, “She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye”, “Would You Take Another Chance On Me?” and a pounding version of the Big Bopper’s 1958 hit “Chantilly Lace”; although none of them charted particularly high on the overall Billboard Hot 100, Lewis nevertheless regained his stature during the 1970’s. The Killer even survived quadruple heart bypass surgery in 1981, though his singular appearance on the Grand Ole Opry in 1973 remains legendarily controversial for his breaking the Opry rules of doing nothing but country material.