Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) singer-songwriter, musician, and pianist

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis (Ferriday, 29 settembre 1935) è un autore, cantante e pianista statunitense.
È riconosciuto tra i padri del rock n'roll con un posto nella Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nel 1986 ed uno nella Rockabilly Hall of Fame. È stato soprannominato The Killer per il suo modo selvaggio, anticonformista e ribelle di esibirsi dal vivo. Inoltre è considerato uno dei Re del Rock and Roll insieme a Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Little Richard e Johnny Cash.

Biografia

Jerry Lee Lewis è stato sposato sette volte e ha avuto 6 figli.

Infanzia e adolescenza

Jerry Lee è nato in una povera famiglia di Ferriday, in Louisiana; figlio di Elmo e Mamie Lewis, iniziò a suonare il pianoforte in gioventù insieme a due cugini, Mickey Gilley e Jimmy Lee Swaggart. Il suo modo di suonare è stato influenzato dal vecchio pianista e cugino Carl McVoy, insieme ovviamente a ciò che ascoltava per radio e soprattutto dalla musica nera, che ascoltava presso la Haney's Big House; in questo modo Lewis ha potuto creare un suo personale stile, che consiste in un mix di rhythm and blues, boogie woogie, gospel e country music.
La madre lo iscrisse nella Southwestern Assemblies of God University, un college cristiano in Waxahachie, Texas, convinta che suo figlio avrebbe dì lì in poi cantato solo per il Signore. La leggenda racconta che durante un culto, Jerry Lee si esibì in una scatenata versione boogie woogie di My God is Real, sotto l'approvazione di Pearry Green, allora presidente degli studenti: il mattino dopo i due furono convocati dalla presidenza ed espulsi entrambi dalla scuola, nonostante Jerry Lee avesse provato a difendere il suo amico dicendo che: «non sapeva ciò che avevo intenzione di fare». Anni dopo Pearry chiese a Jerry Lee: «Suoni ancora quella musica del demonio?» e Jerry rispose: «Si, certo. Ma sai che è strano, la stessa musica per cui sono stato espulso da scuola è lo stesso genere di musica che oggi suonano nelle loro chiese. La differenza è che io so di suonare per il diavolo e loro no».^{[senza fonte]}

Gli inizi musicali e il grande successo

Lasciata alle spalle la musica religiosa, Lewis divenne parte del nuovo sound rock and roll, pubblicando il suo primo disco nel 1954. Due anni dopo, presso gli studi della Sun Records a Memphis (Tennessee), il produttore Jack Clement scovò e scritturò Lewis per l'etichetta Sun, mentre il proprietario Sam Phillips era impegnato in un viaggio in Florida. Jerry Lee divenne un session musician, suonando il pianoforte per gli altri artisti della Sun, tra cui Billy Lee Riley e Carl Perkins. Durante questo periodo fece parte di una jam session nota come il Million Dollar Quartet, che vedeva oltre a Lewis anche la presenza di Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins e Johnny Cash.
La prima produzione di Lewis sotto l'etichetta Sun fu la sua particolare versione del brano di Ray Price Crazy Arms. Nel 1957 il pianoforte e il puro rock and roll sound del brano Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On gli diedero fama internazionale. Il gruppo che accompagnò Lewis nell'incisione del singolo era composto dal cugino J.W.Brown al basso, Jimmy Van Eaton alla batteria e Roland Janes alla chitarra; il pezzo fu registrato al primo tentativo. Seguì quella che sarebbe diventata la sua maggiore hit, Great Balls of Fire. Altri grandi successi in quell'anno furono i singoli Breathless e High School Confidential, quest'ultimo facente parte della colonna sonora del film omonimo (in Italiano Operazione Segreta) diretto da Jack Arnold ed uscito nel 1958 in cui egli ebbe un piccolo ruolo.

Vita personale: scandali e crisi

Il suo primo matrimonio, con Dorothy Barton, è durato 20 mesi, da febbraio 1952 a ottobre 1953. In un'intervista nel 1978 per People Magazine, Jerry Lee disse: "Avevo 14 anni quando ho sposato mia moglie, lei era troppo vecchia per me. Aveva 17 anni."
Il suo secondo matrimonio, con Jane Mitchum, era di dubbia validità, in quanto il matrimonio fu svolto 23 giorni prima che il suo divorzio con la sua prima moglie fosse effettivo. L'unione durò per quattro anni, da settembre 1953 a ottobre 1957. La coppia ebbe due figli: Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. (1954-1973) e Ronnie Guy Lewis (nato nel 1956).
Il suo terzo matrimonio, con sua cugina di terzo grado Myra Gale Brown, è durato 13 anni. Quando i due si sposarono lei aveva tredici anni. La coppia fece una seconda cerimonia di nozze, perché quando si svolse la prima (di nascosto, a Las Vegas), lui aveva ancora in corso il divorzio dalla sua seconda moglie. La turbolenta vita privata di Lewis fu nascosta al pubblico finché nel 1958, durante un suo tour in Inghilterra, la stampa scoprì la vera identità di quella ragazzina che, insieme alla sorella minore del cantante, lo aveva accompagnato per assistere ai suoi concerti. Prima di partire per l'Inghilterra il manager di Jerry Lee, Sam Philips, aveva cercato di dissuaderlo dal portarsi dietro Myra, proprio per non creare scandali, ma lui testardo non aveva accettato il consiglio. Giunti in Inghilterra, Lewis, S.W. Brown e Philips fecero credere a tutti che Myra Gale avesse 15 anni, ma appena la moralista stampa inglese si appropriò di tutta la vita privata di Lewis, lo dipinse come un mostro che sposa delle bambine. Non solo aveva sposato una tredicenne, ma era pure un matrimonio incestuoso. La stampa lo distrusse. Ci fu un enorme scandalo, e il tour fu cancellato dopo appena tre concerti annullando i restanti 34. Lo scandalo seguì Jerry Lee Lewis in America, e comportò la sua uscita dalla scena musicale. Lewis si sentì tradito da moltissima gente che fino a poco tempo prima lo supportava, tra cui lo stesso Sam Philips. Solo Alan Freed rimase accanto a Jerry Lee Lewis, suonando nei suoi dischi finché non dovette allontanarsi per motivi relativi alla payola. Nonostante Lewis fosse ancora sotto contratto con la Sun Records, smise di registrare. Dai 10.000$ di guadagno per ogni concerto, passò ai 100$ a notte, esibendosi in piccoli locali e birrerie. A quel tempo aveva ben pochi amici di cui potersi realmente fidare. Fu solo grazie a Kay Martin, presidente del fan club dell'artista, che Lewis tornò a registrare per la Sun Records. In quel periodo Philips aveva costruito un nuovo studio presso il 639 Madison Avenue, sempre a Memphis, abbandonando così lo storico Union Avenude Studio dove avevano inciso artisti come B. B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, lo stesso Lewis e Johnny Cash. Fu nel nuovo studio che Jerry Lee Lewis registrò, nel 1961, il suo unico successo di quel periodo: si trattava di What'd I Say, una reinterpretazione di Ray Charles.
La sua popolarità tornò ad aumentare un po' in Europa, soprattutto in Inghilterra e in Germania, intorno alla metà degli anni '60. Il suo live-album del 1964, intitolato Live at the Star Club e registrato ad Amburgo insieme ai Nashville Teens, è considerato uno dei più grandi album di Rock and Roll dal vivo. Il critico musicale Stephen Thomas Erlewine scrive: «Live at the Star Club is extraordinary — the purest, hardest rock & roll ever committed to record. Compared to this, The Stooges sound constrained, hardcore punk seems neutered, and the Sex Pistols sound like wimps» ("Live at the Star Club è straordinario - il più puro e duro disco di rock & roll mai registrato. In confronto, il sound degli Stooges sembra compresso, l'hardcore punk sembra castrato, e i Sex Pistols delle mezze seghe").
Con Myra (figlia di suo cugino J.W. Brown, che suonava nel complesso di Jerry Lee), fu sposato da dicembre 1957 a dicembre 1970. La coppia ebbe due figli: Steve Allen Lewis (nato nel 1959 e morto nel 1962) e Pheobe Allen Lewis (nata nel 1963).

Ritorno al Country

Negli Stati Uniti comunque Jerry Lee Lewis faticava ad avere successi nelle classifiche. I produttori tentarono di convincere Lewis a suonare sotto pseudonimi, senza suonare il piano o magari usando il clavicembalo. Alla fine degli anni '60, il produttore della Mercury Records, Jerry Kennedy, convinse Lewis a convertirsi completamente al genere country. Lewis, che aveva sempre considerato il country una parte essenziale del suo stile e del suo sound, accettò e "Another Place, Another Time" fece il suo ingresso nelle classifiche nel 1968. In seguito seguirono altre hit country nel periodo compreso tra la fine degli anni 1960 e l'inizio degli anni 1970, molte delle quali entrarono nella Hot 100 Charts.

Droga e tragedie personali

Il suo quarto matrimonio, con Jaren Elisabeth Gunn Pete, è durato da ottobre 1971 a giugno 1982. La coppia ebbe una figlia, Lori Lee Lewis (nata nel 1972). Prima che il divorzio fra i due fosse finalizzato, ci fu un orribile incidente: Jaren morì annegata nella piscina a casa di un suo amico.
Nonostante fosse sempre stato un grande bevitore, Lewis iniziò progressivamente a manifestare problemi legati all'alcol e alla droga dopo che Myra divorziò da lui nel 1970. La tragedia lo colpì quando suo figlio diciannovenne Jerry Lee Lewis Jr rimase ucciso in un incidente stradale nel 1973. Nel 1962 suo figlio Steve Allen morì annegato nella piscina di casa. Lewis con Myra ha avuto anche una figlia, Phoebe Lewis, cantante e musicista nonché per alcuni anni anche manager del padre. In seguito a questi tragici eventi, e in relazione anche ai suoi problemi di droga e alcol, Jerry Lee Lewis decise di entrare nella Betty Ford Clinic. Nel 1981 va vicino alla morte a causa di complicazioni dovute ad un'ulcera per cui viene ricoverato d'urgenza.
In occasione della festa per il suo 41º compleanno, nel 1976, Jerry Lee scherzando puntò una pistola contro il suo bassista, Butch Owens, e pensando che fosse scarica premette il grilletto, colpendolo nel torace. Owens sopravvisse miracolosamente. Poche settimane dopo (il 23 novembre) Lewis fu coinvolto in un altro arresto relativo all'utilizzo di armi presso la residenza di Elvis, Graceland. Lewis era stato invitato da Presley, ma la sicurezza non era stata avvertita della visita. Durante la discussione riguardo al perché Lewis si trovasse al cancello, egli estrasse la sua pistola e disse alle guardie, scherzando, che era arrivato per uccidere Presley.
Il suo quinto matrimonio, con Shawn Stephens, durò 77 giorni, da giugno ad agosto 1983, fino alla sua morte per overdose di metadone. È stato affermato che Jerry Lee è stato responsabile della sua morte.

L'ultima parte della sua carriera

Il suo sesto matrimonio, con Kerrie McCarver, durò 20 anni, dal 1984 al 2004. poi divorziarono. La coppia ebbe un figlio: Jerry Lee Lewis III (nato nel 1987). Nel 1989 Lewis fu riportato alla ribalta da un film basato sulla sua vita intitolato Great Balls of Fire! - Vampate di fuoco, soprattutto quando egli decise di ri-registrare tutte le canzoni per la colonna sonora del film. La pellicola era basata sul libro dell'ex moglie Myra, e vantava nel cast Dennis Quaid nel ruolo di Lewis, Winona Ryder nel ruolo di Myra e Alec Baldwin nel ruolo di Jimmy Swaggart.
Il declino di suo cugino, il predicatore televisivo evangelico Jimmy Swaggart, portò ulteriore cattiva pubblicità sulla sua già abbastanza problematica famiglia. Swaggart è anch'egli un pianista, come l'altro cugino Mickey Gilley (star del country). La sorella di Jerry Lee, Linda Gail Lewis, è anch'essa una pianista, e ha registrato tra gli altri per Van Morrison. Nel 1990 Lewis offrì qualche novità quando una sua nuova canzone chiamata "It Was the Whiskey Talking, Not Me", fu inclusa nella colonna sonora del film Dick Tracy. La canzone può essere ascoltata in una scena del film in cui essa è riprodotta dalla radio.
Nonostante i problemi personali, il talento di Jerry Lee Lewis è riconosciuto ovunque. Soprannominato "Il Killer" per la sua voce grintosa e il suo stile al pianoforte, fu descritto dall'artista Roy Orbison come il miglior performer nella storia del rock and roll. Nel 1986 Lewis entrò nel piccolo gruppo di miti della musica diventando membro della Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Lo stesso anno egli tornò nei Sun Studios di Memphis insieme a Orbison, Cash e Perkins per realizzare l'album Class of '55. Questa non fu la prima volta in cui suonò insieme a Cash e Perkins per la Sun: aveva già suonato con loro nel Million Dollar Quartet. Le canzoni includevano, tra le altre, anche la reinterpretazione di Chuck Berry "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" e la reinterpretazione di Pat Boone "Don't Forbid Me".
Lewis non ha mai smesso di andare in tour, e i fan che hanno potuto vederlo dal vivo dicono che egli suona ancora in modo unico, eccitante e personale. Nel febbraio 2005 gli è stato assegnato il Lifetime Achievement Award dalla Recording Academy (la stessa che assegna i Grammy Awards). Il 26 settembre 2006 ha realizzato un nuovo album intitolato Last Man Standing in cui Lewis duetta con le più grandi star del Rock and Roll e del Country: Jimmy Page, B.B.King, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger e Ronnie Wood, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, John Fogerty, Keith Richards, Ringo Starr, Merle Haggard, Kid Rock, Rod Stewart, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Toby Keith, Eric Clapton, Little Richard, Delaney Bramlett, Buddy Guy, Don Henley, Kris Kristofferson. L'album, molto positivamente recensito, è entrato in quattro differenti classifiche della Billboard, e addirittura è rimasto al numero uno per due settimane nelle classifiche di genere Indie. L'album comprende canzoni di vari generi musicali: Rock and Roll, Country, Blues, dimostrando così la grande versatilità di The Killer. Negli Stati Uniti sono stati realizzati anche degli spot pubblicitari su radio e TV, e dei gadgets promozionali.
Il suo settimo matrimonio, con Judith Brown, si è svolto il 9 marzo 2012. Judith è l'ex moglie di Rusty Brown, fratello di Myra Gale e cugino/ex-cognato di Jerry Lee.

Presenza scenica ed eredità artistica

Jerry Lee Lewis è stato un pioniere del "Piano Rock" non tanto per il suo suono quanto per le sue performance dinamiche. Spesso suonava il piano in piedi dopo aver calciato via il seggiolino, oppure accentuava i movimenti delle mani per dare più teatralità alla sua esibizione, o ancora a volte si sedeva sulla tastiera. Le sue performance frenetiche possono essere ammirate in film come High School Confidential (di cui ha cantato la title-track omonima) e Jamboree. Jerry Lee Lewis è stato definito "rock & roll's first great wild man and also rock & roll's first great eclectic." Le sue tecniche di esibizione sono state adottate da altri pianisti rock tra cui Elton John e Billy Joel. Da segnalare anche il britannico Wee Willie Harris e l'italiano Matthew Lee (ospite anche nella trasmissione di Renzo Arbore "Speciale per me - Meno siamo meglio stiamo"), le cui esibizioni sono evidentemente ispirate da Jerry Lee Lewis.

By photographer:Maurice Seymour, Chicago. (eBay item photo front photo back) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons - File:Jerry Lee Lewis 1950s.

Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and pianist, often known by his nickname, The Killer. He has been described as "rock & roll's first great wild man."
A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis. "Crazy Arms" sold 300,000 copies in the South, but it was his 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" that shot Lewis to fame worldwide. He followed this with "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless" and "High School Confidential". However, Lewis's rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin.
He had minimal success in the charts following the scandal, and his popularity quickly eroded. His live performance fees plummeted from $10,000 per night to $250. In the meantime he was determined to gain back some of his popularity. In the early 1960s, he did not have much chart success, with few exceptions, such as a remake of Ray Charles's "What'd I Say". His live performances at this time were increasingly wild and energetic. His 1964 live album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is regarded by music journalists and fans as one of the wildest and greatest live rock albums ever. In 1968 Lewis made a transition into country music and had hits with songs such as "Another Place, Another Time". This reignited his career, and throughout the late 1960s and 1970s he regularly topped the country-western charts; throughout his seven-decade career, Lewis has had 30 songs reach the top 10 on the "Billboard Country and Western Chart". His No. 1 country hits included "To Make Love Sweeter for You", "There Must Be More to Love Than This", "Would You Take Another Chance on Me", and "Me and Bobby McGee".
Lewis's successes continued throughout the decade and he embraced his rock and roll past with songs such as a cover of the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace" and Mack Vickery's "Rockin' My Life Away". In the 21st century Lewis continues to tour around the world and still releases new albums. His album Last Man Standing is his best selling to date, with over a million copies sold worldwide. This was followed by Mean Old Man, which has received some of the best sales of Lewis's career.
Lewis has a dozen gold records in both rock and country. He won several Grammy awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. 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. He was also a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. In 1989, his life was chronicled in the movie Great Balls of Fire, starring Dennis Quaid. In 2003, Rolling Stone listed his box set All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology number 242 on their list of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2004, they ranked him number 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Lewis is the last surviving member of Sun Records' Million Dollar Quartet and the Class of '55 album, which also included Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley.

Early life

Lewis was born in 1935 to the poor farming family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis in Ferriday, Concordia Parish, in eastern Louisiana. In his youth, he began playing piano with two of his cousins, Mickey Gilley (later a popular country music singer) and Jimmy Swaggart (later a popular television evangelist). His parents mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano. Lewis was influenced by a piano-playing older cousin, Carl McVoy (who later recorded with Bill Black's Combo), the radio, and the sounds from Haney's Big House, a black juke joint across the tracks. On the live album By Request, More of the Greatest Live Show on Earth, Lewis is heard naming Moon Mullican as an artist who inspired him.
He was also influenced by the Great American Songbook and popular country singers like Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams. Williams in particular struck a chord with Lewis, who told biographer Rick Bragg in 2014, "I felt something when I listened to that man. I felt something different."^{[This quote needs a citation]}
His mother enrolled him in Southwest Bible Institute, in Waxahachie, Texas, so that he would be exclusively singing evangelical songs. But Lewis daringly played a boogie-woogie rendition of "My God Is Real" at a church assembly, which ended his association with the school 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 Lewis and Green into his office to expel them. Lewis said that Green should not be expelled because "he didn't know what I was going to do."
After that incident, he went home and started playing 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 traveled to Nashville about 1955, where he played in clubs and attempted to build 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 the guitar.

Career

Sun Records

In November 1956, Lewis traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to audition for Sun Records. Label owner Sam Phillips was in 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". In December 1956, Lewis began recording prolifically, as a solo artist and as a session musician for other Sun artists, including Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. His distinctive piano playing can be heard on many tracks recorded at Sun in late 1956 and early 1957, including Carl Perkins's "Matchbox", "Your True Love", " and "Put Your Cat Clothes On" and Billy Lee Riley's "Flyin' Saucers Rock'n'Roll". Formerly, rockabilly had rarely featured piano, but it proved an influential addition, and rockabilly artists on other labels 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. Johnny Cash was also there watching Perkins. The four then started an impromptu jam session, and Phillips left the tape running. These recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, have been released on CD as 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) 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", a Big Maybelle cover, and "Great Balls of Fire", his biggest hit, bringing him 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 of the Library of Congress. According to several first-hand sources, including Johnny Cash, Lewis, a devout Christian, was troubled by the sinful nature of his own material, which he believed was leading him 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.
As part of his stage act, Lewis pounded the keys with his heel, kicked the piano bench aside and played standing, raking his hands up and down the keyboard for dramatic effect, sat on the keyboard and even stood on top of the instrument. Lewis told the Pop Chronicles that kicking over the bench originally happened by accident, but when it got a favorable response, he kept it in the act. 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 "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On".
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.

Marriage controversy

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's Heathrow Airport (the only journalist present), learned about Lewis's third wife, Myra Gale Brown. She was Lewis's first cousin once removed and 13 years old (even though Brown, Lewis, and his management all insisted that she was 15) – while Lewis was 22 years old. The publicity caused an uproar, and the tour was cancelled after only three concerts.
The scandal followed Lewis home to the United States; 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 Records boss released "The Return of Jerry Lee", a bogus "interview" spliced together by Jack Clement from excerpts of Lewis's songs that "answered" the interview questions, which made light of his marital and publicity problems. Only Alan Freed stayed true to Lewis, playing his records until Freed was removed from the air because of payola allegations.
Lewis was still under contract with Sun Records, and kept recording, regularly releasing singles. He had gone from $10,000 a night for concerts to $250 a night for engagements in beer joints and small clubs. At the time he had few friends whom he felt he could trust. It was only through Kay Martin, the president of Lewis's fan club, T. L. Meade (also known as Franz Douskey), an occasional Memphis musician and friend of Sam Phillips, and Gary Skala, that Lewis went back to record at Sun Records.^[when?]
In 1960, Phillips opened a new state-of-the-art studio at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, abandoning the old Union Avenue studio where Phillips had recorded B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Lewis, Johnny Cash and others, and also opened a studio in Nashville. It was at the latter studio that Lewis recorded his only major hit during this period, a rendition of Ray Charles's "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 on the Phillips International label under the pseudonym "The Hawk", but disc jockeys quickly figured out the distinctive piano style, and this gambit failed.

Smash Records

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. The team at Smash (a division of Mercury Records) came up with "I'm on Fire", a song that they felt would be perfect for Lewis and, as Colin Escott writes in the sleeve to the retrospective A Half Century of Hits, "Mercury held the presses, thinking they had found Lewis's comeback hit, and it might have happened if the Beatles hadn't arrived in the America, changing radio playlists almost overnight. Mercury didn't really know what to do with Lewis after that." One of Smash's first decisions was to record a retread of his Sun hits, Golden Hits of Jerry Lee Lewis, which may have been inspired by the continuing enthusiasm European audiences had shown for Lewis's brand of rock and roll. However, none of Lewis's early Smash albums, including The Return of Rock, Memphis Beat, and Soul My Way, were commercial successes.

Live at the Star Club, Hamburg

One major success during these lost years was the concert album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg, recorded with the Nashville Teens in 1964, which is considered one of the greatest live rock-and-roll albums ever. In Joe Bonomo's book Lost and Found, producer Siggi Loch stated that the recording setup was uncomplicated, with microphones placed as close to the instruments as possible and a stereo mike placed in the audience to capture the ambience. The results were sonically astonishing, with Bonomo observing, "Detractors complain of the album's crashing noisiness, the lack of subtlety with which Jerry Lee revisits the songs, the fact that the piano is mixed too loudly, but what is certain is that Siggi Loch on this spring evening captured something brutally honest about the Killer, about the primal and timeless center of the very best rock & roll..." The album showcases Lewis's skills as a pianist and singer, honed by relentless touring. In a 5-out-of-5-stars review, Milo Miles wrote in Rolling Stone magazine that "Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is not an album, it's a crime scene: Jerry Lee Lewis slaughters his rivals in a thirteen-song set that feels like one long convulsion." Unfortunately, due to legal constraints, the album was not released in the United States.

Country comeback

Frustrated by Smash's inability to score a hit, Lewis was nearing the end of his contract when promotions manager Eddie Kilroy called him and pitched the idea of cutting a pure country record in Nashville. With nothing to lose, Lewis agreed to record the Jerry Chestnut song "Another Place, Another Time", which was released as a single on March 9, 1968, and, to everyone's amazement, shot up the country charts. At the time of the release, Lewis had been playing Iago in a rock and roll adaptation of Othello called Catch My Soul in Los Angeles but was soon rushed back to Nashville to record another batch of songs with producer Jerry Kennedy. What followed was a string of hits that no one could have ever predicted, although country music had remained a major part of Lewis's repertoire. As Colin Escott observes in the sleeve to the 1995 compilation Killer Country, the conversion to country music in 1968 "looked at the time like a radical shift, but it was neither as abrupt nor as unexpected as it seemed. Jerry had always recorded country music, and his country breakthrough 'Another Place, Another Time' had been preceded by many, many country records starting with his first, 'Crazy Arms', in 1956." The last time Lewis had a song on the country charts was with "Pen And Paper" in 1964, which had reached number 36, but "Another Place, Another Time" would go all the way to number 4 and remain on the charts for 17 weeks.
Between 1968 and 1977, Lewis had 17 Top 10 hit singles on the Billboard country chart, including four chart toppers. Hits include "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out of Me)", "To Make Love Sweeter For You", "She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left of Me)", "Since I Met You Baby", "Once More With Feeling", "One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)", and "Sometimes A Memory Ain't Enough". The production on his early country albums, such as Another Place, Another Time and She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye, was sparse, quite different from the slick "Nashville sound" that was predominant on country radio at the time, and also expressed a full commitment by Lewis to a country audience. The songs still featured Lewis's inimitable piano flourishes, but critics were most taken aback by the rock and roll pioneer's effortlessly soulful vocals, which possessed an emotional resonance on par with the most respected country singers of the time, such as George Jones and Merle Haggard. In his book Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, biographer Rick Bragg notes that the songs Lewis was recording "were of the kind they were starting to call 'hard country', not because it had a rock beat or crossed over into rock in a real way, but because it was more substantial than the cloying, overproduced mess out there on country radio".
In a remarkable turnaround, Lewis became the most bankable country star in the world. He was so hot in 1970 that his former Smash producer Shelby Singleton, who purchased Sun Records from Sam Phillips in July 1969, wasted no time in repackaging many of Lewis's old country recordings with such effectiveness that many fans assumed they were recent releases. One of his latter unreleased Sun recordings, "One Minute Past Eternity," was issued as a single and soared to number 2 on the country chart, following Lewis's recent Mercury hit "She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye." Singleton would milk these unreleased recordings for years, following The Golden Cream of the Country with A Taste of Country later in 1970.

Grand Ole Opry appearance

Lewis played the Grand Ole Opry for the first time on January 20, 1973. As Colin Escott writes in the liner notes to A Half Century of Hits, Lewis had always maintained ambivalent feelings towards Music City ever since he'd been turned away as an aspiring musician before his glory days at Sun Records: "It was 18 years since he had left Nashville broke and disheartened...Lewis was never truly accepted in Nashville. He didn't move there and didn't schmooze there. He didn't fit in with the family values crowd. Lewis family values weren't necessarily worse, but they were different." When Lewis finally took the stage, he broke just about every rule the Opry had. As recounted in a 2015 online Rolling Stone article by Beville Dunkerly, Lewis opened with his comeback single "Another Place, Another Time" and then announced to the audience, "Let me tell ya something about Jerry Lee Lewis, ladies and gentlemen: I am a rock and rollin', country-and-western, rhythm and blues-singin' motherfucker!" Ignoring his allotted time constraints – and, thus, commercial breaks – Lewis played for 40 minutes (the average Opry performance is two songs, for about eight maximum minutes of stage time) and invited Del Wood – the one member of the Opry who had been kind to him when he had been there as a teenager – out on stage to sing with him. He also blasted through "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On", "Workin' Man Blues", "Good Golly Miss Molly", and a host of others classics before leaving the stage to a thunderous standing ovation.

The Session and Southern Roots

Lewis returned to the pop charts with "Me and Bobby McGee" in 1971 and "Chantilly Lace" in 1972, and this turn of events, coupled with a revitalized public interest in vintage rock and roll, inspired Mercury to fly Lewis to London in 1973 to record with a cadre of gifted British and Irish musicians, including Rory Gallagher, Kenney Jones, and Albert Lee. By all accounts the sessions were tense. The remake of Lewis's old Sun cut "Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" would be the album's hit single, reaching number 20 on the Billboard country chart and peaking at number 41 on the pop chart. The Session would be Lewis's highest pop charting album since 1964's Golden Hits of Jerry Lee Lewis, hitting number 37. It did far better on the country albums chart, rising to number 4. Later that same year, he went to Memphis and recorded Southern Roots: Back Home to Memphis, a soul-infused rock album produced by Huey Meaux. According to Rick Bragg's authorized 2014 biography, "the Killer" was in a foul mood when he showed up at Trans Maximus Studios in Memphis to record: "During these sessions, he insulted the producer, threatened to kill a photographer, and drank and medicated his way into but not out of a fog." During one exchange that can be heard on the 2013 reissue Southern Roots: The Original Sessions, Meaux asks Lewis, "Do you wanna try one?", meaning a take, to which Lewis replies "If you got enough fuckin' sense to cut it." Lewis was still pumping out country albums, although the hits were beginning to dry up. His last big hit with Mercury was "Middle Age Crazy," which made it to number 4 in 1977.

Later career

In 1979, Lewis switched to Elektra and produced the critically acclaimed Jerry Lee Lewis, although sales were disappointing. In 1986, Lewis was one of the inaugural inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Although looking frail after several hospitalizations due to stomach problems, Lewis was responsible for beginning an unplanned jam at the end of the evening, which was immediately incorporated into the event. That year, he returned to Sun Studio in Memphis to team up with Orbison, Cash, and Perkins along with longtime admirers like John Fogerty 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. 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 Ryderas 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. A year later, in 1990, Lewis made minor news when a new song he co-wrote called "It Was the Whiskey Talkin' (Not Me)" was included in the soundtrack to the hit movie Dick Tracy. The song is also heard in the movie, playing on a radio. The public downfall of his cousin, television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, resulted in more adverse publicity to a troubled family. Swaggart is also a piano player, as is another cousin, country music star Mickey Gilley. All three listened to the same music in their youth, 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.
In 1998, he toured Europe with Chuck Berry and Little Richard. 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 Lewis'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 Little Richard, Mick Jagger, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Rod Stewart, among others. Lewis now lives on a ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi, with his family. In May 2013, Lewis opened a new club on Beale Street in Memphis. As of summer 2018, Lewis is still actively performing in concert.

Hits and awards

Along with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison, Lewis received a Grammy in the spoken-word category for the very rare album of interviews released with some early copies of the Class of '55 album in 1986. The original Sun cut of "Great Balls of Fire" was elected to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and Lewis'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. On February 12, 2005, Lewis received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award the day before the Recording Academy's main Grammy Awards ceremony, which he also attended. In June 1989, Lewis was honored for his contribution to the recording industry with a star along Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Between 1957 and 2006, the date of Last Man Standing's release, 47 singles and 22 albums (The Session counted as 2 albums) made the Top Twenty Pop, Jukebox, Rock, Indie and/or Country charts in the US or the UK. Fourteen^{[clarification needed]} reached the number-1 position. He has had ten official gold discs, 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. 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. On October 10, 2007, Lewis received the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's American Music Masters Award. His newest album, Mean Old Man, was released in September 2010 and reached No. 30 on the Billboard 200 album chart. On November 5, 2007, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, honored Lewis with six days of conferences, interviews, a DVD premiere and film clips, dedicated to him and entitled The Life And Music of Jerry Lee Lewis.^{[citation needed]} 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". On June 4, 2008, Lewis was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and 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, Lewis returned to the UK, almost exactly 50 years after his ill-fated first tour. 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. 2009 marked the sixtieth year since Lewis's first public performance when he performed "Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" at a car dealership on November 19, 1949, in Ferriday, Louisiana.^{[citation needed]}. 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 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.

Family and personal life

Lewis has been married seven times: His first marriage, to Dorothy Barton, lasted 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. It lasted for four years, from September 1953 to October 1957. The couple had two children: Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. (1954–1973) and Ronnie Guy Lewis (b. 1956). His third marriage, to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old first cousin once removed (his first cousin's daughter), lasted for 13 years, from December 1957 to December 1970 (although the couple went through a second marriage ceremony because his divorce from Jane Mitchum was not complete before the first ceremony took place). They had two children together: Steve Allen Lewis (1959–1962) and Phoebe Allen Lewis (b. 1963). His fourth marriage, to Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, lasted from October 1971 to June 8, 1982, and they had a daughter, Lori Lee Lewis (b. 1972). Pate drowned in a swimming pool at the home of a friend with whom she was staying, several weeks before divorce proceedings could be finalized. His fifth marriage, to Shawn Stephens, lasted 77 days, from June to August 1983, ending with her death. Journalist Richard Ben Cramer alleged that Lewis abused her and may have been responsible for her death, but the allegations have never been verified. His sixth marriage, to Kerrie McCarver, lasted 21 years, from April 1984 to June 2005. They have one child: Jerry Lee Lewis III (b. 1987). His seventh marriage, to Judith Brown, began March 9, 2012. Lewis has had six children during his marriages. In 1962, his son Steve Allen Lewis drowned in a swimming pool accident when he was three, and in 1973, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr. died at the age of 19 when he overturned the Jeep he was driving.
In 1993 Lewis moved to Ireland with his family in what was suggested (but denied) to be a move to avoid issues with the Internal Revenue Service. He lived in a rented house in Westminster Road, Foxrock, Dublin, and during his time there was sued by the German company Neue Constantin Film Production GmbH for failure to appear at a concert in Munich in 1993. Lewis returned to the US in 1997 after his tax issues had been resolved by Irish promoter Kieran Cavanagh.

Graceland arrest

In 1976, Lewis was arrested outside Elvis Presley's Graceland home for allegedly intending to shoot him. Lewis had already nearly killed his bass player, Butch Owens, on September 29 (Lewis's 41st birthday) when a .357 Magnum accidentally went off in his hand. In Rick Bragg's 2014 authorized biography, Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, Lewis explains that the reclusive Presley had been trying to reach him and finally did on November 23, imploring him to "come out to the house." Lewis replied that he would if he had time but that he was busy trying to get his father, Elmo, out of jail in Tunica, for driving under the influence. Later that night, Lewis was at a Memphis nightclub called Vapors drinking champagne when he was given a gun. "Charles Feron, he owned Vapors, he give it to me," Lewis explained to Bragg. "A .38 derringer. Me, pretty well drunk, with that derringer – it ain't somethin' 'strange'." Lewis suddenly remembered that Elvis wanted to see him and, climbing aboard his new Lincoln Continental with the loaded pistol on the dash and a bottle of champagne under his arm, tore off for Graceland. Just before three o'clock in the morning, Lewis accidentally smashed into the famous Graceland gates because "the nose of that Lincoln was a mile long."^{[This quote needs a citation]}
Presley's astonished cousin Harold Lloyd was manning the gate and watched Lewis attempt to hurl the champagne bottle through the car window, not realizing it was rolled up, smashing both. Bragg reports that Lewis denies ever intending to do Presley harm, that the two were friends, but "Elvis, watching on the closed-circuit television, told guards to call the police. The Memphis police found the gun in the car and put Lewis, protesting, hollering, threatening them, away in handcuffs." Lewis said, "The cops asked Elvis, 'What do you want us to do? And Elvis told 'em, 'Lock him up.' That hurt my feelings. To be scared of me – knowin' me the way he did – was ridiculous." Lewis was charged with carrying a pistol and public drunkenness. Released on a $250 bond, his defiant mugshot was wired around the world. Presley himself died at Graceland eight months later.

Religious beliefs

As a teenager, Lewis studied at the Southwest Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, before being thrown out for daring to play a boogie-woogie version of "My God Is Real", and that early incident foreshadowed his lifelong conflict over his faith in God and his love of playing "the devil's music." Lewis had a recorded argument with Sam Phillips during the recording session for "Great Balls of Fire", a song he initially refused to record because he considered it blasphemous ("How can...How can the devil save souls? What are you talkin' about?" he asks Phillips during one heated exchange). During the famous Million Dollar Quartet jam involving Lewis, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash, they performed several gospel songs. Lewis's biographer Rick Bragg explains that part of the reason the recording only features Lewis and Elvis singing is because "only Elvis and Jerry Lee [were] raised in the Assembly of God", and "'Johnny and Carl didn't really know the words … they was Baptists', [Lewis] said, and therefore deprived." He often talked to his cousin, Jimmy Swaggart, about the condition of his soul. Evangelist Swaggart and Lewis would pray together, but Lewis found it hard to alter his lifestyle. Evangelist Swaggart still often speaks with love of his cousin in his sermons, of their childhood together, and their continuing relationship. He will ask for prayers for Lewis if he is suffering illness.
In the 1990 documentary The Jerry Lee Lewis Story, Lewis explains to the interviewer, "The Bible don't even speak of religion. No word of religion is even in the Bible. Sanctification! Are you sanctified? Have you been saved? See, I was a good preacher, I know my Bible... I find myself falling short of the glory of God."
Gospel music was a staple of his performing repertoire. After a string of hit country albums, he decided to record a proper gospel album for the first time in 1970.

Piano style

Lewis is widely hailed as one of the most influential pianists in the history of rock and roll. In an often quoted tribute, Elvis Presley once said that if he could play the piano like Lewis he would quit singing. Lewis's pivotal role in popularizing the piano in rock and roll is indisputable. Up until his arrival, the music had been primarily associated with guitars, but his early Sun recordings and television appearances pushed the instrument to the forefront. Lewis was also an incendiary showman who often played with his fists, elbows, feet, and backside, sometimes climbing on top of the piano during gigs and even apocryphally setting it on fire. Like Chuck Berry's guitar playing, Lewis's piano style has become synonymous with rock and roll, having influenced generations of piano players. In a 2013 interview with Leah Harper, Elton John recalls that up until "Great Balls of Fire," "the piano playing that I had heard had been more sedate. My dad collected George Shearing records, but this was the first time I heard someone beat the shit out of a piano. When I saw Little Richard at the Harrow Granada, he played it standing up, but Jerry Lee Lewis actually jumped on the piano! This was astonishing to me, that people could do that. Those records had such a huge effect on me, and they were just so great. I learned to play like that." Lewis is primarily known for his "boogie woogie" style, which is characterized by a regular left hand bass figure and dancing beat, but his command of the instrument and highly individualistic style set him apart. Appearing on Memphis Sounds with George Klein in 2011, Lewis credited his older piano-playing cousin Carl McVoy as being a crucial influence, stating, "He was a great piano player, a great singer, and a nice looking man, carried himself real well. I miss Carl very much." Lewis also cited Moon Mullican as a source of inspiration. Although almost entirely self-taught, Lewis conceded to biographer Rich Bragg in 2014 that Paul Whitehead, a blind pianist from Meadville, Mississippi, was another key influence on him in his earliest days playing clubs, confiding, "Paul Whitehead done a lot. His lesson was worth a billion dollars to me...He taught me. I'd sit beside him, and say, 'Mr. Paul, can you show me exactly how you do that?' Mr. Paul was good to me."
Although Lewis's piano playing is commonly labelled boogie woogie, gospel music was another major influence in the formation of his technique. In Joe Bonomo's 2009 book Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found, Memphis producer and musician Jim Dickinson calls Lewis's occasional penchant for interrupting the standard boogie woogie left-hand progression by omitting the seventh and repeating the fifth and sixth, creating a repetitive, driving, quasi-menacing momentum, "revolutionary, almost inexplicable. Maybe Ella Mae Morse, maybe Moon Mullican had done it, but not in a way that became the propelling force of the song. Rock and roll piano up to that point had been defined by Rosco Gordon, Ike Turner, and to an extent, Ray Charles. None of them were doing that. Even Little Richard, as primitive as he plays, wasn't doing that shuffle...There was something in Jerry Lee that didn't want to play that seventh, and that's the church. Certainly in white spiritual music you avoid sevenths."

Selected discography

Further information: Jerry Lee Lewis discography

• Jerry Lee Lewis (1958)
• Jerry Lee's Greatest (1962)
• Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1964)
• The Return of Rock (1965)
• Country Songs for City Folks/All Country (1965)
• Memphis Beat (1966)
• Soul My Way (1967)
• Another Place, Another Time (1968)
• She Still Comes Around (1969)
• Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 1 (1969)
• Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 2 (1969)
• The Golden Cream of the Country (1969)
• She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye (1970)
• A Taste of Country (1970)
• There Must Be More to Love Than This (1971)
• Touching Home (1971)
• Would You Take Another Chance on Me? (1971)
• The Killer Rocks On (1972)
• Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano? (1972)
• The Session...Recorded in London with Great Artists (1973)
• Sometimes a Memory Ain't Enough (1973)
• Southern Roots: Back Home to Memphis (1973)
• I-40 Country (1974)
• Boogie Woogie Country Man (1975)
• Odd Man In (1975)
• Country Class (1976)
• Country Memories (1977)
• Jerry Lee Keeps Rockin' (1978)
• Jerry Lee Lewis (1979)
• When Two Worlds Collide (1980)
• Killer Country (1980)
• I Am What I Am (1984)
• Class of '55 (1986)
• Young Blood (1995)
• Last Man Standing (2006)
• Last Man Standing Live (2007)
• Mean Old Man (2010)
• Rock and Roll Time (2014)

Compositions

Lewis wrote or co-wrote the following songs: "End of the Road" (1956), "Lewis Boogie" (1956), "Pumpin' Piano Rock" (1957), "High School Confidential" (1958), "Memory of You" (1958), "Baby Baby Bye Bye" (1960), although Discogs credits Jerry Lee Lewis and Huey "Piano" Smith as the songwriters, the song was copyrighted in 1960 as by Lewis Smith, "Lewis Workout" (1960), "He Took It Like a Man" (1963, from the 1967 album Soul My Way), "Baby, Hold Me Close" (1965) from the 1965 album The Return of Rock, "What a Heck of a Mess" (1966), "Lincoln Limousine" (1966), "Alvin" (1970), "Wall Around Heaven" from the 1972 album Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano?, "Rockin' Jerry Lee" (1980, the B side of "Honky Tonk Stuff", from the album When Two Worlds Collide), "Pilot Baby" (1983), and "Crown Victoria Custom '51" (1995), released as a Sire 45 single B side.

 

 

jerry lee lewis great balls of fire - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD8YPY8RBQc

 

Lyrics

You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain
Too much love drives a man insane
You broke my will, oh what a thrill
Goodness gracious great balls of fire

I learned to love all of Hollywood money
You came along and you moved me honey
I changed my mind, looking fine
Goodness gracious great balls of fire

You kissed me baby, woo, it feels good
Hold me baby, learn to let me love you like a lover should
You're fine, so kind
I'm a nervous world that your mine mine mine mine

I cut my nails and I twiddle my thumbs
I'm really nervous but it sure is fun
Come on baby, you drive me crazy
Goodness gracious great balls of fire

Well kiss me baby, woo-oooooo, it feels good
Hold me baby
I want to love you like a lover should
You're fine, so kind
I got this world that you're mine mine mine mine

I cut my nails and I twiddle my thumbs
I'm real nervous 'cause it sure is fun
Come on baby, you drive me crazy
Goodness gracious great balls of fire

Songwriters: Jack Hammer / Otis Blackwell

Great Balls of Fire lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

Jerry Lee Lewis -Whole Lotta Shakin Going On (Live 1964) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dC0DseCyYE

 

Lyrics

Come on over baby, whole lotta shakin' goin' on
Yes I said come on over baby, baby you can't go wrong
We anin't fakin' a whole lotta shakin' goin' on

Well, I said come on over baby, we got chicken in the barn
Come on over baby, I got the bull by the horns
We ain't fakin, a whole lotta shakin' goin' on

Well shake baby shake
I said shake baby shake
I said shake it baby shake it
Well shake baby shake

Come on over whole lot of shakin goin' on
Ah let's go

Well come over baby we got chicken in the
Barn whose barn what barn my barn
Come on over baby better got to move along
We ain't fake it whole lot of shakin' goin' on

Easy now
Shake it, shake it babe
Yeah you can shake one time for me
Well come over baby whole lot of shakin' goin' on
Now let's get real low one time now shake baby shake

All you gotta honey is kinda stand in one spot
Wiggle around just a little bit
That's what you gotta do yeah
Oh babe whole lotta shakin' goin' on
Now let go one time

Shake it babe, shake it
Shake it babe, shake it
Shake it babe, come on babe
Shake it babe, shake it
Come on over, whole lotta shakin' goin' on

Songwriters: David Williams

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG Rights Management

High School Confidential - Jerry Lee Lewis - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjOLpNxaupU

Jerry Lee Lewis "Breathless" - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dQ4M8RYqCE

 

"Lewis Boogie" - Jerry Lee Lewis - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c31qo7xio3Y

Lyrics

My name is Jerry Lee Lewis, come from Louisiana
I'm gonna do you a little boogie on this here piano
Doing mighty fine, I'm gonna make you shake it
I'll make you do it and make you do it until you break it
It's called the Lewis boogie, in the Lewis way
Lord, I do my little boogie woogie every day

Well, down in New Orleans, the land of dreams
The best doggone place, son, you have ever seen
The cats go wild, do a boogie that's hot
My boogie woogie makes you want to stop and do the bop
It's called the Lewis boogie, in the Lewis way
Lord, I do my little boogie woogie every day

Aw,
Oh, boy!

Well, now let's cruise on down to old Memphis town
That's where that Presley boy said you ain't nothing but a hound
But now you take my boogie, it keeps you in the groove
Then your sacroiliac begins to shiver and a move
It's called the Lewis boogie, in the Lewis way
Lord, I do my little boogie woogie every day

Oh, boogie woogie
When your hips start rockin'
And your knees start knockin'
Lewis boogie, Lewis way
Lord, I do my little boogie woogie every day

Songwriters: Jerry Lee Lewis

Lewis Boogie lyrics © Brasstacks Alliance

Jerry Lee Lewis - Crazy Arms - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bXNbmXKFag