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. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Early life and career at Sun Records

Born in Ferriday, Louisiana, Jerry Lee Lewis showed an early natural talent for the piano. His parents were poor but took out a loan to buy a third-hand upright piano for him. Sharing piano lessons with his cousins Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Lee Swaggart, ten-year old Jerry Lee Lewis is said to have shown remarkable aptitude for the instrument. A visit from piano-playing older cousin Carl McVoy revealed the methods for the boogie-woogie styles Jerry Lee was hearing on the radio and across the tracks at Haney's Big House, which was owned by his uncle Lee Calhoun and catered exclusively to blacks. Lewis mixed boogie-woogie with gospel and country and developed his own style. He combined genres in the way he syncopated his rhythms on the piano: His left hand generally played boogie while his right played the high keys with flamboyant elaboration and show. By all family accounts, by the time Lewis was 14 he was "as good as he was ever going to get."

Related Topics:
Ferriday, Louisiana - Mickey Gilley - Jimmy Lee Swaggart

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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.

Related Topics:
Elvis Presley - Gospel music - Pentecostal - Southwestern Bible Institute

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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.

Related Topics:
Rock and roll - Sun Records - Memphis, Tennessee - Jack Clement - Sam Phillips - Florida - Elvis Presley - Roy Orbison - Carl Perkins - Johnny Cash

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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 and roll 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, Elvis said if he could play the piano like that, he'd quit singing. Lewis' early billing was Jerry Lee Lewis and his Pumping Piano.

Related Topics:
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Great Balls of Fire - Elvis

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Lewis's performances were dynamic. He kicked the piano bench out of the way to play standing (a stunt later adopted by admirer Elton John), raked his hands up and down the keyboard for dramatic accent and even sat down on it. His frenetic 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.

Related Topics:
Elton John - High School Confidential - Jamboree

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