Artist’s songs such as Great Balls of Fire helped install rock’n’roll as the dominant American pop music of the 1950s
Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock’n’roll pioneer who became one of the most infamous figures in popular music, has died aged 87, his publicist has said.
He died of natural causes at his home in DeSoto County, Mississippi. “Judith, his seventh wife, was by his side when he passed away at his home in Desoto County, Mississippi, south of Memphis,” a statement said. “He told her, in his final days, that he welcomed the hereafter, and that he was not afraid.”
Lewis’s energetic performances on songs including Great Balls of Fire helped install rock’n’roll as the dominant American pop music of the 1950s. He was born in Louisiana in 1935, the son of a poor farming family who mortgaged their home to buy Lewis his first piano. While learning the instrument and studying at an evangelical school, he was kicked out for performing a boogie-woogie version of My God is Real that was deemed irreverent.
He didn’t return to education, and began playing live – his first performance at the age of 14 was at the opening of a car dealership. He developed a theatrical, boisterous style that chimed with the energy of the nascent rock’n’roll scene, and began playing at Sun Studios in Memphis, first as a studio musician and then as a solo artist.
Some of his earliest recordings were made in 1956 with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, a group later dubbed the Million Dollar Quartet. It was an impromptu session: Cash and Presley happened to be separately visiting the studio where Lewis was backing Perkins on piano.
The Influence of Jerry Lee Lewis on the Beatles
Throughout the Quarry Men/The Beatles' existence, they played a total of at least 11 Jerry Lee Lewis songs in live shows listed here chronologically:
"Mean Woman Blues", 1957-62
"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", 1957-62
"High School Confidential", 1958-61
"You Win Again", 1958-61
"When the Saints Go Marching In", 1958-59, 1962
"It'll be Me", 1959-61
"Great Balls of Fire", 1960-61
"Jambalaya (On the Bayou)", 1960-61
"Down the Line", 1960-62
"Fools Like Me", 1960-62
"Livin' Lovin' Wreck", 1961-62
The Get Back sessions of January 1969 show the band's affection for Lewis' work. These include "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "High School Confidential", "You Win Again", "Great Balls of Fire", and "Fools Like Me".
Paul McCartney performed "Mean Woman Blues" on MTV's Unplugged in 1991, but it was left off the resulting album.
Supposedly the Beatles recorded "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" with Tony Sheridan in Hamburg, and it appears as such on some bootlegs.
Lewis released his recording of "When the Saints Go Marching In" a traditional tune in 1958, the young Beatles were no doubt aware of the release, adding it to their stage repertoire from 1958-59, and later revived the number when backing Tony Sheridan in the recording studio in June of 1961, with the product occupying the B-side of their first commercial release.
Lewis contributed to the band's flamboyant and at times hysterical stage presence that they developed while in Hamburg.
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