Being inducted as the first person of the first class of the Rock”n”Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Teaching himself to play piano and singing in church was the start for Jerry Lee Lewis. Some of his early influences were such radio shows as The Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana Hayride, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Al Jolson were some of his favorite shows and artists. When he was 10, Lewis father mortgaged the family farm to buy Jerry his first piano. He eventually ended up in Memphis where he found work as a studio musician for Sun Studios. In 1957 he became a star with his unique piano-driven sound and also by this time he had developed some of his famous stage antics, such as playing standing up and even lighting up the occasional piano on fire. The story behind his nickname is told that because of his high energy and enthusiasm in his performances he earned the nickname”The Killer” for the way he knocked out his audiences, still this is not true. “Killer” comes from not remembering peoples names and he would always say to anyone “Hey Killer” and not the story before. One major success of Jerry Lee’s concerts was an album entitled “Live at the Star Club in Hamburg”, in 1964 an album that was recorded with the Nashville Teens. It is considered one of the greatest live Rock”N”Roll albums ever. In a review the album got 5 out of 5 stars, but still in the U.S. because of legal constraints, the album was never released.
Still things of more interest because Wikipedia doesn’t have the information, the song Breathless was sinking fast and Dick Clark made the following offer in his show; A free copy of the Breathless 45 for five Beechnut gum wrappers and 50 cents shipping and handing, as a result “Breathless reached the top 10 and Beechnut gum outsold Wrigley Spearmint gum for only the third time in history. And as usual, since Wikipedia never has any interesting stories here’s one from the little Red Rooster. In 1949 Jerry Lee Lewis makes his first public performance at an auto show featuring the years new model Fords in Natchez, LA. he earns 9 dollars for his performance. Find out more on Jerry Lee Lewis on KWMC 1490 am and the little red rooster show. Special thanks to Wendy Johnson who is in charge of all information and known facts about the artist of the month, and Mr. Javier Martinez for all productions of artist of the month. |
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