His 2006 album Last Man Standing is his bestselling release to date, with over a million copies sold worldwide. 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. Lewis and Swaggart have had a complex relationship over the years.

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. 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 centre of the very best rock & roll" The album showcases Lewis's skills as a pianist and singer, honed by relentless touring. In October 2008, as part of a successful European tour, Lewis 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.

"[43] Lewis was still pumping out country albums, although the hits were beginning to dry up. A DVD entitled Last Man Standing Live, featuring concert footage with many guest artists, was released in March 2007. 1963).

[84] In 2017, Lewis sued his daughter and her husband Zeke Loftin claiming that she owed him "substantial sums of money. By all accounts the sessions were tense.

Jerry had always recorded country music, and his country breakthrough "Another Place, Another Time" had been preceded by countless country records starting with his first, 'Crazy Arms', in 1956." [45] In August 2009, in advance of his new album, a single entitled "Mean Old Man" was released for download.

With nothing to lose, Lewis agreed to record the Jerry Chesnut 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. 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". My dad collected George Shearing records, but this was the first time I heard someone beat the shit out of a piano. Although to some sources some music was recorded during several sessions, as of 2022 the album has not yet been released. The next morning, the dean of the school called Lewis and Green into his office to expel them. Frustrated by Smash's inability to score a hit, Lewis was planning on leaving the label when promotions manager Eddie Kilroy called him and pitched the idea of cutting a pure country record in Nashville. His second marriage in September 1953, to Jane Mitchum, was of dubious validity because it occurred 23 days before his divorce from Barton was final. The couple had two children: Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. (19541973) and Ronnie Guy Lewis (b. 2, The SessionRecorded in London with Great Artists, "Jerry Lee Lewis, Known for 1950s Rockabilly Piano Hits 'Great Balls of Fire' and 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On,' Has Suffered a Stroke", "A Piano Pounder Stops by, but Things Remain Orderly", Album Review: "Live at the Star Club, Hamburg", "Jerry Lee Lewis, the Enduring Rebel of Rock 'n' Roll", "Keith Whitley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Joe Galante are headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame", Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies, "Natchez Under The Hill Saloon Natchez Mississippi", "Show 8 The All American Boy: Enter Elvis and the Rock-a-Billies. ", "Jerry Lee Lewis drops a bombshell in London", "Sam Phillips: The Sound and Legacy of Sun Records", "Jerry Lee Lewis: Live at the Star Club, Hamburg [Bear Family]", "Flashback: Jerry Lee Lewis Drops an F-Bomb on the Grand Ole Opry", "Graded on a Curve: Jerry Lee Lewis, Southern Roots: Back Home to Memphis", "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anniversary concerts kick off with Jerry Lee Lewis and 'Whole Lotta Shakin', "Jerry Lee Lewis To Open Beale Street Club", "Recovery Update: Jerry Lee Lewis Is Heading In The Right Direction", "Tributes paid to rockabilly legend Jerry Lee Lewis", "Skyville Live Honoring Jerry Lee Lewis Debuts On CMT April 13 | LATF USA", "Jerry Lee Lewis Recording New Album of Gospel Covers After Stroke Left Him Fearful He'd Never Play Music Again", "Ethan Coen On His Killer Jerry Lee Lewis Docu, How The 'Great Balls Of Fire' Singer Invented Cancel Culture & Reuniting With Brother Joel Coen: Cannes Q&A", "Jerry Lee Lewis 85th Birthday Stream To Feature Elton John, Willie Nelson, More", "Elton John, Willie Nelson, Bill Clinton set for virtual Jerry Lee Lewis birthday bash", "Jerry Lee Lewis Receives Mississippi Country Music Trail Marker", "Induction Ceremony Medallion | Nashville, Tennessee", "Did Jerry Lee Lewis Really Set His Pianos on Fire Onstage?

[16] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022. In April 2019, U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers ruled that most of the claims were barred by a three-year statute of limitations except the defamation claims. 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." Tracks also include Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" and "Paralyzed", Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and Pat Boone's "Don't Forbid Me". ", meaning a take, to which Lewis replies, "If you got enough fuckin' sense to cut it. ", As recounted in a 2015 online Rolling Stone article by Beville Dunkerly, Lewis opened with his comeback single "Another Place, Another Time". [69] Their union lasted for 20 months from February 1952 to October 1953.[67]. 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 was astonishing to me, that people could do that. He didn't fit in with the family values crowd. Presley himself died at Graceland eight months later. [79] Lewis returned to the US in 1997 after his tax issues had been resolved by Irish promoter Kieran Cavanagh. One of Smash's first decisions was to record a retread of his Sun hits, Golden Hits of Jerry Lee Lewis, which was inspired by the continuing enthusiasm European fans had shown for Lewis's firebrand rock and roll. 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. On October 29, 2009, Lewis opened the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. [51][52], In March 2020, it was announced that Lewis, together with producer T-Bone Burnett, was recording a new album of gospel covers.

[9][10][11][12][13] In 1968, Lewis made a transition into country music and had hits with songs such as "Another Place, Another Time". Released on a $250 bond, his defiant mugshot was wired around the world. 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. 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 1998, Lewis toured Europe with Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

I learned to play like that." 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. 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.

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. He was so huge 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. [53][54], On October 27, 2020, to celebrate Lewis' 85th birthday, a livestream aired on YouTube, Facebook and his official website. Maybe Ella Mae Morse, Moon Mullican had done it, but not in a way that became the propelling force of the song. 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. John Stamos served as the host.

She is Lewis's first cousin once removed[35][36] and was 13 years old (even though Lewis said that she was 15) while Lewis was 22 years old. Lewis-Loftin and her husband counter-sued, claiming Judith Lewis and Jerry Lee Lewis III interfered in the business relationship. [29] 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". Lewis also cited Moon Mullican as a source of inspiration.

Lewis was present to accept the American Music Masters Award and closed his own tribute show with a rendition of "Over the Rainbow".

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, which prompted some radio stations to boycott them.

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. In very different ways, they all have left a lasting impact on the industry and generations of fans alike. Later that night, Lewis was at a Memphis nightclub called Vapors drinking champagne when he was given a gun. After a string of hit country albums, he decided to record a gospel album for the first time in 1970. The Greatest Live Show on Earth". To be scared of me knowin' me the way he did was ridiculous." In 1989, a major motion picture based on his early life in rock and 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. [92], In 1988, Lewis filed for bankruptcy, petitioning that he was more than $3 million in debt, including $2 million he owed to the IRS.

"[8] A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis. 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 June 1989, Lewis was honored for his contribution to the recording industry with a star along Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. [26], His mother enrolled him at the Southwest Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, so that he could sing evangelical songs exclusively. Swaggart is also a piano player, as is another cousin, country music star Mickey Gilley. In a remarkable turnaround, Lewis became the most bankable country star in the world.

Jerry Lee, Keith, and Joe each found their musical callings early in life and displayed a strong-minded and fierce passion for music making. [66] He had six children during his marriages. All three listened to the same music in their youth and frequented Haney's Big House, the Ferriday club that featured black blues acts. On November 22, 1976, Lewis was arrested outside Elvis Presley's Graceland home for allegedly intending to shoot him. I am thrilled to welcome this deserving class to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Im just overwhelmed that they asked me here today, Lewis, 86, said during an event earlier this week at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, adding that his career has taught him to be a good person and treat people right. [62][63]. The hit of his set was a cover of R&B artist Sticks McGhee's "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee".

30 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

This was followed by Mean Old Man in 2010, which has received some of the best sales of Lewis's career. [15] 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.

[70] However, his divorce from Jane Mitchum was not finalized before the ceremony took place, so he remarried Brown on June 4, 1958.

What followed was a string of hits that no one could have ever predicted, although country music always remained a major part of Lewis's repertoire. 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. In 1979, Lewis switched to Elektra and produced the critically acclaimed Jerry Lee Lewis, although sales were disappointing.

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. [75] Journalist Richard Ben Cramer alleged that Lewis abused her and may have been responsible for her death, but the allegations have never been verified. 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. See, I was a good preacher, I know my Bible? [80], Lewis lived on a ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi with his family. During the famous Million Dollar Quartet jam involving Lewis, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash, they performed several gospel songs. [58] Only recordings that are at least 25 years old and have left a lasting impression can receive this honor. 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. [50], In 2017 Lewis made a personal appearance at The Country Music Television Skyville Live show. [77], 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. Presley's astonished cousin Harold Lloyd was manning the gate and watched Lewis attempt to hurl the champagne bottle out the car window, not realizing the window was rolled up, smashing both. [24] On November 19, 1949, Lewis made his first public performance of his career, playing with a country and western band at a car dealership in Ferriday. In 2005, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. However, his rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old cousin. [64] Like Chuck Berry's guitar playing, Lewis's piano style has become synonymous with rock and roll, having influenced generations of piano players. In his youth, he began playing the piano with two of his cousins, Mickey Gilley (later a popular country music singer) and Jimmy Swaggart (later a popular televangelist).

On October 10, 2007, Lewis received the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's American Music Masters Award. Nicknamed the Killer, he has been described as "rock n' roll's first great wild man and one of the most influential pianists of the 20th century. Lewis was charged with carrying a pistol and public drunkenness.

Ignoring his allotted time constraints and, thus, commercial breaks Lewis played for 40 minutes (the average Opry performance is two songs, for about eight minutes of stage time maximum) 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. 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 auction amassed $91,382, less than a third of the debt. He also blasted through "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On", "Workin' Man Blues", "Good Golly Miss Molly", and a host of other classics.[42]. No word of religion is even in the Bible. 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. Lewis played the Grand Ole Opry for the first and only time on January 20, 1973.

Lewis family values weren't necessarily worse, but they were different. It was a specially recorded performance featuring a whole array of artists paying tribute to the music of Lewis. 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. Receiving positive reviews, the album charted in four different Billboard charts, including a two-week stay at number one on the Indie charts. [60] On November 10, the week culminated with a tribute concert compered by Kris Kristofferson.

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. 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. [92], On February 28, 2019, Lewis suffered a major stroke in Memphis. [88] In Rick Bragg's 2014 authorized biography, Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, Lewis said that the reclusive Presley had been trying to reach him and finally did on November 23, imploring him to "come out to the house." An EP featuring this song and four more was also released on November 11. [31][32], 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. 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? [55][56], Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind is the title of a documentary on Lewis released in 2022 and directed by Ethan Coen. Pearry Green, then president of the student body, related how during a talent show Lewis played some "worldly" music. [73] They had one daughter, Lori Lee Lewis (b. The publicity caused an uproar, and the tour was canceled after only three concerts. [18] In 2004, they ranked him No. His third marriage was to 13-year-old Myra Gale Brown, his first cousin once removed, on December 12, 1957. [74], His fifth marriage, to Shawn Stephens, lasted 77 days from June to August 1983, ending with her death. Lewis was 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. [87] Lewis almost killed his own bass player, Butch Owens, on September 29, 1976 (Lewis's 41st birthday) when a .357 Magnum accidentally went off in his hand. He was also a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. [67], When he was 16, he married Dorothy Barton, the daughter of a preacher.

Jones of San Antonio, Texas, testified in court during Lewis' income tax evasion trial in 1984 that she lived with him from 1980 to 1983. [71] In 1970, Brown filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery and abuse,[71] charging that she had been "subject to every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable.

1, Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol.

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. "Jerry Lee Lewis. he asks Phillips during one heated exchange.) 1987). 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 discothques. [47][48] Lewis is still considered actively performing in concert,[49] though he had to cancel all shows since his February 28, 2019, stroke, waiting for his doctors' go-ahead.

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".[39].

1956). Mercury didn't really know what to do with Lewis after that." [26] 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. 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.". 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". "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.

And Elvis told 'em, 'Lock him up.' 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 America, changing radio playlists almost overnight. Mary Kathy 'K.K.' 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 1952 for Cosimo Matassa in New Orleans. It was the first time he entered a recording studio following his stroke.

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. 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. Singleton would milk these unreleased recordings for years, following The Golden Cream of the Country with A Taste of Country later in 1970. "[86], In the 1990 documentary The Jerry Lee Lewis Story, Lewis said to the interviewer, "The Bible doesn't even speak of religion. 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". Checksfield, Peter (1995). [78] He lived in a rented house on Westminster Road in 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. However, the next year, the IRS seized property from Lewis ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi. Lewis has a dozen gold records in both rock and country. [34], 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' third wife Myra Gale Brown.