Jerry Lee Lewis (00:03):
Now let’s go.
(00:05)
Shake
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Jerry Lee Lewis, The Wild Rock and Roll Piano Man who lit up the stage in the 1950s with hits like “Whole lot of shaking going on”, had long hair, crazy moves, and an energy that just didn’t quit. But that spirit would be tested many times during his rollercoaster life.
(00:29)
Born in Louisiana in 1935, Lewis started tickling the Ivory at an early age. When he was 10 years old, his father mortgaged the family farm to buy the self-taught musician his first piano. After getting kicked out of school, Lewis turned his full attention to music. He made his way to Memphis in 1956 and landed a job with Sun Studios. While there, Lewis rubbed elbows with Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash and recorded his first single.
Jerry Lee Lewis (00:57):
(singing)
Speaker 3 (00:57):
His big break came with the 1957 release of “Whole lot of shaking going on.” Later that year, Lewis rocked the charts with another hit, “Great balls of fire.”
Jerry Lee Lewis (01:09):
(singing)
Speaker 3 (01:10):
His high-energy antics earned him the nickname, the killer. His personal life brought the rising star’s career to a screeching halt when he married his 13-year-old cousin.
Myra Brown (01:20):
Jerry decided that I was going to marry him, and he took a girl that was 22 years old to the courthouse in Mississippi, and she posed as Myra Brown and she signed the marriage license.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
The public outrage forced Lewis to cancel tours and radio stations stopped playing his songs.
Jerry Lee Lewis (01:41):
(singing)
Speaker 3 (01:41):
He made a comeback in the 1960s as a country star with hits like “Another place, another time.”
Jerry Lee Lewis (01:48):
(singing)
Speaker 3 (01:53):
But tragedies followed. Lewis’s three year old son drowned and a teenage son died in a car accident. The singer developed a drinking problem and suffered a bleeding ulcer that nearly killed him. Another decade, another upswing. In the late eighties, Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and earned a Hollywood star.
Jerry Lee Lewis (02:13):
I look forward to another 33 years in the business.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
He also gained renewed popularity from the biographical movie, “Great balls of Fire.”
Jerry Lee Lewis (02:22):
(singing)
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Jerry Lee Lewis kept entertaining audiences well into his golden years just rocking his life away.
Jerry Lee Lewis (02:30):
My name is Jerry Lee Lewis. I’m.