KWXY Presents ● The Music of Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis / publicity photo, circa 1950s / By photographer: Maurice Seymour, Chicago.

Jerry Lee Lewis was a singer, songwriter, pianist, actor and one of the pioneers of rock and roll and rockabilly.  His nickname, “The Killer,” was given to him for his raucous live performances and equally raucous personal life.  He boasts thirty Top 10 rock and rockabilly hits, four Grammy Awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award and two Grammy Hall of Fame Awards.  As a country artist, Lewis recorded four number one hits and seventeen Top 10 hits.  His career spans more than seventy years, beginning in 1949. 

Lewis was born September 29, 1935 in Ferriday, Louisiana to parents Elmo and Mary.  His cousins are Pentecostal televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, also born in Ferriday and country singer/songwriter Mickey Gilley from nearby Natchez, Mississippi.  Self-taught on piano beginning at age nine, Lewis and his cousins played piano together while the three were growing up; Lewis’s parents mortgaged their farm in order to purchase a piano.  An older cousin and a fan of boogie-woogie, Carl McVoy, was a major influence as well.  Lewis frequently visited him in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to learn new piano riffs.

Lewis’s first professional performance was at a Ferriday car dealer with a country and western band on November 19, 1949.  His mother wanted him to play only evangelical songs, enrolling him at the Southwest Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas.  His boogie-woogie performance of the hymn, “My God is Real” at a church assembly led to his expulsion the next day. 

His professional career began in earnest in November 1956 with an audition at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.  By December, Lewis was recording as a solo artist and Sun session musician for Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and other Sun artists.  As “Jerry Lee Lewis And His Pumping Piano,” his first two singles from 1957 are among his best-known songs: “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire.”  The former is critically acclaimed as “a rock and roll classic” and “the quintessential rockabilly song.”  Rolling Stone ranked it as the 61st greatest song of all time.  The latter appeared in the 1957 film, Jamboree.  It was ranked as the 96th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone and in 2005, both songs were inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. 

On stage, Lewis pounded the piano, sat on and kicked the keyboard and kicked aside the bench.  Kicking the bench was originally an accident, but he kept it in the show because of positive audience reaction. 

Jerry Lee LEWIS ●

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame All-Stars, Orleans Arena - Las Vegas, NV October 21, 2006, photo by Louie Comella

Lewis’s career took a turn for the worse when, in 1958, it was revealed that the twenty-two-year-old married his cousin, thirteen-year-old Myra Gale Brown.  His British tour was canceled after only three shows as a result and led to a ten-year career downturn. Jerry was married seven times, including bigamous marriages and a marriage with his underage cousin.

Lewis turned to country music in 1968 and enjoyed an unprecedented and unexpected string of hits becoming the most bankable country star in the world by 1969. He was so huge in 1970 that his former Smash producer Shelby Singleton, who purchased Sun Records from Sam Phillips in July 1969, repackaging many of Lewis's old country recordings.

Jerry Lee Lewis performing with Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins on The Johnny Cash Christmas Special in 1977 / published by The Terre Haute Tribune, November 26, 1977

On September 29, 1976 (Jerry Lee's 41st birthday), Lewis fired a .357 Magnum at a Coke bottle in his bedroom. The bullet ricocheted and accidentally hit bassist Butch Owens in the chest. Owens survived. Lewis was arrested again on November 23, 1976, outside Elvis Presley's Graceland home for allegedly intending to shoot him. Jerry Lee was drunk and ran into the gates at Graceland on the way to see Elvis. When the Memphis Police showed up Lewis was charged with carrying a pistol and public drunkenness. He was released on a $250 bond, and his mugshot was wired around the world.

Jerry Lee Lewis ● Mugshot

Memphis Police Department / November 23, 1976

Among his honors and tributes are a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a “Brass Note” on the Beale Street Walk of Fame in Memphis, Tennessee, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and two Grammy Hall of Fame awards.  He celebrated his 80th birthday in 2014 with a national tour.  Lewis had a minor stroke in Memphis on February 28, 2019 and had to cancel several appearances.

Lewis died at his home on October 28, 2022, in Nesbit, Mississippi, at the age of 87. Lewis' funeral was held on November 5, 2022, in his hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana. The service was officiated by his cousin Jimmy Swaggart and Swaggart's son.

KWXY Presents ● “The Music of Jerry Lee Lewis” today at 5pm hosted by Louie Comella, on KWXY Music Radio 92.3FM ● 1340AM ● streaming at kwxy.com and ivoxradio.com