Baby Boomers were born following the end of World War II due in part to couples ability to marry and set up some type of home although many were forced for some of the early years to share homes with older family members, The Baby Boom happened in most of the allied countries following the end of World War II and governments are now struggling with the retirement, health and other issues caused by such a large percentage of society requiring support and facilities for this large and important demographic in a short period of time ( Note from webmaster I am one of those Baby Boomers and can see both sides of the equation , I am at an age where I am not as healthy and approaching retirement age which will mean I will in many ways require financial support ( It should be remembered that myself and most of my generation paid taxes and social security for most of our working lives which means we should be getting back what we put in ). From the younger generation they may well see it differently when taxes etc. are forced to increase to pay for the increased number of baby boomers.
It soon becomes apparent that the female faction of the audience just can't get enough of Deke either on stage or off. Glenda capitalizes on Deke's sensual appeal by providing him with customized costumes and arranging publicity stunts. Deke is torn between the attraction he feels toward Glenda and the genuine affection he has for the band's lead singer, Susan, played by Dolores Hart in her film debut. When Deke discovers that Glenda has been manipulating him personally and professionally, he becomes confused and runs away. A wiser and more mature Deke returns just in time to perform at a major televised concert, which serves as his introduction to the big time. 'Loving You' was originally titled 'Lonesome Cowboy' and then changed to 'Running Wild'. Ed Sullivan referred to this title when Elvis made his last appearance on his show, January 6, 1957.
Production began on January 21, 1957 and was completed in early March. Finally, 'Loving You', the name of a song Leiber and Stoller wrote for Elvis for the movie, became the title.
'Loving You' premiered in Memphis on July 10, 1957 at the Strand Theater. Elvis didn't go to that showing. Instead, he took his date Anita Wood and his parents to a private midnight screening. The film opened nationally on July 30, 1957 and peaked at #7 on the Varierty National Box Office Survey.
There is virtually nothing left to say about this session. On only his second release, a young Jerry Lee Lewis produced the cornerstone of his recording career. Sam Phillips had already learned that the best way to record young Jerry Lee was to turn him loose in the studio, asking him to reach his archival memory and play whatever came to mind. Jack Clement hit the big time by placing his composition on this flipside of Jerry Lee's second single (Sun 267). "It'll Be Me" is rockabilly's ode to reincarnation. A comparison with other known takes of this song reveals just how different and truly unusual the arrangement of the issued version is. All it took was a life performance during the summer of 1957 on Steve Allen's network TV show, and the Killer's career was up and running. In Billboard's words, "This platter by Lewis is taking off like wildfire".
During the course of recording the early takes of ''It'll Be Me'', Jerry Lee concurrently toyed with his own arrangement of a number he'd come across a couple of years earlier while learning his trade at the Blue Cat Club in Natchez. The genesis of ''Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On'', which had already been a modest hit for rhythm and blues songstress Big Maybelle, remains the subject of argument to this day, what is certain is that Lewis made the song his own, rendering such debate almost irrelevant. Whereas the development of ''It'll Be Me'' had been meticulous, with subtle refinements being introduced into successive takes, Lewis simply launched into what was destined to become his magnum opus with characteristic abandon. In so doing, he put to good use the opening riff employed both in ''End Of The Road'' and in ''It'll Be Me'', albeit for the latter he had it moved a couple of notches up the keyboard. Four takes, spearheaded by an eight-bar snipped of fifth, survive of the early run-throughs of ''Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On'', all of which are solid enough but lack the magic ingredient. (*)
This is an instance where it may be helpful to give close consideration to certain aspects of the recordings to help determine their dissimilarity. After a number of false starts, the first two complete takes of ''It'll Be Me'' have distinctive openings that make them readily identifiable. By take 3 the jaunty eight-bar introduction has been settled upon but there are still sufficient variations in Jerry Lee's delivery of the first line in each recording to tell them apart with some ease. Notice how, in take 3, the word ''hear'' is, ironically, almost inaudible, while in take 4 there is an emphasis on the word ''knocking'' and finally, in the master of the single version, it's on ''somebody''. (*)
This songs has the distinction of being the very first to be issued in two different versions (unless we include the extremely rare ‘Jamboree’ movie soundtrack album which featured an alternate version of ‘Great Balls Of Fire’). The faster and superior version was issued as the flip of Jerry’s 2nd single ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’, while a quite different slower alternate version from a later session was issued the following year on his 1958 debut album ''Jerry Lee Lewis''. I’ve always thought it a little strange that this wasn’t re-recorded for ''Golden Hits'' in 1963, as all A and B sides of his first 5 Sun singles (plus his 7th Sun single) were cut with the exception of this song.
On the single's release, Sam Phillips had higher hopes for the other side, "It'll Be Me", a song that Jack Clement had concocted on the toilet while contemplating the possibility of reincarnation. Before recording, the line, "If you see a turd in your toilet bowl, baby, it'll be me and I'll be starin' at you" had become "If you find a lump in your sugar bowl"; sex may have been in, but scatology was definitely out. Released in mid-March, the record wasn't fully promoted until Jerry returned from the tour in May, and by that time, Sam Phillips had ascertained that "Shakin'" was the side to watch. With Dewey Phillips behind it, "Shakin'" was sitting atop the local charts in Memphis, and on June 12 it entered the national country charts. Two weeks later, it entered the Hot 100 at number 70.
This flip-side is a comparatively easy-going, loping performance with an understated shuffle rhythm. And Jimmy Van Eaton provides lots of additional decoration. For instance, the song is structured so that every time Jerry sings the title line it's followed by more than one full measure in which nothing happens. Van Eaton decorates those moments with a brief roll that fills the gap (although he does miss one). He marks the end of every verse, the release, and every solo with a roll. And he gets very lively in the second appearance of the release that follows the solos, making the shuffle rhythm explicit.
Sam Phillips achievement was simply to turn on the tape machine and let his boy go, hoping to hear something he could sell from the reliquary of forgotten hits and misses in Jerry's head. On this night, Jerry Lee recorded the song that Ray Hall had probably taught him, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On". Sam Phillips initially had little faith in it, sensing that it was too suggestive. As usual, Jerry had a hard time recalling the original version and, running out of lyrics before the song was much over a minute long, he eased the band down and inserted a talking segment he had worked up on club dates, before storming back for a climactic finale, ending with a triumphant glissando.
Jerry would later record songs that were demonstrably lascivious ("Big Legged Woman" and "Meat Man", to name two). "Shakin'" has formidable energy behind it - and a suggestive tone in the talking segment - but it isn't explicitly obscene. In contrast, Bill Haley thought he had excised all the objectionable passages of "Shake, Rattle And Roll" when he rewrote out the lines, "You wear them dresses, the sun comes shining through / I can't believe all that mess belongs to you". With charming naivete, he left the line "I'm like a oneeyed cat peeking in a seafood store"; when one considers that "seafood store" was black slang for female genitalia, it doesn't take too much imagination to figure out the identity of the one-eyed cat. Intent counts for a great deal, though, and Jerry imbued "Shakin'" with implicit sex. The record was banned in many cities.
In Nashville back in 1955, Lewis had played at the Musicians’ Hideaway bar owned by Roy Hall, and it was after hearing Hall perform ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’ that The Killer adapted and incorporated the number into his own live act. Now fast-forward to February 1957, and a Sun session that commenced with Jerry Lee and the boys working on one of Jack Clement's own compositions, ''It'll Be Me''.
''It just wasn’t jiving at that time'', Clement recalls, ''so I went into the studio and said, 'Why don't we get off this for a while and do something else'? That's when Jerry's bass player, J.W. Brown, who was also his first cousin and would soon become his father-in-law, said, 'Hey, Jerry, do that thing we've been doing on the road which everybody likes so much'. Jerry said, 'OK', so I turned the tape machine on and he did ''Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On'' in one take. No dry run, nothing. That was the first time I ever heard it''.
During an era when most studios' modus operandi was to record three or four tracks in as many hours, no such time constraints were enforced at Sam Phillips' facility. ''The musicians weren't quick enough to work that way'', Clement says. ''These were often guys who hadn't made records before. But they were good. The thing about Jerry Lee is that you could give him a piano and an audience of one or more people and he would give you the whole show. That’s what was so great about him''.
As performed by Lewis, a catchy but fairly standard rhythm and blues number was transformed into just under three minutes of rock and roll magic. OK, so he only sang a small portion of the ''Whole Lotta Shakin'' lyrics, but the power of his playing and suggestiveness of his vocal delivery were nothing short of transformative, culminating in the sedate yet leering spoken passage, '' shake it, baby, shake it, all you gotta do honey is kinda stand in one spot, wiggle around just a little bit...'', that is followed by the rousing finale and closing glissando.
''I knew it was a hit when I cut it'', Lewis would later say. ''Sam Phillips thought it was going to be too risqué, it couldn’t make it. If that’s risqué, well, I’m sorry''.
To discriminate between the complete raw takes of ''Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On'', it's easiest simply to take note of Jerry Lee's lustful invitation to the subject of his attention once he's uttered the proposition that she should ''stand in one spot'' during the ''easy now'' passage. In succeeding takes he asks her either to ''...bop a little'', ''...wiggle around a little''', ''...twist around a little'' or ''...wiggle around a little bit''. The remnant of a fifth take which, in view of the slightly slower pace, is believed to represent Lewis's earliest recording of the song, is distinguished by the clipped pronunciation of the word ''shakin''', it being related in this instance as little more than a single syllable. (*)
The recording that would launch Lewis's career as a rock and roll icon appears, however, to have been an isolated addendum to a later session on February 5, 1957. On the playback of this cut of ''Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On'', all involved must have quickly realised they had struck the mother lode, this was to be the ''A'' side of Jerry Lee's second disc, Sun 267.
The other and maybe the true story about ''Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On'' by Peter Guralnick.
Billy Riley and his band played a little club in Blytheville, Arkansas, called the Twin Gables, on the waydown. It was just Jerry, his cousin Jay Brown, who had accompanied him to the studio when they cut ''CrazyArms'' on November 14, 1956, and had by now acquired an electric bass, Roland Janes, Jimmy Van Eaton,and the club was barely big enough to accommodate a group of even that size. In fact there was just room forJerry and Jimmy. van Eaton on the bandstand, Jay and Roland Janes had to stand on the floor, and every timeJimmy Van Eaton socked the drums, dust sifted down from the heavy draperies tacked up on the ceiling todeaden the sound, coating the new jackets they had bought to play the Jamboree.
It was a four-hour job, so you really had to throw just about every song you might be able to play together asa band into each set, and then some. Not long into the evening Jerry Lee Lewis played a boogie-woogiefigure to introduce a song he said he used to sing when he was down in Ferriday, and the band fell in behindhim. Before he had even gotten halfway through, Roland Janes said, the people just started going crazy,''bopping all over the floor, you know how they do in Arkansas''. And as soon as they finished, the audiencewanted to hear it again. ''Play that ''Shakin'' song'', they kept calling out. ''They just loved it, man, theyinsisted on hearing it over and over''. And the same thing happened when they played the Big D Jamboree thenext night and then an upstairs club nearby after the show. The song was ''Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On''.
It had first been recorded in 1955 without any real chart success, or anything like the boogie-woogieapproach that Jerry Lee brought to it, by rhythm and blues belter Big Maybelle. Jerry had first heard itperformed by a Natchez disc jockey named Johnny Littlejohn at the little club across the river from Ferridaywhere he ordinarily performed. According to Jerry, ''and he was playing drums and singing, and I stood thereand listened, and I said, 'Man, that is fantastic'. I said, 'That's a hit'. And I started doing it pretty close toexactly they way he done it. Word for word. The way he would say, 'Easy, Let's get down real low. Stand it inone spot, and wiggle it around a little bit'. I picket it up from, I didn't steal it. I just kind of took it''.
When they played it for Sam Phillips, he didn't hesitate for a minute. Memories differ, but if they didn't cut iton the spot, they went back into the studio the next day, and after four or five takes they had it.
There has never seen a more breathtaking iconic moment. Jerry Lee kicked the rhythm off, just the way healways did, it was at heart a boogie-woogie number after all, with Jimmy M. Van Eaton on drums andRoland Janes' muted guitar coming in close behind. But where in the early takes the vocal is mannered,almost as if the singer is not fully committed to a consistency of approach, with tempo flirting with thefrenetic, and the piano wavering in its attack, the final take exudes a sense of pure command and rumblingauthority that, as brilliant as all of his previous studio extemporizations may have been, had never beenaltogether realized before.
This sence of authority is unmistakably aided by the liberal application of slapback not just to the vocal butto the piano as well, and by the almost total eradication of Jay W. Brown's electric bass, which had beendisconcertingly present in earlier takes. Most of all, there is a sence of sheer uninhibited fun, underscored bya selective use of glissando and the controlled variations of tone archieved in both the recordings andperforming process. When Jerry Lee swings into his first solo with an ''Aww, let's go'', the record takes off,though nothing physically changes, and then when he calls out, ''Ro, boy'', to invite Roland Janes' stringbendingsolo, there is simply no turning back.
The record concludes with the Johnny Littlejohn spoken passage that may well take its original inspirationfrom Clarence ''Pine Top'' Smith's 1929 classic, ''Pine Top's Boogie Woogie'', in which the singer is directingsimilar double entendres at an unseen audience, who are bidden to dance to the music at his direction. ''Nowwhen I say, 'Hold yourself''', says Pine Top. ''I want you get ready to stop / And when I say, 'Git it', I want youto shake that thing''. In this case Jerry Lee, after directing the band to ''get real low one time now'', turns hisattention to one particular, imagined girl, whom he exhorts to ''kind of stand in one spot, wiggle around just alittle bit'', before concluding, ''That's when you got something''. At which point he turns his attention back to the band, delivering a single irrefutable command (''Now let's go one time'') before capping the exuberantly throbbing finale with yet another glissando.
Neither Jimmy Marcus Van Eaton, nor Roland Janes had any point of comparison in their musicalexperience. They were, unquestionably, participants in the process, they were undeniably contributors, but there was no doubt in either of their minds that, without in any way underestimating their own contributions,they had never encountered such genius before, and they doubted that they ever would again. To SamPhillips, what it all came down to was that Jerry Lee had found his voice, that, for all of the insecurity thatSam suspected lay just beneath the swagger, ''he had that basic sureness about what he was doing. And hebelieved that what he was doing was good''. For Jack Clement, whose recollection of the moment was aspoetically true as it was factually fogged, ''We'd been working and working on a song I wrote called ''It'll BeMe'', and it was getting a little stale, and the bass player spoke up and said, 'Hey, Jerry, let's do that songwe've been doing on the road that everybody likes so much. So I said, 'Okay, ell, let me go turn on themachine'. So I walk in the control room and sit down, just as, they're playing the chord, and we did it. No dryrun, no nothing, just blap, there's ''Whole Lot Of Shakin''. One take. Now that was fun''.
Maybe that's the best description of how it actually happened, even if there were in fact at least three or fouralternate takes, because that's what it sounds like. For all the discipline that was required, for all the carefulattention to feel and sound, it came out as pure and unself-conscious as if it were a first take, as if it couldnever have been anything but what it was. It was the perfect definition of everything that Sam Phillips strovefor in his ''little laboratory of sound''; a thoroughly professional recording that sounded as if it had been puttogether with a minimum of polish and maximum of spontaneity.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
Jerry Lee Lewis took an extended break from the studio work throughout April and May 1957, during which he toured extensively in the mid-west and in Canada. But before leaving Memphis he worked on a second, so-called ''slow'' arrangement of ''It'll Be Me'' would itself in due course reap further rewards for Clement when it found a place on Lewis's first album and/or EP that year or so later. Again, successive takes demonstrated steady progress until the LP/EP master was settled upon. With the exception of the initial pair and the last of the seven, these takes are not that easy to differentiate but there are some useful pointers. The opener is straightforward, as it is missing the emblematic ''knock on the door'' drum intro. Take 2, once it is underway following a false start, establishes the template for what is to come but this effort is set apart by Jerry Lee's vocal histrionics as they come out of the instrumental break. In take 3, during the same passage, the phrase ''in the night\\ is noticeably hurried compared to the norm. Take 4 alone features, in the fourth verse, the idea of ''something funny'' as opposed to ''a funny face'' being seen ''in a comic book''. In take 5 an untypical piano break confirms that we're on new ground. The second, LP master then follows; the main point of reference is simply that this is the most recognisable take, against which the variations perceptible in the others can be measured although one vocal nuance which can be highlighted is the clipped way in which the term ''sugar bowl'' is sung in the penultimate line. Take 6 has been presented as a postscript here because it presents a change of tempo that isolates it from the mainstream development of the song. (*)
"(Give Me That) Old Time Religion" recorded here by Jerry Lee Lewis, is a traditional gospel song dating from 1873, when it was included in a list of Jubilee songs, or earlier. It has become a standard in many Protestant hymnals, though it says nothing about Jesus or the gospel, and covered by many artists. Some scholars, such as Forrest Mason McCann, have asserted the possibility of an earlier stage of evolution of the song, in that "the tune may go back to English folk origins" (later dying out in the white repertoire but staying alive in the work songs of African Americans). In any event, it was by way of Charles Davis Tillman that the song had incalculable influence on the confluence of black spiritual and white gospel song traditions in forming the genre now known as southern gospel. Tillman was largely responsible for publishing the song into the repertoire of white audiences. It was first heard sung by African-Americans and written down by Tillman when he attended a camp meeting in Lexington, South Carolina in 1889.
A popular version of "Old Time Religion" was done by The Caravans in 1954 with a young James Cleveland singing lead. Vocals in the group also included Cassietta George, Albertina Walker, Louise McDowell and Johneron Davis.
"When The Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as "The Saints", is an American gospel hymn. Though it originated as a Christian hymn, it is often played by jazz bands. This song was famously recorded on May 13, 1938 by Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. The song is sometimes confused with a similarly titled composition "When The Saints are Marching In" from 1896 by Katharine Purvis wrote the lyrics and James Milton Black composed the music.
The origins of this song are unclear. It apparently evolved in the early 1900s from a number of similarly titled gospel songs including "When The Saints Are Marching In" (1896) and "When The Saints March In for Crowning" (1908). The first known recorded version was in 1923 by the Paramount Jubilee Singers on Paramount 12073. Although the title given on the label is "When All The Saints Come Marching In," the group sings the modern lyrics beginning with "When the saints go marching in...". No author is shown on the label. Several other gospel versions were recorded in the 1920s, with slightly varying titles but using the same lyrics, including versions by The Four Harmony Kings (1924), Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers (1924), Wheat Street Female Quartet (1925), Bo Weavil Jackson (1926), Deaconess Alexander (1926), Rev. E. D. Campbell (1927), Robert Hicks (aka Barbecue Bob, 1927), Blind Willie Davis (1928), and the Pace Jubilee Singers (1928). The earliest versions were slow and stately, but as time passed the recordings became more rhythmic, including a distinctly up tempo version by the Sanctified Singers on British Parlophone in 1931. Even though the song had folk roots, a number of composers claimed copyright in it in later years, including Luther G. Presley and Virgil Oliver Stamps, R.E. Winsett, and Frank and Jim McCravy. Although the song is still heard as a slow spiritual number, since the mid-20th century it has been more commonly performed as a "hot" number. The tune is particularly associated with the city of New Orleans. A jazz standard, it has been recorded by a great many jazz and pop artists.
Both vocal and instrumental renditions of the song abound. Louis Armstrong was one of the first to make the tune into a nationally known pop tune in the 1930s for Decca Records. Armstrong wrote that his sister told him she thought the secular performance style of the traditional church tune was inappropriate and irreligious. Armstrong was in a New Orleans tradition of turning church numbers into brass band and dance.
Recorded on this session and (along with 3 other songs) overdubbed in April 4 and/or 8, 1958 with a male vocal chorus for inclusion on Jerry’s first album, this is one of his finest early country-pop ballads. The 1979 re-cut (released under the alternate title ''Who Will Buy The Wine'' on the mostly brilliant ''When Two Worlds Collide'' album the following year) is given the full Nashville treatment of fiddle, steel guitar, strings and girly backing vocals. Despite (or because of) this, it’s a more than worthy remake. However, for some reason is Jerry more “innocent” younger vocals more appealing on this particular song.
This standard, Jerry here cut three superb (but similar) takes during his early months at Sun, both performed fairly fast and with the trademark ''pumpin'' piano much in evidence. One take was issued on ''Olde Tyme Country Music'' in 1970, while the alternate take was first issued on ''The Sun Years'' in 1983. The re-cut is performed much slower, the prominent harmonica gives it a similar feel to his 1975 ''Odd Man In'' album and for once the overdubbed duet vocal (by Sheryl Crow) probably genuinely enhances what was a more than OK track beforehand. Released on the ''Mean Old Man'' EP in 2009 and again on the album of the same name this year, it’s an undoubted highlight of both the EP and the album.
"You Are My Sunshine" is a popular American song and it was first recorded in 1939. It also happens to be one of Louisiana's state songs. The songwriters for this song are Charles Mitchell and James Davis. While Jimmie Davis who sung the 2nd version of this song used his association with this song for immense political mileage when running for governorship of Louisiana.
This song is soaked in history and it has been featured in numerous films, television shows, television commercials, and radio commercials additionally numerous sporting teams, such as Wigan Athletic Football Club too have used this song. Today this song is a extremely well known song and is a standard for traditional country music and traditional jazz performers. The song "You Are My Sunshine" is frequently called "The Sunshine Song".
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (née Neville) born on January 5, 1893, was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter. A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar (usually in standard tuning), not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed guitar upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "cotten picking".
Elizabeth Nevills was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to a musical family. Her parents were George Nevill (also spelled Nevills) and Louisa (or Louise) Price Nevill. Elizabeth was the youngest of five children. At age seven, Cotten began to play her older brother's banjo. By eight years old, she was playing songs. At the age of 11, after scraping together some money as a domestic helper, she bought her own guitar. The guitar, a Sears and Roebuck brand instrument, cost her $3.75. Although self-taught, she became very good at playing the instrument. By her early teens she was writing her own songs, among ''I Don't Love Nobody'' voiced here twice by Jerry Lee Lewis with his pumping piano style with the sharp guitar accompaniment by Roland Janes and the drumming of Jimmy Van Eaton, but one of which, "Freight Train", became one of her most recognized. Cotten wrote "Freight Train" in remembrance of the nearby train that she could hear from her childhood home.
Around the age of 13, Cotten began working as a maid along with her mother. On November 7, 1910, at the age of 17, she married Frank Cotten. The couple had a daughter named Lillie, and soon after young Elizabeth gave up guitar playing for family and church. Elizabeth, Frank and their daughter Lillie moved around the eastern United States for a number of years between North Carolina, New York, and Washington, D.C., finally settling in the D.C. area. When Lillie married, Elizabeth divorced Frank and moved in with her daughter and her family.
Cotten had retired from the guitar for 25 years, except for occasional church performances. She didn't begin performing publicly and recording until she was in her 1960s. She was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.
While working briefly in a department store, Cotten helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Penny Seeger, and the mother was composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Soon after this, Elizabeth again began working as a maid, caring for Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger's children, Mike, Peggy, Barbara, and Penny. While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family) she remembered her own guitar playing from 40 years prior and picked up the instrument again to relearn almost from scratch.
In the later half of the 1950s, Mike Seeger began making bedroom reel to reel recordings of Cotten's songs in her house. These recordings later became the album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, which was released on Folkways Records. Since that album, her songs, especially her signature track, Freight Train, which she wrote when she was 11, have been covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Devendra Banhart, Laura Gibson, Laura Veirs, His Name Is Alive, Doc Watson, Taj Mahal and Geoff Farina. Shortly after that first album, she began playing concerts with Mike Seeger, the first of which was in 1960 at Swarthmore College.
In the early 1960s, Cotten went on to play concerts with some of the big names in the burgeoning folk revival. Some of these included Mississippi John Hurt, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.
The new-found interest in her work inspired her to write more material to play, and in 1967 she released a record created with her grandchildren, which took its name from one of her songs, Shake Sugaree. Using profits from her touring, record releases, and from the many awards given to her for her own contributions to the folk arts, Elizabeth was able to move with her daughter and grandchildren from Washington, D.C., and buy a house in Syracuse, New York. She was also able to continue touring and releasing records well into her 1980s. In 1984, she won the Grammy Award for "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording" for the album on Arhoolie Records, ''Elizabeth Cotten Live''. When accepting the award in Los Angeles, her comment was, "Thank you. I only wish I had my guitar so I could play a song for you all." In 1989, Cotten was one of 75 influential African-American women included in the photo documentary, ''I Dream A World''. Elizabeth Cotten died in June 29, 1987, at Crouse-Irving Hospital in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 94.
"Long Gone Lonesome Blues" is 1950 song by Hank Williams played on this session by Jerry Lee for Sun Records. The song was Hank Williams' second number one on the country and western chart. "Long Gone Lonesome Blues" stayed on the charts for twenty-one weeks, with five weeks at the top of the country and western chart. The B-side of the song, entitled "My Son Calls Another Man Daddy," peaked at number nine on the country and western chart.
"Long Gone Lonesome Blues" is quite similar in form and style to Williams' previous number 1 hit "Lovesick Blues." Biographer Colin Escott speculates that Hank deliberately utilized the similar title, tempo, and yodels because, although he had scored five Top 5 hits since "Lovesick Blues" had topped the charts, he had not had another number 1. Williams had been carrying the title around in his head for a while but it was not until he went on a fishing trip with songwriter Vic McAlpin that the inspiration to write the song took hold: "They left early to drive out to the Tennessee River where it broadens into Kentucky Lake, but Hank had been unable to sleep on the trip, and was noodling around with the title all the way. As McAlpin told journalist Roger Williams, he and Hank were already out on the lake when McAlpin became frustrated with Hank's pre-occupation. ''You come here to fish or watch the fish swim by''? he said, and suddenly Hank had the key that unlocked the song for him. ''Hey''! he said. ''That's the first line''!
As he sometimes did, Williams bought out McAlpin's meager share in the song and took sole credit. The tune was recorded in Nashville at Castle Studio with Fred Rose producing on January 9, 1950 and featured Jerry Rivers (fiddle), Don Helms (steel guitar), Bob McNett (lead guitar), Jack Shook (rhythm guitar), and Ernie Newton (bass). The song's bluesy guitar intro, high falsettos, and Hank's suicidal yet irresistibly catchy lyrics, sent it soaring to the top of the country charts on March 25, 1950.
At a later stage here, Lewis entertain everyone in the studio with a casual yet innovative third version of ''It'll Be Me'' which, unaccountably, has been overlooked in any re-issue programme until now. This shows Jerry Lee a tad irreverent, and quite what Jack Clement would have made of it can only be guessed at. For all one knows, he may have been disappointed that Lewis didn't pick up on the original analogy and replace the line about u lump in a sugar bowl with an explicit reference to the scatological inspiration, although there's certainly a hint in the final refrain that Jerry Lee almost did exactly that. The rest of us can simply celebrate the fact that in 2015, fifty-eight years after this light-hearted gem was recorded, it's finally available for us to enjoy. (*)
Winner and first runner-up in the Lewd and Lascivious category, "Shake Rattle And Roll" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" are the two strongest arguments for the idea that prudes really did have something to fear from rock and roll. Both, Big Joe and Jerry Lee leer and drool with an indelicacy that would be comic if it weren't so intense. If there's a way to impute more pure, dripping lust into the word "Shake", no one has ever fount it, even though Lewis and Turner doubtless inspired many a search. A side from that, the records are opposites. Turner's never made the pop charts, although its wonderful, witty lyrics was bowdlerized and turned into a multi-million seller by Bill Haley later the same year; Lewis got a number one Rhythm and Blues hit to go with the pop success, even though rhythm and blues shouter Big Maybelle (Perhaps the closest thing to a distaff equivalent of Turner) had flopped with the same song in 1955. There's a kind of double whammy here because "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" began its life as a collaboration between a black man, Williams, and a white one, Hall (Jerry Lee apparently worked from Hall's country version, even more obscure than Big Maybelle's). The contrast is greatest when it comes to the piano playing.
Forty-three-year-old Turner, who'd been making records since the late thirties when he came East from Kansas City as part of the boogie-woogie boom, got his most famous hit with an arrangement driven by lovely triplets that wouldn't have been out of place on his first sides. Lewis, like the twenty-two-year-old hothead he was, simply guns it from the first notes, playing a cross between honky-tonk and blues shuffle at an impossible tempo, which he was the audacity to speed up after the first verse. Turner is commanding because he remains dignified even while exorcising his lust. Lewis is in charge because he's tough and arrogant enough to back up every claim his romp over the keyboards makes. in a way, this only restates the obvious: Big Joe Turner was a blues shouter who had rhythm and blues hits in the rock and roll era. Jerry Lee Lewis was a rock and roller. Still, their finest records live on, side by side.
The master take is, readily set apart from its forebears by the introduction of the ''slapback'' echo that invests the performance with its distinctive and memorable character. This process was never better illustrated than by the words of hank Davis, in his 1983 essay ''The Sun Sound'', published in association with the Charly box sets, viz; ''...the driving, pounding sound came from miking the piano just right and feeding the sound back on itself at just the right rate in order to fatten it up. By the time the drums join and Jerry Lee begins to sing, the record id throbbing with its own hypnotic life. Words like ''pounding'' or ''incessant'' don't even scratch the descriptive surface. In a sense, the entire record is the rhythm section. No wonder Jerry Lee's vocal or piano glissandi work so well, anything that moves in counterpoint to or breaks the underlying tension is bound to succeed''. (*)
Rockabilly pianist Roy Hall, who, under the pseudonym of Sunny David, wrote ''Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On'' with black musician Dave Williams, also recorded his own version, before Lewis inspired a generation of teens by injecting the song with his inimitable brand of boogie-woogie, country, gospel and rhythm and blues-infused hellfire. Released in May 1957, the single rose to number eight in the United Kingdom, reached number three on what was then known as the Billboard Top 100, and became an rhythm and blues and country chart-topper. In the process, it launched the career of the piano-pounding, rocket-fuelled wildman whose manic, overtly sexual live performances provoked parental nightmares. As it happens, the self-described ''Killer'' only enjoyed four Top 20 hits before the scandal of his marriage to a 13-year-old cousin brought the successes to a screeching halt. Yet, courtesy of a wide-ranging career that has now spanned seven decades and comprised an impressive body of work, Lewis’s legend has remained intact, and the tale of how he first came to prominence is, like the man himself, quite unique.
After four recordings, disc jockey Johnny Littlefield received Roy Hall's latest Decca release in the mail in the fall of 1955. He immediately began playing the record in the air. He also began singing the song in his nightclub, the Wagon Wheel also called the Music Box in some sources). One of the members of his house band was piano player Jerry Lee Lewis. Reportedly, Lewis began begged Littlefield to allow him to sing the song in the club. Lewis has said that he first remembers hearing "Big Mama Thornton's recording of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" sometime in 1955. Obviously, Lewis meant Big Maybelle, not Willie Mae Thornton. In any case, Jerry Lee Lewis incorporated "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" into his act. On April 15, 1957, Jerry Lee Lewis appeared "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" on the Steve Allen show.
Jerry Lee didn't write many songs but he sure did breathe new life into virtually everything he performed. "Whole Lotta Shakin'" is a case in point. Listen to earlier versions of the song by Roy Hall or blues shouter Big Maybelle. What Jerry Lee has brought to this massive hit is truly worthy of composer credit.
Jimmy Rogers (aka "The Singing Brakeman", "The Blue Yodeler", and "The Father of Country Music" recorded ''My Carolina Sunshine Girl'' on October 20, 1928 in Atlanta, Georgia, backed with ''Desert Blues'' for Victor (V-40096).
"Shame On You" performed here by Jerry Lee Lewis is a western swing song written by Spade Cooley and became Cooley's signature song. The title comes from the refrain that starts each verse: ''Shame, shame on you. Shame, shame on you''. In the song, the singer is rebuking his straying girlfriend.
First recorded by Spade Cooley, it was released January 15, 1945 (OKeh 6731). With vocals by Tex Williams, it reached number 1 spending 31 weeks on the charts. The "B" side, "A Pair Of Broken Hearts", also a hit reached number 8. The recording was Cooley's first after taking over the band from Jimmy Wakely, and the first of an unbroken chain of six hits which led to him being on the cover of Billboard in March 1946. "Shame On You" was the first song whose rights were owned by the Hill & Range publishing company, which later grew to become a dominant force in country music.
Later in 1945, "Shame On You" was recorded by The Lawrence Welk Orchestra with Red Foley. Their version also went to number one on the country charts. The B-side of the song, entitled, "At Mail Call Today" went to number three on the country charts. Coast Records, based in Los Angeles released a version by Walt Shrum and His Colorado Hillbillies. "Shame On You" has also been recorded by several other western swing bands.
''Drinkin' Wine'' a long-time favourite of Jerry’s (legend has it that this was the first non-religious song he ever performed in public way back in circa 1949), and every version is great in it’s own way. The first version from 1957 has a very memorable piano intro (I wish he’d recreate it ‘live’) though due to the subject matter (getting paralytic drunk) it had to wait until the 1971 ´Monsters’ album before it was released. The 1958 version (actually 2 takes) wasn’t released until the 1983 ''The Sun Years'' box-set, and the 1963 Smash cut was one of the highlights of the 1966 ''Memphis Beat'' LP. Lastly, the 1973 cut from ''The Session'' was also released as a single (times had changed since 1957), deservedly reaching the United States pop top 40. The song is still more often than not part of Jerry's stage show today.
Granville ''Stick'' McGhee, in the military, Granville often played his guitar and one of the songs, that McGhee was best known for his co-written song "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee". The original lyrics of the song were as follows: ''Drinkin’ that mess is our delight, and when we get drunk, start fightin’ all night. Knockin’ out windows and tearin’ down doors, drinkin’ half-gallons and callin’ for more. Drinkin’ wine motherfucker, drinkin’ wine! Goddam! Drinkin’ wine motherfucker, drinkin’ wine! Goddam! Drinkin’ wine motherfucker, drinkin’ wine! Goddam! Pass that bottle to me''! This song was one of the earliest prototypical rock and roll songs and was covered by Jerry Lee Lewis for his Sun International LP ''Monsters'' (Sun 124, April 1971) and Mike Bloomfield's Electric Flag (as "Wine"). The song lent its name to the alcoholic fruit drink, spodi.
In 1946, Granville and Brownie McGhee collaborated and modified the song into a clean cut version for Harlem Records. The song was released a year later in January 1947 at the price of 49 cents. The song did not get much airplay time until two years later, when Granville recreated the song for Atlantic Records. As a result, it rose to number 2 on the Billboard Rhythm And Blues chart, where it stayed for 4 weeks, spending almost half a year on the charts overall.
His songs attracted countless covers over the years. The first cover was by Lionel Hampton featuring Sonny Parker, then Wynonie Harris, and lastly, Loy Gordon and His Pleasant Valley Boys with their hillbilly-bop rendition. His song "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" maintained its popularity throughout the 1950s by various artists, including Malcolm Yelvington, recorded on October 10, 1954 for Sun Records (Sun 211), and Johnny Burnette (Coral 9-61869) in 1957.
Don Dow Gililland (commonly misspelled as Gilliland; born 31 January 1939 Dallas, Texas) is a jazz guitarist and composer who is best known for having recorded three rockabilly hits in 1956 on Sun Records with Wade & Dick, ''The College Kids'', led by Wade Lee Moore (born 1934) and Dick Penner.
Gililland has been legally blind since birth but has always been able to get around. Gililland played guitar with Buster Smith. Gililland also worked 26 years for the Oak Cliff Tribune, becoming managing editor. He currently works for Dallas Area Rapid Transit and still performs in the evenings.