Jerry Lee Lewis, born in Ferriday, Louisiana, on September 29, 1935, began his musical career in nearby Natchez and in 1973 established the Lewis Ranch in Nesbit. A child prodigy on the piano, he learned by ear and through obsessive practice, drawing on influences that included his parents’ gospel harmonizing, Assembly of God church services, his father’s 78-rpm recordings of Jimmie Rodgers, Gene Autry films, Hank Williams on Louisiana Hayride, blues musicians at Haney’s Big House in Ferriday, and the boogie woogie piano popular during the 1940s. He first performed publicly at age 14 at a Ferriday car dealership, then soon appeared in Natchez nightclubs and on radio station WNAT, and at 15 playing at a Natchez skating rink he came to recognize his own distinctive approach. In December 1956 he auditioned for Sun Records in Memphis, where Cowboy Jack Clement recorded his first single, “Crazy Arms,” backed with his own “End of the Road.” On later Sun sessions he recorded songs by Hank Williams and became a defining rock ’n’ roll performer with the impassioned style heard on “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On,” “Great Balls of Fire,” and “Breathless,” which all reached the top ten on the pop, country, and R&B charts. Although personal scandals in 1958 knocked him from the charts, he continued performing and recording for Sun through 1963, then signed with Smash Records, a Mercury subsidiary, and during the 1960s recorded R&B, pop standards, soul, and blues and also played Iago in Catch My Soul. Country music remained central to his work, and in 1968 that side came to the forefront when Another Place, Another Time reached number 3 on the country charts and produced top 5 singles with the title track and “What Made Milwaukee Famous (Made a Loser Out of Me).” His run of country hits continued through 1981, with more than 40 singles and 24 albums reaching the top 40, including number 1 records such as “To Make Love Sweeter For You,” “There Must Be More to Love Than This,” and “Would You Take Another Chance on Me.” Widely known as a pioneer of rock ’n’ roll, he was also celebrated in later projects including the 1986 album Class of ’55 with Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins, and in 2005 he received a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award while “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On” received GRAMMY Hall of Fame honors.
