Sold Date: September 18, 2022
Start Date: February 18, 2022
Final Price: £120.00 (GBP)
Seller Feedback: 13651
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AN ORIGINAL US SUN PRESSING OF THIS CLASSIC ROCKING PIANO 78 FROM JERRY LEE LEWIS ON THE SUN LABEL IN REALLY EXCELLENT CONDITION

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE

b/w     YOU WIN AGAIN

Jerry Lee Lewis is the wild man of rock and roll, embodying its most reckless and high-spirited impulses. On such piano-pounding rockers from the late Fifties as “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire,” Lewis combined a ferocious, boogie-style instrumental style with rowdy, uninhibited vocals. 

He migrated to Memphis from Ferriday, Louisiana, where he’d grown up learning how to play piano by ear based on the music around him: Western swing, boogie-woogie, uptempo R&B and Delta blues. Lewis’ first influence was the country-blues sound of Jimmie Rodgers, although he also absorbed the gospel and R&B of the local black community. His amalgamation of these indigenous styles, abetted by his brash temperament, made him a natural-born rock and roller - maybe the ultimate rock and roll rebel. Lewis found a home at Sam Philip's’ Sun Records label, whose stable of talent also included Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. After a country-flavored audition for Philips in 1956, Lewis was told that if he could come up with some rock and roll, “we could probably do something.” Lewis didn’t write much himself, but he transformed other people’s songs into unbridled rock and roll that even he called “the Devil’s music.” 

Lewis’ debut single was a rocking recasting of Ray Price’s country hit “Crazy Arms.” He followed it with “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” which sold 6 million copies and went to #3, and “Great Balls of Fire,” a 5 million seller that reached #2. Both songs were from 1957, a watershed year for Lewis. The next year yielded more hits - “Breathless” and “High School Confidential” - and a role in a movie titled after the latter song. 

However, his career as a rock and roller took a precipitous tumble when the press discovered that he’d married his 13-year-old cousin in December 1957. Lewis managed to weather the controversy, enduring a ten-year drought on the charts to eventually realize a successful career as a country-music artist. 

DISC DETAILS: 

US  SUN 281  10" 78rpm   SHELLAC

SIDE 1:-  GREAT BALLS OF FIRE

SIDE 2:-  YOU WIN AGAIN 

CONDITION -  E+ / NM

TWO SUPERB SIDES 

on an original US SUN 78

THIS 78 COMES FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE PETER FEAST  

A GREAT COLLECTIOR OF ROCK-A-BILLY, COUNTRY, RHYTHM & BLUES, AND ROCK & ROLL RECORDS

10" 78 RPM RECORDS NEED CAREFULLY PACKING, AND WE CLAIM TO HAVE THE BEST PACKAGING IN THE WORLD FOR DISPATCHING THEM!

THE GREG'S GREAT'S SYSTEM CONSISTS OF A SPECIALLY DESIGNED INNER BOX MADE OUT OF 1" THICK POLYSTYRENE, WHICH THEN GOES INSIDE A CORRUGATED STIFF OUTER CARDBOARD CARTON. THE BOXES CAN TAKE UP TO 21 RECORDS,

WE SEND OUT ON AVERAGE ABOUT 30 PARCELS A WEEK AND DISPATCH IS NORMALLY DONE ONCE A WEEK.