Jerry Lee Lewis At Sun Records The Collected Works

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It's a plea

sure to share my thoughts about Jerry Lee and the time we were together

at the S

UN

s

tudio. I'd like to thank B EAR F AMILY for preserving the music that rocked the

world.

I have the

utmost respect for Jerry's talent. I've been privileged to work with such great

artists as J

ohnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, Charlie Rich and others, and I can

say that Jer

ry Lee was the greatest overall talent I've ever worked with. His unique style

on the pia

no opened the door for hundreds of other piano players; his vocals were just

as powerfu

l. He could take a song recorded by others and make it new again, make it

his very ow

n. It was all part of this gifted man's magic. There was no one else like him.

My work at

S UN began in 1955. I was 17 years old at the time. I met Jack Clement and

when Jack

began auditioning new talent for Sam Phillips, he called me to back up a

piano play

er from Louisiana who convinced him he could play a piano like Chet Atkins.

I'm not sur

e if we were there to cut a record or just to audition Jerry and see what he

sounded li

ke. After a few cuts of End Of The Road , the main thing Jerry had brought

with him,

we started fooling around with a few other songs. While the band was taking

a break, Ja

ck asked Jerry if he knew Ray Price's song Crazy Arms . Of course, he did.

I think Jer

ry knows at least some part of every song ever recorded.

It was just

the two of us and we did only one cut of it, one time. The feel was so good

that it beca

me Jerry's first release. Sam would take 'feel' over perfection every time.

Shortly aft

er that, Roland Janes and I started doing some club dates with Jerry and J.W.

Brown. Pla

ying clubs called for a lot of songs. It was at this time I first heard Whole Lotta

Shakin' Goi

ng On . I'd never heard it before and the people really enjoyed it. We went

back to the

studio at S UN to work on Jerry's next record, a song written by Jack Clement

called

It'll

Be Me . We did it several times and when it was starting to get stale, J.W.

Brown sug

gested that we do ' that shakin' song. ' Jerry went right into it, no rehearsal,

and out ca

me this masterpiece. Jack said "It sounds good. Let's take it one more time

with the te

mpo up." The second cut didn't have the same feeling, so they issued the

first one. A

nd that was the song that started Jerry's career, all the way to the Rock 'n'

Roll Hall of

From then

on, people could not get enough of Jerry Lee Lewis. Even at stage shows,

everything

stopped when he was on. Behind the scenes, other musicians – I remember

Buddy Holl

y – came by to get a close-up look at this unparalleled talent. Back at the studio, which is what this box set is about, Jerry felt at home

. He would

come in early and stay late. He would just hang out with no session called,

just to play

and sing. They always turned the recorder on whenever Jerry got anywhe

re near the

piano. That's why you have so many one-take cuts. I remember him running

through a

whole string of Elvis songs just to show he could do it. The next day he might

do country

songs like Jimmie Rodgers. Those tracks were never meant to be released bu

t thanks to

labels like B EAR F AMILY these hidden treasures have come to light. We did have planned sessions like the one for Great Balls Of Fire . Sam was v

ery excited

to have Jerry's next record in a movie, and it was a very rushed session w

ith a lot of

extra people in the studio. Sam was there and so was Jud and a lot of others

. There was

a lot of confusion. One reason so much of this body of work turned out so well was the time fac

tor. We had

all the time we needed. The clock wasn't running. We weren't paying (or ge

tting paid)

by the hour. I think I made about $15 for Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On . But

we had the

warmth that comes from working together to create something. That's why

S

UN

R

ECORDS

is so special. We had the freedom. It wasn't long before everyone wanted to record for Sam. They all flocked to

the Dream

Factory at 706 Union hoping that their dreams of stardom would come t

rue. It was

Ground Zero for rock 'n' roll, and a magical time in American musical histo

ry. We had

no idea it would turn out to be this important and I'm glad it was all preserve

d like this.

Without box sets like this one, there's no telling where this music would be in

100 years.

Van Eaton

n drummer

In conversation with

Hank Davis

ruary 2015

Without box sets like this one, there's no telling where this music would

be

in 100 years. J. M. Van Eaton

J.M. Van Eaton

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