Jerry Lee Lewis “Jerry Lee Lewis” 1958. Sun Records. A spin of his debut record in honor of Lewis’ death this past Friday, October 28th. Lewis already had a couple of giant hits prior to his first full-length, including “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On,” neither of which appear on the LP. But the record is packed with Lewis’ signature rockabilly meets boogie-woogie piano, mostly covers of songs by other artists. Those include “Don’t Be Cruel” written by Otis Blackwell and famously recorded by Elvis, “Crazy Arms” written by Ralph Mooney and popularized by Ray Price, “Ubangi Stomp” written by Charles Underwood and first recorded by Warren Smith, “Jambalaya” by Hank Williams, and “Matchbox” by Carl Perkins. Jerry Lee has one original: “High School Confidential” which he released as a single in May of ’58; it was also the title song the 1958 film High School Confidential. It went to #21 on the Hot 100 chart, to #9 on the Country chart and #5 on the R&B chart, all in the US, and to #12 in the UK.

We saw Jerry Lee perform just once, a free concert back in September ’95 at Maritime Days in Veterans Park, Milwaukee. I have no idea what songs he played but I’m sure he played a bunch of his classic hits and we were thrilled to see “the Killer” play live. At the end of his set, he had left a can of Pepsi on his piano. Joe asked the stagehand who was tearing down and prepping for the next performing if we could have Jerry Lee’s Pepsi. We totally got it and proceeded to sip and share it with our friends. We hung onto that Pepsi can for a few years but finally got rid of it when we moved in ’99. (Lewis had not actually opened or drank the Pepsi.)