Jerry Lee Lewis: Listen to 10 Songs From a Rock ’n’ Roll Pioneer - The New York Times

He ne'er mellowed.

Jerry Lee Lewis, who died connected Oct. 28, was an unrepentant pioneer of stone ’n’ roll: a achromatic Southerner who steeped himself successful Black music, a two-fisted boogie-woogie soft player, a blues growler, a state yodeler, a devout gospel vocalist and a performer who mightiness slam his ft onto the keyboard oregon acceptable his soft connected fire. His idiosyncratic beingness was turbulent, marked by barnstorming, excess, addiction and divorce. And his music, adjacent erstwhile helium was making it wrong the Nashville state constitution successful the 1960s and 1970s, chafed astatine confinement. His soft erupted with tremolos and glissandos; his dependable leaped, curled, soared and whooped.

His astir indelible songs were the aboriginal bombshells helium recorded for Sun Records successful the 1950s: euphony that reflected and melded the religion euphony helium grew up on, the state euphony helium heard connected Grand Ole Opry broadcasts, and the blues and the bushed and blues helium soaked up by sneaking into Haney’s Big House. He didn’t constitute galore songs, but erstwhile helium made his name, songwriters geared worldly to him. And erstwhile helium chose to execute something, helium showed it small respect and nary mercy.

Here are 10 memorable Jerry Lee Lewis songs from a signaling vocation that spanned astir 60 years:

“Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On” (1957)

Brash ambition defines Lewis’s archetypal hit, with its pounding boogie-woogie beat, its cocky creation instructions — “All you gotta do, honey, is kinda basal successful 1 spot and wiggle astir conscionable a small bit” — and its sudden, volcanic soft solo.

“Great Balls of Fire” (1957)

The definitive Jerry Lee Lewis song, written by Otis Blackwell, is simply a two-minute acquisition successful bedrock virtuosity and rowdy freedom. Lewis’s near manus nails down the bushed portion his close flings syncopated chords against it oregon sweeps down successful abrupt glissandos. His dependable is unbound by thing his fingers are doing; it quavers, rattles disconnected speedy syllables and trampolines into falsetto. When helium sings, “Kiss maine babe — mmm, feels good!,” it’s axenic self-satisfied bravado.

“High School Confidential” (Live, 1964)

Recording astatine the Star-Club successful Hamburg, Germany, wherever the Beatles had woodshedded, Lewis’s youthful vigor was stoked by a screaming, whistling crowd. It sounds similar he’s consenting to smash each enactment connected the keyboard, and the opus starts accelerated and lone accelerates from there.

“She Was My Baby (He Was My Friend)” (1964)

Lewis’s Louisiana roots are unmistakable successful this swaggering spot of New Orleans-style R&B, implicit with horn conception and showy right-hand filigree. Lewis seems much amused than forlorn arsenic helium sings astir a stolen woman and — adding insult to wounded — a stolen car.

“Another Place Another Time” (1968)

By the precocious 1960s, Lewis was being marketed arsenic a state performer, and helium proved his honky-tonk bona fides with songs similar “Another Place Another Time.” The choky quaver successful his dependable and his frayed code arsenic helium sings astir “sleepless nights” are classical country, but the mode helium stretches immoderate words and holds backmost others until the past infinitesimal is inactive his own.

“I Can Still Hear the Music successful the Restroom” (1975)

Tom T. Hall wrote this song, talk-sung by a hard-drinking honky-tonk patron who’s driven to tears by a song: “Jerry Lee did each close until the euphony started,” Lewis sings, dropping his sanction into the opus arsenic helium often did. But adjacent arsenic helium wallows successful heartbreak, helium inactive lets escaped immoderate yodels and splashy soft successful the chorus.

“That Kind of Fool” (1975)

In a state opus tailored to Lewis’s chaotic antheral reputation, helium sings astir a faithful, temperate life. “Old Jerry Lee should person been that benignant of fool,” helium yodels, aft explaining that he’s incorrigible; years later, he’d sing it with Keith Richards.

“Who Will the Next Fool Be” (1979)

Written by Charlie Rich, “Who Will the Next Fool Be” had been wide covered by psyche singers earlier Lewis recorded it connected his self-titled 1979 album, with a workplace set that included Elvis Presley’s guitar mainstay, James Burton. Lewis sings to bring retired the resentful streak down the bluesiness of the song; aft spotlighting set members, helium takes an assertive soft solo, past whistles nonchalantly done the outro.

“Over the Rainbow” (1980)

Lewis turned a modular from “The Wizard of Oz” into a state waltz, utilizing the scratchiness successful his road-worn dependable to marque that rainbow look precise distant. But with a drawstring conception playing it straight, his soft was inactive irrepressible, strolling casually down the bushed and cascading done his solos.

“Rock and Roll” featuring Jimmy Page (2006)

On “Last Man Standing,” his triumphant, million-selling 2006 medium of all-star duets, Lewis carries Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” backmost to Louisiana with ad-libbed lyrics arsenic good arsenic his soft style. He trades licks with Jimmy Page himself, easy holding his own. “I’m not rather arsenic young arsenic I utilized to be,” Lewis said erstwhile I interviewed him successful 2006. “But I tin inactive play beauteous good.”