| The Greatest Live Show on Earth | ||||
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| Live album by | ||||
| Released | October 1964 | |||
| Recorded | Birmingham & Montgomery, AL | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Label | Smash | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Jerry Lee Lewis chronology | ||||
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The Greatest Live Show on Earth is a live album by the pianist and rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis. It was released on Smash Records in 1964. [1] It was Lewis' best-selling album of the decade, with its cover of Tommy Tucker's "High Heel Sneakers" becoming a mild pop hit. [2]
In April 1964, Lewis had "bottomed out", with no record being on any charts in years. [3] According to American pop music critic Robert Hilburn, he believes the "key reason for Lewis' sales decline was that disc jockeys stopped playing his records following the controversy over his 1958 marriage to a 13-year-old cousin". [4]
When he went on tour in 1964, in England and Germany, "he was getting paid so little that he couldn't afford to bring his own musicians". [3] When he arrived in Hamburg, a British band called the Nashville Teens were designated to be his back up band for a gig at the Star Club, where Lewis was scheduled to perform. [3] A producer for Philips Records, Siggi Loch, decided that this would be a good opportunity to record Lee's show. [3] The resulting album was, Live at the Star Club, Hamburg ; and because it "features a man playing as if his life depended on it in front of a rioting crowd, is widely considered one of the greatest live rock and roll albums ever". [3] Because Philips was unaffiliated with Smash and due to legal constraints, the album did not come out in the United States at that time, but it eventually got an official U.S. release in 1980. [3] [5]
The producer Shelby Singleton then decided to record a live album that could be released on Smash and The Greatest Live Show on Earth was assembled mainly from shows performed at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama in July 1964. [6] The live album was part of a campaign by Smash Records to "restore Lewis as a major seller". [4] According to Lewis, "Shelby had microphones set up all across the stage ... it was the first time anyone had set up a live recording like that. We got some real momentum goin' out there and it all had to be captured in one take. No second chances. I think Shelby edited out some of the talking but that was all." [5] Lewis was backed by his new touring band that soon became known as the Memphis Beats. [5]
Jerry Lee Lewis was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, and early recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. "Crazy Arms" sold 300,000 copies in the Southern United States, but it was his 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" that shot Lewis to worldwide fame. He followed this with the major hits "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless", and "High School Confidential".
"Great Balls of Fire" is a 1957 popular song recorded by American rock and roll musician Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie Jamboree. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 recording was ranked as the 96th greatest song ever by Rolling Stone. It is written in AABA form. It sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United States making it one of the best-selling singles in the United States at that time.
Cassidy Live! was David Cassidy's fourth solo album and final album released on Bell Records. It was released in 1974 and was recorded live in Britain. It was produced by Cassidy and Barry Ainsworth on Bell Records. The recording captures some of the mass hysteria that surrounded Cassidy's live performances at that time. The album peaked at #9 on the UK album charts.
Here's Little Richard is the debut album by American musician Little Richard, released on March 4, 1957. Promoted as "six of Little Richard's hits and six brand new songs of hit calibre", the album compiles many of the A-sides and B-sides from Richard's hit singles including the Billboard top 40 entries "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally", "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up" and "Jenny, Jenny" and the top 10 Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers hits "Ready Teddy", "She's Got It" and "Miss Ann".
Class of '55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming is a collaborative studio album by Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. It was released on May 26, 1986, by America/Smash Records, a subsidiary of Polygram Records. The album was produced by Chips Moman.
"Lewis Boogie" is a song written by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1956 and released as a single in June 1958 on Sun Records, Sun 301, backed with "The Return of Jerry Lee". The recording was reissued in 1979 as a 7" 45 single as Sun 29 as part of the Sun Golden Treasure Series. The song was also released in the UK and Canada as a single.
Live at the Star Club is a 1964 live album by rock and roll pianist and singer Jerry Lee Lewis, accompanied by the Nashville Teens. The album was recorded at the Star-Club in Hamburg, West Germany on April 5, 1964. It is regarded by many music journalists as one of the greatest rock and roll albums ever, noted for its hard-hitting energy and Lewis' wild stage presence.
The Incredible Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits – Live! is the first of two albums Little Richard made for the Modern Records label. A live recording from the Domino Club in Atlanta compiled from more than one concert, all the tracks on the album have overdubbed audience noises.
This is a detailed discography for American rock and roll, country, and gospel singer-songwriter Jerry Lee Lewis (1935–2022). One of the pioneers of rockabilly, Lewis recorded over 40 albums in a career spanning seven decades. Lewis was a versatile artist, and recorded songs in multiple genres. Lewis, in 1986, was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was the last surviving rock and roll pioneer of Sun Records. Some of his best known songs are "Great Balls of Fire", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", and "High School Confidential". His album, Live at the Star Club, Hamburg, is widely considered one of the greatest live concert albums ever. In his lengthy career in music, Lewis had 30 songs reach the top ten on the "Billboard Country-and-Western" chart. Lewis was regarded as one of the greatest and most influential pianists of the rock and roll era, and was ranked number 24 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
"High School Confidential" is a 1958 song written by Jerry Lee Lewis and Ron Hargrave as the title song of the MGM movie of the same name directed by Jack Arnold.
"Hi-Heel Sneakers" is a blues song written and recorded by Tommy Tucker in 1963. Blues writer Mary Katherine Aldin describes it as an uptempo twelve-bar blues, with "a spare, lilting musical framework", and a strong vocal. The song's rhythmic approach has also been compared to that of Jimmy Reed. Tucker's lyrics recall the time he spent as a Golden Gloves boxer in the 1950s:
"Jenny, Jenny" is a 1957 song written by American musician Little Richard and Enotris Johnson and recorded and released by Little Richard. It was featured on Penniman's debut album, Here's Little Richard and peaked at number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached number two on the Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles chart.
"Little Queenie" is a song written and recorded by Chuck Berry. Released in March 1959 as a double A-side single with "Almost Grown", it was included on Berry Is on Top (1959), Berry's first compilation album. He performed the song in the movies Go, Johnny Go! (1959) and Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (1987). One year earlier, Berry had released "Run Rudolph Run", a Christmas song with the same melody.
Another Place, Another Time is the eighth album by the musician Jerry Lee Lewis, released in 1968 by Smash Records. It was Lewis's "comeback album" and features a stripped down, "hardcore" country sound that yielded two top five country hits, his first major chart success in a decade.
Together is a duet album by Jerry Lee Lewis and his sister Linda Gail Lewis. The album was released in 1969 on the Smash record label.
The Return of Rock is the fourth album by Jerry Lee Lewis released on the Smash label in 1965.
The Session...Recorded in London with Great Artists is a double album by Jerry Lee Lewis released on Mercury Records in 1973. It was recorded in London and features Lewis teaming up with British musicians, including Peter Frampton and Albert Lee.
By Request: More of the Greatest Live Show on Earth is a live album by Jerry Lee Lewis, released on Smash Records in 1966.
"Baby, Hold Me Close" is a song written by Jerry Lee Lewis and Bob Tubert and released as a single by Lewis in the U.S. in February 1965 on Smash Records. The song was also released in the UK in 1965 as a 45 single on Philips Records.
A Whole Lotta...Jerry Lee Lewis: The Definitive Retrospective is a 4-disc box set by American rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis. It was released in 2012 by Salvo Records and Universal Music Group. It consists of 106 songs recorded between 1956 and 1989 for the Sun, Smash, Mercury, Elektra, and MCA record labels and contains a 70-page booklet written by rock historian Roger W. Dopson. All tracks were remastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio.