Track 11 from Live At The Star Club, Hamburg (1964)

Track 12 and 13 from The Greatest Live Show On Earth (1964)

Tracks 26, 27 and 28 from Another Place, Another Time (1968)

Jerry Lee Lewis became a star in the era when singles were more important than LPs, so his albums don't really tell the whole story. 1957's "Great Balls of Fire" didn't appear on an album until 1961's Jerry Lee's Greatest! (which was otherwise an album of new recordings, not a best-of compilation as it may appear), and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" never appeared on a proper album. Of course, in Lewis's case, this is also because his career momentum stalled amidst the scandal of marrying his 13-year-old cousin. So like my Little Richard and Chuck Berry playlists, this ends up documenting a lot of what Lewis did after the initial hit parade ended, and the stars of the '50s kind of milled around, getting some of the refracted glory of how much bigger rock'n'roll became in later decades. 

Obviously, Lewis's real talent was as a performer, and he's one of the early rock performers who arguably had a greater reputation as a live act than as a recording artist. He recorded two live albums in 1964, when those were still a relative rarity, that really show off the energy he played and sang with. Lewis continued recording throughout most of his life, releasing his last album Rock & Roll Time in 2014. But I decided to just focus on his '50s and '60s work, up through when he experienced a career resurgence with success on the country charts in the late '60s, which continued well into the '70s. Most of Jerry Lee Lewis's hits were covers, with the exception of "High School Confidential" and "Lewis Boogie." And even on his albums, he wrote relatively few songs, among them the weird little JFK tribute "Lincoln Limousine" and "He Took It Like A Man." 

"Let's Talk About Us" was penned by "Great Balls of Fire" writer Otis Blackwell. "Echoes" was written by Jerry Lee Lewis's sister Linda Gail Lewis, who recorded many solo albums as well as collaborative albums with her brother and Van Morrison. And I included covers of songs made famous by Elvis Presley ("Mean Woman Blues"), George Jones ("Seasons of My Heart"), Carl Perkins ("Matchbox," which Lewis played piano on the original recording of), Fats Domino ("Hello Josephine," which was called "My Girl Josephine" on most Domino releases), Warren Smith ("Ubangi Stomp"), Buck Owens ("Crying Time"), and The First Edition ("Just Dropped In").