Jerry Lee Lewis Vol. 2 – JERRY LEE LEWIS***

Money/As Long As I Live/Country Music Is Here To Stay/Frankie & Johnny/Home/Hello Hello Baby/Let’s Talk About Us/What’d I Say/Break Up/Great Balls Of Fire/Cold Cold Heart/My Girl Josephine

Frenetic pianist Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the most influential rock & roll pioneers from the late 1950s. However, he made very little impact on the album chart. This collection, unrepresentative of his best work, being his only top twenty entry on either side of the Atlantic. (UK:14)

“Lee was all of twenty years old when most of his astounding flurry of musicality took place in the bustling den of creativity, Sun Records. Check him out; none of the Killer's contemporaries came close to the diversity of material as he did.”

“I've always thought only of Great Balls Of Fire when I consider Jerry Lee, but he was so much more. His lifestyle contributed to his ups and downs in the music business, but he was always a great musician. Some of the songs on this album were new to me, but I enjoyed all of them.”

“Lewis paved the way for piano-playing rockers, and also straddled the line between rock and country; fans of both genres will find much to savour here.”

“You could say that Jerry Lee was the real king of rock 'n' roll, certainly one of the founding fathers, and much wilder than Elvis.”

“Jerry Lee is known primarily for a handful of hard driving, piano based rockers like Great Balls Of Fire. Aficionados (and knowledgeable dilettantes) know that he had a lot more up his sleeve than that. OK, so he couldn't turn in a masterful ballad, but there's still enough variety in the uptempo numbers to satisfy any discriminating rock 'n' roll fan.”

“Jerry was a Southern man, a true country star. His songs are honest and raw tales about the ups and downs on the wild side. They don't call him 'The Killer' for nothing.”

“When you get to hear the original Sun Records recordings of his best and most popular tunes, you begin to understand why his influence on later rock and roll artists was so strong. The reckless intensity he displays is rarely heard anywhere else. Jerry only had five real hits at Sun, so any other songs included are debatable.”