Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind

From Ferriday, Louisiana,

Jerry Lee Lewis.

Yes, it is.

Back on Music Center tonight, visiting with the killer,

Jerry Lee Lewis.

You had all these big rock hits,

and all of a sudden in the late '60s,

you've had these big country music hits.

Do you think your fans expected the natural transition into country music?

I'm country.

Mmm-hmm. - I was born country.

Yeah. - But I was raised on rock and roll.

Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino.

Especially Little Richard. Now, they rate right along there with Elvis.

The first time I ever heard Elvis on radio, me and my daddy was driving along.

I heard him doing a song called Blue Moon of Kentucky.

I said, "I don't know who that is," I said,

"but the door has finally been opened."

And me and my daddy was out in a field.

We were were pulling corn, you know.

And I said, "Dad, I think I'm going to Memphis."

I was 20 years old then.

I said, I read about this boy

called Elvis Presley, who's really something else.

And Sam Phillips got him started.

I think he could get me started.

And we drove down from from Ferriday, Louisiana,

into Memphis here

and pulled up in front of Sun Records here.

I said, "Well, you're going to have to cut a little demo for me,

for Mr. Phillips to listen to."

So he put it down and I said, I'm going to do

"Crazy Arm," kind of a rhythm and blues style, the way I do it.

And I just kicked it off, and here's the way I did it.

That's all. That's it.

You said that when Sam

first heard the tape of, um, "Crazy Arms,"

by the time you got through the intro, he was sold on it.

He was. Sam... Sam Phillips' a genius on that.

He... a remarkable man.

He... he knew... he knew what was happening.

He knew just... just like that when nobody else did.

Jud Phillips, Sam's brother, took me up to New York City.

Auditioned me for Steve Allen, and, uh...

He heard me do the audition for him in his office.

He said, "You've got three minutes."

I said, "That's all I need."

Now let's get real low, shake.

All you gotta do, honey

is kinda stand in one spot,

jump around just a little bit.

That's when you heard that I got something, you know.

Now, let's go.

Busted wide open and...

They had to build two new plants

to keep up with shipping that record.

The record was selling over 300,000 records a day.

Anybody that wouldn't have liked "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"

would have had to have a problem. No.

That was music.

John Lennon said it was the most perfect

rock and roll record that's ever been cut.

Right now, it's Red Hot & Blue,

coming through on WHBQ... on the magazine floor.

Good cotton pickin' jacket. Where'd you get that at, Don Lasko's?

That's a good plug. We all get free Coke tomorrow.

I bought this jacket in New York City.

In New York City. I understand

you've been uptown about as far as you can get.

You've been around that Cyclone?

- End up with a stone. - I've been tryin' it.

If you don't know what a Cyclone is,

that thing when Jerry Lee gets to New York,

he's gotta hit that Coney Island out there, you know?

Gets on this cotton pickin' thing that just goes up and down, man.

Up and down.

I understand "Whole Lotta Shakin'"

sold about a million, 500,000.

- Is that right? - I believe so.

You know what's been worrying me here

for the last three or four weeks? What the heck

you're going to get me for Christmas?

Mr. Dewey Phillips played my record

on WHBQ Red Hot & Blue.

Uh... Red Hot & Blue was something else.

What have you been hearing about this "Great Balls of Fire" record all over the country?

- Did you hear a lot about it? - Well, it seems to be moving along, uh, pretty good.

I understand it's breaking all over the country.

Yes sir, on the Dewey Phillips Show...

Right now, it's going to be one of the hottest

cotton pickin' numbers in the country in about three weeks

what it says already in Memphis.

Great... What was that girl said? No.

-"Great Balls of Fire." Hit it. - Yeah.

"Great Balls of Fire" was written by Otis Blackwell.

Well, I went and recorded it in one day.

Sidney Stokes would play guitar on it.

I said, "Sidney, can you play electric bass, though?"

He said, "Yeah, I can play one a little bit."

And we have a spinning piano just like this one here.

This might be it.

I don't remember who was playing drums on it.

I said, "What do you do?" He said, "I play drums."

I said, "Well, can you pull those drums over here and play?"

I pulled him over and we took one take on "Great Balls of Fire."

How did you feel about "Great Balls of Fire?"

It was number one on the R&B charts,

the pop charts, the country and western charts.

Well, I thought it was fantastic.

I never thought that much about it at the time.

Now I do. I am the only one in the business that had two records do that.

"Whole Lotta Shakin'" and "Great Balls of Fire."

- Two in a row that... - They were number one on every chart,

from Easy Listening charts

to rock and roll to rhythm and blues

to gut bucket blues to, uh, the country charts,

uh, the pop chart... any charts they had,

the record was number one.

I thought, "Here we go."

The one and only Jerry Lee Lewis!

Thank you very, very much.