Jerry Lee Lewis (album)

Jerry Lee Lewis
Studio album by
Released1958
Recorded1958
GenreRock and roll, rockabilly
Length27:30
LabelSun LP-1230
ProducerSam Phillips, Jack Clement
Jerry Lee Lewis chronology
Jerry Lee Lewis
(1958)
Jerry Lee's Greatest!
(1961)
Singles from Jerry Lee Lewis
  1. "Crazy Arms"
    Released: December 1956
  2. "High School Confidential/Fools like Me"
    Released: May 1958

Jerry Lee Lewis is the debut album by American musician and rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis, released in 1958 on Sun Records.

Background and content

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The album featured Lewis's hit "High School Confidential", but producer Sam Phillips did not include Lewis's bigger hits such as "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On." The album is sometimes referred to as High School Confidential.

The back cover of the LP feature a large picture of Sun Records President Sam Phillips admiring Lewis at the piano in the famous studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. Phillips, then working to promote his latest star Lewis, also wrote the liner notes for the album noting that Lewis "is regarded as the very epitome of rock and roll"[1] In keeping with an occasional record industry practice of the time (1958) the album was also released in 45rpm format, the twelve songs being divided over a series of three 7" Extended Play (EP) records, Sun EPs 108,109 and 110 (pictured). The album is currently available on CD, featuring bonus tracks from his first EP, "The Great Ball of Fire" (Sun EP 107).

Cub Koda described the selections found on Jerry Lee Lewis as "a curious mixture" with "a great deal of his best material [being] inexplicably left off", but the album still being a "terrific debut".[2]

Track listing

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Side A
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Don't Be Cruel"2:00
2."Goodnight Irene"2:52
3."Put Me Down"Roland Janes2:06
4."It All Depends"Billy Mize2:57
5."Ubangi Stomp"Charles Underwood1:44
6."Crazy Arms"
2:41
Total length:14:20
Side B
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
7."Jambalaya"Hank Williams1:57
8."Fools like Me"
2:48
9."High School Confidential"
2:27
10."When the Saints Go Marching In"Traditional2:06
11."Matchbox"Carl Perkins1:40
12."It'll Be Me"Jack Clement2:12
Total length:13:10

References

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  1. ^ Phillips, Sam C. (May 1958). Original liner notes to "High School Confidential" LP. Memphis, TN: Sun Records.
  2. ^ Jerry Lee Lewis at AllMusic
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