SMASH - The Golden Hits of Jerry Lee Lewis SRS 67040

[bluesinc.]

(sorry, but maybe someone will put in the cover, i can´t do that)

Whole lotta shakin´ goin´ on
Fools like me
Great balls of fire
I´ll make it all up to you
Down the line
End of the road

Breathless
Crazy arms
You win again
High school confidential
Break up
Your cheatin´ heart

ok, i´ll put it further with the next studio lp. and funny, it was the record (or to say, at least the september 63 sessions) which put me into Jerry. I was eight years old (this is a true story!) and my father was always playing music. he had a big collection, about 4-5 thousand lps etc. so music was played the whole day. one day, he had bought himself the bear boxed sets and played the first record of the first lp set. the rest is history i would say. i liked it from the first note, recorded it on tape and played it thousands of times. anyway, that´s my personla story. as i mentioned, i was eight years old, and when i told somebody in school about Jerry, nobody knew anything about him. sure, everybody knew michael jackson etc. but Jerry Lee Lewis was a nobody. so it was a kind of rebellion in my youngest days. but now to the record:
recuts, yes. but imo the only track i really don´t like is breathless. the other ones are great. they are a little bit speeded up and sung with lots of energy. don´t want to compare them to the originals, they stand for themselves (the sun era is for me a chapter wich is a stand alone thing), but it´s a great album to play loud. anyway, i like it, and it was my start into Jerry and so it has it´s position in my musical life.

[bluesinc.]

but at least to say, it was a well produced album, the sound is great for 63 and his voice also.
but another question; was it normal to recut? Chuck Berry´s first Mercury LP was a Golden Hits LP. Johnny Cash did recut his Hits for Mercury....
and, most of the Mercury LPs have 11 songs, why?

[Andrew McRae]

but at least to say, it was a well produced album, the sound is great for 63 and his voice also.
but another question; was it normal to recut? Chuck Berry´s first Mercury LP was a Golden Hits LP. Johnny Cash did recut his Hits for Mercury....
and, most of the Mercury LPs have 11 songs, why?

Looked at in hindsight, this album might appear superfluous, but you need to assess it in its contemporary context - when it was issued, the market for the album was very different. It was almost standard practice for artists to re-record material and produce 'greatest hits' sets when they switched record companies. Half of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk The Line” album on Columbia and the greater part of Carl Perkins’ “Greatest Hits” album (also Columbia) fall into the same category. (Some artists even re-recorded their hits on the same label, in stereo specifically for ‘Greatest Hits’ albums, where previously only mono recordings had existed! Solomon Burke on Atlantic is a case in point).

In any event, whatever its artistic merits, “The Golden Hits of JLL” has proven to be the most durable LP of Jerry Lee’s career. Globally, it enjoyed at least fifty-two distinct pressings as an LP between 1964 and the effective end of the vinyl era in the late 1980s. It has also provided the staple material for countless JLL compilation LPs and, whilst I’m not volunteering to count them, I suspect that the ‘headline’ tracks like “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” and “Great Balls of Fire” might have ended up on as many as two or three dozen other JLL vinyl issues over the years.

Older German fans will no doubt reflect fondly upon their own, dare I suggest, “improved”, version of “The Golden Hits of JLL”, namely “Star-Date With Jerry Lee Lewis”. This included 11 of the 12 original cuts (‘Fools Like Me’ was the exception ) but it was bolstered by the addition of “Hit The Road Jack”, “I’m On Fire” and “Bread & Butter Man”.

Andrew

[Tumppi]

I won't rate any of these versions above the Sun versions, but still I think this is very enjoyable album, except very uninspired version of 'Great Balls Of Fire'. It's good thing that they did completely new arrangements and didn't even try to do copies of originals. Especially I like the new arrangements of 'Down The Line' and 'Breathless'. Slow tracks like 'Your Cheating Heart' and 'You Win Again' and 'Fools Like Me' are also very great versions. In my opinion the Sun version of 'I'll Make It All Up To You' is much better, mainly because I think Jerry Lee's vocals are better there (quite unusual when you compare Jerry's 1963 voice to 1958.)

Tuomas Kurittu

[bluesinc.]

Older German fans will no doubt reflect fondly upon their own, dare I suggest, “improved”, version of “The Golden Hits of JLL”, namely “Star-Date With Jerry Lee Lewis”. This included 11 of the 12 original cuts (‘Fools Like Me’ was the exception ) but it was bolstered by the addition of “Hit The Road Jack”, “I’m On Fire” and “Bread & Butter Man”.

Andrew

That´s the one I got first

[Andrew McRae]

Older German fans will no doubt reflect fondly upon their own, dare I suggest, “improved”, version of “The Golden Hits of JLL”, namely “Star-Date With Jerry Lee Lewis”. This included 11 of the 12 original cuts (‘Fools Like Me’ was the exception ) but it was bolstered by the addition of “Hit The Road Jack”, “I’m On Fire” and “Bread & Butter Man”.

Andrew

That´s the one I got first

An original? Or the 1990 re-issue that also included "Johnny B Goode"?

[bluesinc.]

Older German fans will no doubt reflect fondly upon their own, dare I suggest, “improved”, version of “The Golden Hits of JLL”, namely “Star-Date With Jerry Lee Lewis”. This included 11 of the 12 original cuts (‘Fools Like Me’ was the exception ) but it was bolstered by the addition of “Hit The Road Jack”, “I’m On Fire” and “Bread & Butter Man”.

Andrew

That´s the one I got first

An original? Or the 1990 re-issue that also included "Johnny B Goode"?

bought it round 1990 at a sho and it was new, so it was the rerelease, and Johnny B Goode was also on it.

[Dave McKee]

The Golden Hits of Jerry Lee Lewis (1964)

Whole Lotta Shakin´ Goin´ On / Fools Like Me / Great Balls Of Fire / I´ll Make It All Up To You / Down The Line / End Of The Road / Breathless / Crazy Arms / You Win Again / High School Confidential / Break Up / Your Cheatin´ Heart

Re-recording hits from a his previous label might not seem like the ideal way to start a long-term contract but for better or worse this was pretty much standard practice at the time (Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Gene Vincent & Bill Haley were amongst many others who re-cut their big hits during the '60's). The results were mixed: there's far too many musicians on these; the girly backing vocals are often insipid & annoying; & Jerry's voice sounds slightly hoarse in places. At least a few songs compare favourably to the Sun originals though: both Breathless, Break Up & in particular Down The Line are all much more driving & wild than the '50's versions; You Win Again includes all of Hank Williams' verses (not on the Sun single); & Your Cheatin' Heart remains Jerry's best studio version. 3 out of 5

Outtakes: Hit The Road, Jack / Wedding Bells / Just Because / He Took It Like A Man / Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee / Johnny B. Goode / Hallelujah I Love Her So / You Went Back On Your Word / Pen & Paper / The Hole He Said He'd Dig For Me

The two-day September 1963 Golden Hits session produced lots of mostly excellent additional material that was gradually released over the next 4 years. These, together with the session below, would've made a great 1964 studio album (an album that I would definately rate 5 out of 5), but instead they were issued as follows: Hit The Road, Jack & Pen & Paper were released as Jerry's debut Smash single in late 1963; The Hole He Said He'd Dig For Me was released as the B-side of She Was My Baby (He Was My Friend) in 1964; You Went Back On Your Word was released as the B-side of the 'live' High Heel Sneakers 1964 single, & with Johnny B. Goode, on The Return Of Rock; Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee, Hallelujah I Love Her So & Just Because were released on Memphis Beat; Wedding Bells & He Took It Like A Man were released on Soul My Way. In addition, a slower & superior alternate version of Hit The Road, Jack was first released in 1964 on the stereo (though not the mono) version of the various artists All Time Smash Hits album, & an alternate version of The Hole He Said He'd Dig For Me was released on the 1969 European-only compilation I'm On Fire.

Non-Album Session: I'm On Fire / She Was My Baby (He Was My Friend) / Bread & Butterman / I Bet You're Gonna Like It

This February 1964 session produced two great A-sides (I'm On Fire & She Was My Baby (He Was My Friend)), a B-side (Bread & Butterman) & the storming closing rocker on Soul My Way. An alternate take of I'm On Fire was released on 1969 compilation of the same name.

Note: This is from an excellent blog by Peter Checksfield - for full blog see http://themargatemusicman.blogspot.com/2009/09/jerry-lee-lewis-smash-mercury-years.html

[PeterC]

Thanks for doing all of these Dave!

[bailbath]

Thanks for doing all of these Dave!

Yes thanks Dave and thanks Peter for the use of your as usual excellent blog entries.
Ian

[PeterC]

ALBUM COVER RATING: 4/5

I'm going through Jerry's albums on here and giving marks out of five for the album covers (regardless of the actual content)...

Superb studio shot, only marred slightly by the rest of it.