peterchecksfield wrote:Personally I find it difficult to believe that any of them wrote the song with Jerry Lee Lewis in mind, as at the time he was just a one-hit-wonder.
I'm not sure I'd by into that argument, Peter! "
Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On" was one hell of a hit; revolutionary. I think an awful lot of 'one-hit-wonders' are instantly recognisable as such, novelty, gimmicky songs / singers who you can sense are likely to be mere 'flash-in-the-pans'. But not so with JLL; I wasn't around at the time, obviously, but I think a lot of people - not just Sam Phillips - would have realised that here was a massive talent and that a strong selection for a follow up record would be a must. The same principle applied ten years on...did anyone think
"Another Place Another Time" was going to be an isolated occurence? No, of course not... the best writers immediately formed a queue to present the best material to JLL to capitalise.
Actually, despite having drawn attention to the 'fact', I always found the idea of
"Great Balls of Fire" having been written with Carl Perkins in mind very odd, if not inconceivable... no more can I buy into the idea that it would have suited Little Richard (and wouldn't he, anyway, have wanted to parade one of his own songs in a film like 'Jamboree', had he been scheduled to appear?). Did either of these two actually record
"Great Balls of Fire" subsequently? If so, the recordings have passed me by... For me, JLL and
"Great Balls of Fire" is, whatever the truth of a possible intention for either Perkins or Penniman to record the song first, the ultimate 'marriage' of artist and song... creating the perfect pop record. Maybe it was just a happy accident that it fell to JLL to record it, but I think 20th century popular culture would have been a lot poorer and far less colourful had the combination not come about.
I'd far rather buy into the idea that
"Great Balls of Fire" was written specifically for JLL.. if not, it certainly should have been... whatever the truth!
Andrew