Rockin' My Life Away [Var¿¿se Sarabande]

by Jerry Lee Lewis

Overview

In 1979, as Jerry Lee Lewis' run on the country charts seemed to be drying up, he signed with Elektra Records, and with producer Bones Howe he cut a self-titled album that was easily the strongest and liveliest thing the Killer had released in a decade. Recorded live in the studio in three days with a hot studio band (including James Burton on guitar), Jerry Lee Lewis was a rollicking mix of rock & roll, vintage R&B, and country that fully lived up to his over-the-top legend. Though the two Eddie Kilroy-produced LPs that followed didn't quite live up to its excellence, When Two Worlds Collide and Killer Country (both released in 1980) were still solid, spirited work that showed Jerry Lee was far from a spent force. 2016's Rockin' My Life Away is a collection that brings together 14 songs from Lewis' Elektra sessions, and if this leans a bit hard on the more polished country material from this era, it still ranks with Jerry Lee's best record making of the '70s and '80s. Lewis is sly and casually authoritative on rockin' numbers like "Don't Let Go" and "Rita May" (the latter penned by Bob Dylan), unexpectedly impassioned on such old standards as "Over the Rainbow" and "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye," he pulls out all his best crying-in-your-bourbon moves on "Who Will the Next Fool Be" and "Who Will Buy the Wine," and plays piano like no one else throughout. In 1991, Warner Bros. put out a sampler of Lewis' Elektra sides (also called Rockin' My Life Away), and it's the better album, if only because it has 20 tracks instead of 14, and includes the Jerry Lee Lewis album in full. But Varese Sarabande's take on this material is still a good listen and with the Warner collection out of print, this is a welcome look back at an underappreciated phase in the always unpredictable career of Jerry Lee Lewis. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	06/10/2016
Label:	Var?Se Sarabande
UPC:	0030206742282
Rank:	245517

Tracks

1. Rockin' My Life Away
2. I Wish I Was Eighteen Again
3. Everyday I Have to Cry
4. Don¿¿¿t Let Go
5. Who Will the Next Fool Be?
6. Rita May
7. Honky Tonk Stuff
8. Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye
9. Who Will Buy the Wine?
10. When Two Worlds Collide
11. Over the Rainbow
12. Folsom Prison Blues
13. Thirty-Nine and Holding
14. I'd Do It All Again

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jerry Lee Lewis   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Ted Fiorito   Composer
Harold Arlen   Composer
Bob Dylan   Composer
Bones Howe   Producer
Bill Rice   Composer
Billy Mize   Composer
Jacques Levy   Composer
Laurence Zwisohn   Liner Notes,Compilation Producer
Eddie Kilroy   Producer
Roger Miller   Composer
Ernie Erdman   Composer
Charlie Rich   Composer
Cary E. Mansfield   Compilation Producer
Steve Massie   Mastering
Mack Vickery   Composer
Jerry Foster   Composer
Jerry Chesnut   Composer
Jesse Stone   Composer
Gus Kahn   Composer
E.Y. "Yip" Harburg   Composer
Johnny Cash   Composer
Arthur Alexander   Composer
Bill Pitzonka   Art Direction
Jim Shea   Photography
Sonny Throckmorton   Composer
Bill Anderson   Composer