Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis was not just a pianist who pounded the keys as if there were no tomorrow: he was the first rocker to turn chaos into art. His sound was unlike anything before: a mix of unbridled boogie-woogie, gospel with screams, and country with kicks. His left hand set an unrelenting rhythm, almost military, while his right flew with flourishes that sounded like a party and a church at the same time. He recorded his first track in 1952 in New Orleans, but it was in 1956, at Sun Studios in Memphis, where the world first heard that energy that would define him: pure, unfiltered rock and roll. His piano didn’t accompany—it dominated.

The leap to fame came in 1957 with Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, a song that shook the radios with a piano solo that sounded like an earthquake. It was followed by Great Balls of Fire, a hurricane of notes and vocal distortion that sounded like pure rebellion. But just as everything pointed to him becoming the king of rock, his personal life brought him to a halt: he married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown, and the scandal left him on the brink. In the 60s, when others had already forgotten him, Lewis took refuge in country. No one expected an artist from his past to reinvent himself, but in 1968 he released Another Place, Another Time and returned to the charts. This time, with melancholic ballads that still carried the fire that made him unique.