Shelby Singleton

In November 1956, Lewis traveled to Memphis to audition for Sun Records.

Label owner Sam Phillips was in Florida, but producer and engineer Jack Clement recorded Lewis's rendition of Ray Price's Crazy Arms and his own composition, End of the Road.

In December of 1956, Lewis began recording prolifically as a solo artist and as a session musician for other soon artists, including Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.

His distinctive piano playing can be heard on many tracks recorded at Sun in late 1956 and early 1957, including Carl Perkins' Matchbox, Your True Love, and Put Your Cat Clothes On, and Billy Lee Riley's Flying Saucers Rock and Roll.

was possessed an emotional resonance on par with the most respected country singers of the time, such as George Jones and Merle Haggard.

In a remarkable turnaround, Lewis became a bankable country star.

He had become so popular in 1970 that his former Smash producer Shelby Singleton, who purchased Sun Records from Sam Phillips, in july nineteen sixty nine wasted no time in repackaging many of louis's old country recordings which some fans assumed were recent releases

louis played the grand old opera only once on january twentieth nineteen seventy three As Colin Escott writes in the liner notes to A Half Century of Hits, he had maintained an ambivalence to Music City ever since he was turned away as an aspiring musician before his glory days at Sun Records in 1977.

Coming up next on That Driving Beat on the SSS International label.

That was a Shelby Singleton label, if that name means anything to you.

1968, Peggy Scott and JoJo Benson doing Lover's Holiday.

We'll try not to overstate, but if

Then I realize that I was only dreaming.

I can't remember if, is this a Jerry Kennedy production, or is this a, uh, Shelby Singleton?

This might be-

This might be a Shelby-

I was about to say, this might be a Shelby Singleton one.

Yeah.

It doesn't sound like, like a Jerry Kennedy-