This Day in American History: Jerry Lee Lewis Makes His TV Debut
- ForAmerica
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
On this day in 1957, a 21-year-old piano player from Louisiana kicked his bench across a national TV stage and sent shock waves through American living rooms.
Jerry Lee Lewis was a brand-new artist on Sam Phillips's Sun Records, having released just one prior single that failed to chart. That changed with "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," released in April 1957, which sold well in the South but couldn't crack the mainstream -- many radio stations refused to play it, calling it too suggestive. His breakthrough came on July 28, 1957, when host Steve Allen booked Lewis for a live performance on his NBC variety show, The Steve Allen Show, one of the era's biggest rivals to The Ed Sullivan Show.
What followed became one of the defining live-television moments in rock and roll history. Lewis attacked the piano with both hands, sang and danced from the bench, and built to a frenzied climax where he kicked the piano stool out from under himself and kept pounding the keys standing up. The studio audience, and the folks watching at home, had never seen anything quite like it. Neither, by his own account, had Steve Allen -- he later said he'd never heard louder applause on his show.
The performance turned "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" into a genuine national hit, eventually selling more than 6 million copies and becoming the first of four Top 40 singles Lewis would score in about a year and a half, including "Great Balls of Fire." Nicknamed "The Killer" for his ferocious stage presence, Lewis became a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- one wild three-minute set on a Sunday night variety show away from being just another Sun Records footnote.
Also on this day:
1868 -- The 14th Amendment is adopted, guaranteeing citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States.
1927 -- 18-year-old Mel Ott hits his first career MLB home run for the New York Giants.
1945 -- A U.S. Army bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building.
1960 -- Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely" peaks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1991 -- Dennis Martinez pitches the 13th perfect game in MLB history.
Three minutes of pure chaos on a Sunday night, and rock and roll had its first great wild man.
Source: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, TIME