“Uh-uh Honey Stay OFF of Them Shoes …”

Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” had been recorded on the Sun label in January of 1956, and had climbed all three of the national charts (on a very steep curve): country & western, pop, and r&b. It was that r&b placement that got everyone in a tizzy. Perkins was, generally, positioned as a country & western singer, and he considered himself that as well. Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Records, encouraged Perkins to speed up his songs, and put that beat in them that distinguished the new style that nobody even knew what to call yet.

When “Blue Suede Shoes” started selling on all charts, Philliips felt vindicated, and everyone, from music journalists in big snotty cities like LA and NY, to black artists and other music labels started taking notice. The fact that the African-American population were buying the song in droves – not to mention the fact that white kids were buying r&b albums – gave everyone the sense that something was changing in a huge way. Dominating all three charts was brand new (even Elvis hadn’t done that, at least not yet, although it was coming along at about the same time) and nobody quite knew what it meant or what to do.

This was before Nashville began its crackdown on these “rockabilly” bozos dominating their charts. Nashville didn’t approve of the sound (where was the steel guitar in these songs? is a simplified version of Nashville’s attitude) or the frank sexuality and did not appreciate that the Nashville Gods had somehow lost the say-so on what was a “hit.”

“Blue Suede Shoes” was an organic phenomenon. It was the biggest national hit on the Sun label. It wasn’t just a hit in the States, it went to #1 in the UK too. The B-side was “Honey Don’t”, one of my favorite Carl Perkins’ songs. With “Blue Suede Shoes”, Sam Phillips went crazy trying to keep up with the demand (Sun Records was poor, even with the influx of cash from selling Elvis to RCA for $35,000, the highest price ever paid for an artist ever), and the demand for Carl’s song stretched everyone to the limit.

Carl Perkins was scheduled to make his national television debut on The Perry Como Show in March, 1956, but on his way there he got into a horrific car accident and almost died. (The guy in the other car DID die, and Carl’s brother fractured his neck and eventually died: that was how bad it was). Elvis, who had been performing his cover of “Blue Suede Shoes” (and had held off on releasing it in respect to Carl) sent a note to Carl in the hospital asking if there was anything he could do to help. While Carl was in the hospital, his “Blue Suede Shoes” went gold.

Meanwhile, Elvis’ “Heartbreak Hotel” came out around the same time, and went to #1 on the pop and country chart, but Carl’s “Blue Suede Shoes” beat him on the r&b charts. In between January and April, “Blue Suede Shoes” sold over a million copies. Everybody – Sam Phillips – everybody – was astonished – the thing was a runaway train. Even Elvis’ songs had not generated this much money and recognition in their first releases.

While Carl was in the hospital, Elvis had started performing “Blue Suede Shoes” on his television appearances (which had to be upsetting to Carl, although he was also a realist, he understood that Elvis had to move forward with his own version while Carl was out of commission.) But interestingly, Elvis’ version (which everyone seems to know better than Carl’s, and the song seems to be associated entirely with Elvis) never charted as well as Carl Perkins’ original version. The song’s progress was like a fever burning: and with Carl’s version the fever was at its height. Elvis’ version happened while the fever was breaking, the hubbub burning itself out.

Carl was back to performing in April and in May came the long-delayed appearance on The Perry Como Show. He performed “Blue Suede Shoes” and at that point, the song had done what it was going to do on all the charts, and the furor had started to die down. Also: Elvis’ rise became the biggest story ever. RCA was putting out his songs and millions of copies were sold even before these songs were released. That had never happened before. Things were getting distinctly strange. So when Carl made his television appearance, maybe the perception was that Carl was following in Elvis’ blue suede shoes, when in a lot of respects it was the other way around. Not really, but that may have been the perception. Maybe that’s why Elvis’ version is better known, added to the fact that Elvis had become a popular figure in the imagination – not just in reality – and his fame had exploded to such absurd surreal heights in 1956. Carl Perkins did not have the “It” quality that Elvis had, that exotic sensual bizarre star-power. Very few artists do.

I prefer Carl’s version of the song. That “Go, cat, go!!” still leaps off the speakers, and Carl had viewed that as a mistake during recording: he wasn’t supposed to say “cat”, that was not what he wrote. Phillips said, “Nope, we’re gonna leave it in.” Carl Perkins describes in his autobiography all the little mistakes in the recording, things he would mention to Phillips as they were recording: “But Mr. Phillips, that guitar part has a goof in it. But Mr. Phillips, I messed up the words… ” Sam was like, “Who the hell cares, son. The energy in the thing is what matters. This is a DIFFERENT record.” (“Different” was his highest praise.)

The story of “Blue Suede Shoes” is one of the most important stories in 20th century American music because it represented the real crossover break-through, something already anticipated a decade before by Hank Williams who “broke out” of Nashville into a larger audience in a way that had not happened with country “hillbilly” stars before, and building and building, representing a cultural sea-change made possible by stronger radio signals bringing local artists to a national audience. Crossover was starting, with artists like Rufus Thomas, whose “Bear Cat” – an “answer” to Hound Dog – was the first hit on the Sun label, and other r&b guys making inroads into national charts. And then the Big Kahuna that was Elvis Presley. Little Richard has said that his songs were never played on mainstream radio until “after Elvis.” He always gives Elvis credit for that, for the fact that r&b – seen as a style played strictly on “race” stations, known as “race music”, for a black audience, went mainstream. R&B, the coin of the realm in black music along with gospel, BECAME pop music. Very few people saw that coming. People who knew about such things had hoped for it, black musicians but also white visionaries who set up labels to get these r&b guys out into the world. It was the teenagers – white and black – buying these albums in a feeding frenzy who REALLY made that happen. All of this music was played on the radio – “race” stations and otherwise. One of the DJs at one of the first black-owned radio station in Memphis (of course), said: “You cannot segregate the airwaves.” Revolutionary, really.

Elvis did not get there first. Elvis never claimed that and always gave credit to the artists who had inspired him, gospel, country and rhythm and blues, but Elvis brought the music (mixing it all up, playing country songs with an r&b feel, playing pop songs with the fervor of a country preacher, etc.) into the white mainstream.

It needed to happen. And you needed a figure who could make that happen. It was a confusing time. Nothing was foreordained. Everything seemed to exist in a vague yearning: that something would break, something would start to coalesce, that r&b – as important to American culture as country – as well as the gospel-Baptist-preacher style that was so important to this kind of music as well as the vibrant rambunctious culture that existed outside of Patti Page and Frankie Laine – would start to flow into the white mainstream.

These dirt-poor white boys like Carl and Elvis and Johnny Cash and Jerry lee Lewis – all came from Baptist Pentecostal “church” backgrounds – speaking in tongues and all that – and lived in poor areas with black churches on the corner, the music pouring out into the air on Sundays. So the ‘crossover” existed in the culture already. Similar to Ray Charles saying that one of his major influences was Hank Williams and that he was inspired by the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts. Back, forth, back, forth. But this “mixing” was a local issue, it hadn’t cracked through to the rest of the world.

Sam Phillips had had small hits with his black artists but there seemed to be a “ceiling” to how many records those artists sold, since radio stations were scared of the sound, and outside of the population already buying those records, nobody else was buying.

Then all that changed. Little Richard, and other geniuses, rushed through the door blasted open by Elvis. Elvis’ RCA stuff, and earlier stuff like “Baby Let’s Play House” were national hits that climbed the charts. Hound Dog and Don’t Be Cruel competed with each OTHER on every single chart in the spring of 1956. (No wonder Nashville was pissed. Their entire Billboard chart was filled with Elvis singles. Get that grease-bomb off of here. He doesn’t use steel guitars!)

But Carl’s “Blue Suede Shoes” got there first in the biggest most attention-getting way.

Here’s Perkins performing “Blue Suede Shoes” on The Perry Como Show.

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4 Responses to “Uh-uh Honey Stay OFF of Them Shoes …”

  1. Melanie says:

    Before I knew anything about music (well except every word to every single Monkees song) I knew that Carl Perkins had written Blue Suede Shoes, that he might have been bigger than Elvis except for that fateful car crash, and that he lived across the street from my grandparents in Jackson, TN. I was reminded frequently when we went to visit. It was a nice upper middle class neighborhood, but there were certainly no ostentacious “rock or country music star” homes like Nashville or LA has today. People don’t understand that even Graceland is just a nice house on a few acres in south Memphis. Except for the jungle room decor it reminds me a lot of the house I grew up in where my mom still lives.

    My dad had a WWII era “Woody” Whurlitzer jukebox with Perkins’ Blue Suede shoes and Elvis’ Hound Dog which my brother and I would play for hours on end. Most of the other songs were slightly older, jitterbug, big band favorites of my parents. On a recent tour of the Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis I was very surprised to learn that Perkins wrote dozens of songs that were hits for artists in every genre of music. Apparently Paul McCartney said that there would not have been a Beatles had it not been for Carl Perkins…Wow!

    Next time you’re in Memphis, Sheila, I highly recommend Backbeat tours. It’s a musical bus tour with a musician onboard who plays and sings and our guide was also a historian whose knowledge of the memphis music history goes way beyond most tour books. And thanks for the Carl Perkins shout out. He is much more of a legend than most people realize. “Go cat go!”

    • sheila says:

      I haven’t done the Backbeat Tours – thanks! I’m planning a trip (hopefully extended? Fingers crossed!) for 2016 and I’ll be sure to do it. I love wandering around Memphis and finding all these old historic sites in the middle of some derelict street.

      I’m just not sure if he would have been bigger than Elvis. Elvis had that … bizarre sex appeal … and the stunningly exotic good looks … that somehow added to his mystique. He didn’t write songs (a huge Achilles heel) but his personality – his ability to project him SELF – is practically unrivaled. I’d put him on par with Judy Garland and … Aretha, maybe. What he has is rare and almost supernatural.

      HOWEVER: there is that sadness in Perkins’ story, like you say. What would have happened if that accident hadn’t occurred? If he had been able to capitalize on that first enormous success of “Blue Suede Shoes”?? The momentum of that song was like a Big Bang – and for the most part, he was laid up in traction during the majority of it. And then along came Jerry Lee Lewis – directly following – and Sam Phillips devoted all his energy to promoting Jerry Lee. In Phillips’ defense, Sun was such a tiny operation – essentially a one-man outfit – so he didn’t have the resources to promote more than one person at a time. That was why he was relieved to sell Elvis’ contract – he had never wanted to only represent one artist. But Perkins was understandably bitter. It was like he missed his own runaway train! And what a songwriter he was! He was the real innovator – or Phillips was: in encouraging Perkins to move out of the more classical conservative country style into the new sound – that mix of country and r&b – he helped Perkins to break through. To be the true innovator he was. An amazing transformation and not everyone could have handled it. Following Perkins and Elvis – there was a huge influx of imitators. And so the next generation of Sun artists (next meaning the guys in 1957, 58 – that’s how fast thing were traveling) were imitating CP and EP – whereas CP and EP were imitating or drawing from a much longer and richer past of ethnic and stylistic diversity – gospel and r&b artists (some completely neglected) – hillbilly artists – and their own Pentecostal upbringing.

      Good buddies Johnny Cash and Carl eventually jumped ship – hoping to get more personal attention from another bigger label. And that ended up happening – although Cash, of course, had more success, in general.

      I think Carl Perkins has his place in history – but it seems like popular perception is that CP was riding on Elvis’ coat-tails which is TOTALLY untrue and does CP a huge disservice!

      A super interesting story!

      I love the Rock and Soul Museum!! And love that CP lived across from your grandparents! Very very cool.

      • Melanie says:

        //might have been bigger than Elvis//

        This is what I was told as an 8 yr old by grandparents sticking up for the hometown boy. Definitely Elvis had an IT factor way beyond CP! On the back beat tour our guide told us that the timing of Jerry Lee’s decision to marry his 13 yr old cousin was devastating to his potentially metioric rise so that CP and JLL both were left in Elvis dust to an extent due to unfortunate timing. And of course we Memphians feel that Sam Phillips has never really received the credit he deserved for shaping the music industry. The music rivalry between Memphis and Nashville is as fierce as any college football rivalry.

        I would also recommend to you a guy named Jimmy Ogle who knows more about Memphis than any human alive! He’s also a riveting and entertaining speaker. He’ll tailor his tour/talk to whatever you are most interested in.
        http://www.jimmyogle.com/
        Also a tour of Elmwood cemetary – crazy and a little creepy.

        • sheila says:

          I’ve been to Elmwood!

          and hopefully the new Sam Phillips bio (just out) will put Phillips front and center where he belongs. Most of these stories I already knew, due to my dedication to this period – through Elvis mainly – but it’s good to see it all from Sam’s point of view.

          and yeah: JLL was a wild man – and unlike Elvis – did NOT have a Colonel Parker who controlled his publicity with an iron fist. Elvis wasn’t as wild as JLL – he was a good boy – well, he slept with everybody (or at least fooled around – too scared of getting someone pregnant for anything else) – and then of course fell in love with a 15 year old girl – waited until she was legal and married her. But NOTHING got through Parker’s control – a blessing and a curse.

          JLL was thrown to the wolves.

          And I think there may have been a slightly self-destructive streak in CP – his heavy drinking – maybe brought on by disappointment plus lingering pain from the accident – and of course the drinking then became a HUGE problem. The story of his delirium tremens is bad enough to give me nightmares!! Of course all of those guys were doing things like that – Cash with the pills, EP with the pills the Army got him addicted to … pre-Betty Ford.

          Billy Lee Riley was notoriously bitter about his treatment at Sun – he was still bitter as an old man – he felt that if Sam had had more time to devote to him he would have been as big as Elvis. But that’s just not true I don’t think. I love Billy Lee Riley but he was imitating Elvis when Elvis was the true-blue hybrid-original. Billy Lee Riley was good-looking but Elvis was … I mean, come on. Those looks were insane.

          One of my favorite stories is about the first time Carl Perkins met Elvis, backstage at some show they were playing together. The story is told by Scotty Moore, EP’s guitarist. Scotty introduced the two men – EP and CP shook hands, congratulating each other on each others’ success: back, forth: “I love your stuff, man” “Oh me too, I love your stuff” – two Sun artists being truly enthusiastic about each other.

          EP then walked off and Carl turned to Scotty and said, “My God, that is the best-looking man I’ve ever seen.”

          hahaha He had been playing it cool but the second Elvis walked away …

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