| Born to Rock | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1989 | |||
| Studio | Creative Recording, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee | |||
| Label | Universal [1] | |||
| Producer | Brent Maher, Don Potter | |||
| Carl Perkins chronology | ||||
| ||||
Born to Rock is an album by the American musician Carl Perkins, released in 1989. [2] [3] It was considered to be an attempt to replicate Roy Orbison's late-career success. [4]
The album was produced by Brent Maher and Don Potter. [5] Some of its songs were cowritten by Perkins's sons, Greg and Stan. [6] [7] The title track is an autobiographical song. [8] The Jordanaires contributed to the album. [9]
Born to Rock included a few prototypical country songs. [10] Perkins later expressed displeasure with the album, commenting that he wished it had a stronger rockabilly sound. [11]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [12] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [13] |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide |  [14] |
| Rolling Stone | [5] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [15] |
| San Jose Mercury News | [4] |
Rolling Stone wrote that, "unlike many early rockers who coast through contractual-obligation records with glazed indifference, Perkins sounds feverishly interested in the ten tracks here." [5] The Los Angeles Times thought that the album "covers the old rockabilly style with jumping, humorous numbers delivered in a cottony, amiable voice that is an obvious influence for such younger performers as John Hiatt." [16]
The Times called it a "splendid, vibrant collection from a veteran who remains a gifted songwriter, an alert guitarist and a distinctive singer with range, humour and an authentic rockabilly twang." [17] The Capital Times determined that "Perkins, the purest rockabilly of them all, has returned to vinyl with an album that captures the essence of his seminal Sun recordings with the vision of a 50-year-old." [18]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Born to Rock" | Carl Perkins, Greg Perkins, Stan Perkins | 3:40 |
| 2. | "Charlene" | Carl Perkins, Greg Perkins | 4:08 |
| 3. | "The Rain Might Wash Your Love Away" | Brent Maher, Don Potter, Don Schlitz | 4:37 |
| 4. | "Hambone" | Carl Perkins, Wayne Walker | 3:30 |
| 5. | "A Lifetime Last Night" | Carl Perkins, Greg Perkins | 3:49 |
| 6. | "Cotton Top" | Carl Perkins | 3:05 |
| 7. | "Baby, Please Answer Your Phone" | Larry Patton, Paul Overstreet | 3:18 |
| 8. | "Till I Couldn't Stand No More" | Pamela Patton | 4:10 |
| 9. | "Don't Let Go" | Jesse Stone | 3:23 |
| 10. | "Love Makes Dreams Come True" | Carl Perkins, Greg Perkins | 4:17 |
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's music is mostly in the rock genre and his most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames "The Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O". Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers projected machismo. He performed with minimal motion and in black clothes, matching his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses.
Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee on February 1, 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Prior to that, Sun had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because Phillips loved rhythm and blues and wanted to bring it to a white audience.
Carl Lee Perkins was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, beginning in 1954. Among his best-known songs are "Blue Suede Shoes", "Honey Don't", "Matchbox" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby".
Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. including "Stray Cat Strut", "(She's) Sexy + 17", "Look at That Cadillac", "I Won't Stand in Your Way", "Bring It Back Again", and "Rock This Town", which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed as one of the songs that shaped rock and roll.
Winfield Scott Moore III was an American guitarist who formed The Blue Moon Boys in 1954, Elvis Presley's backing band. He was studio and touring guitarist for Presley between 1954 and 1968.
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered "classic" rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll. The term "rockabilly" itself is a portmanteau of "rock" and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie-woogie, jump blues, and electric blues.
Mystery Girl is the twenty-second album by American singer Roy Orbison. It was his last album to be recorded during his lifetime, as he completed the album in November 1988, a month before his death at the age of 52, and it was released posthumously by Virgin Records on January 31, 1989. It includes the hit singles "You Got It", which was co-written by Orbison and his Traveling Wilburys bandmates Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty, and "She's a Mystery to Me", written by Bono and The Edge. The album was a critical and commercial success; it peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, the highest position Orbison had achieved on that chart, and number 2 on the UK Albums Chart.
The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 is the debut studio album by the English-American supergroup Traveling Wilburys, comprising George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. It was released in October 1988 to commercial success and critical acclaim. Although Harrison had long planned to start such a band, the project came about through happenstance. Harrison was in Los Angeles and in need of a B-side for a single from his album Cloud Nine, which resulted in the participants collaborating informally on the song "Handle with Care" at Dylan's home.
Class of '55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming is a collaborative studio album by Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash. It was released on May 26, 1986, by America/Smash Records, a subsidiary of Polygram Records. The album was produced by Chips Moman.
Laminar Flow is an album by the American musician Roy Orbison. It was recorded at Wishbone Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and released in 1979 by Asylum Records. It was the last album of new material Orbison would release in his lifetime. His next studio effort, In Dreams, featured re-recordings of old Orbison hits while Mystery Girl and King of Hearts, his final collections of all-new material, were released posthumously. "Hound Dog Man" is a tribute to Elvis Presley.
"In Dreams" is a song composed and sung by singer Roy Orbison. An operatic rock ballad of lost love, it was released as a single on Monument Records in February 1963. It became the title track of the album In Dreams, released in July of the same year. The song has a unique through-composed structure in seven movements in which Orbison sings through two octaves, beyond the range of most rock singers.
"Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" is a rockabilly song often credited to Carl Perkins. Based on a 1936 song written by singer/songwriter Rex Griffin, it achieved widespread popularity when it was released in 1957 by Perkins and covered by the Beatles in 1964.
A Black & White Night Live is a Roy Orbison music album made posthumously by Virgin Records from the HBO television special, Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night, which was filmed in 1987 and broadcast in 1988. According to the authorised Roy Orbison biography, the album was released in October 1989 and included the song "Blue Bayou" which because of time constraints had been deleted from the televised broadcast. However, it did not include the songs "Claudette" and "Blue Angel", which were also cut from the original broadcast for the same reason.
The Survivors is a live album by country/rockabilly musicians Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, released in 1982 on Columbia Records.
This Time is the fifth studio album by American country music artist Dwight Yoakam, released by Reprise Records on March 23, 1993. Three of its tracks barely missed the top spot on the Billboard Hot Country Singles charts, each peaking at #2: "Ain't That Lonely Yet", "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere" and "Fast as You", the latter being his last Top 10 single. Two other tracks also rose into the charts: "Try Not to Look So Pretty" at #14 and "Pocket of a Clown" at #22. The album itself peaked at #4 on the Top Country Albums chart. Yoakam wrote or co-wrote all except for one of the tracks on this album.
Chain Lightning is an album by American singer-songwriter Don McLean. It was recorded in Nashville between June and August 1978 and featured many of that city's noted session players as well as backing vocals from the Jordanaires. It was first released in December 1978 in the UK and other markets, but not released for another two years in the US following its delayed success in European markets. The lead single "Crying" became a major hit for McLean, reaching No.1 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1980. The album was subsequently repackaged and released in the US where it also became a success with "Crying" reaching the top five in early 1981. "Since I Don't Have You" was also released as a single, reaching #23.
Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session was a televised concert that was taped live at Limehouse Studios in London, England on 21 October 1985. The show featured rock n' roll pioneer Carl Perkins along with friends as guest stars, including former Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Rosanne Cash, Phantom, Rocker & Slick, and Dave Edmunds. Most of the repertoire performed in the concert consisted of Perkins' classic rockabilly songs from the 1950s.
Roy Orbison's Sun recordings were made by Orbison at Sun Studio with producer Sam Phillips. Sun Records was established in 1952 in Memphis, Tennessee, and during an eight-year period Phillips recorded such artists as Roy Orbison, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner, Rufus Thomas, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Harold Jenkins, and Charlie Rich. The musicians signed at Sun Records made music that laid the foundation of rock and roll in the 20th century.
"Birth of Rock and Roll" is a 1986 song written by Carl Perkins and Greg Perkins. The song was featured on the Class of '55 album which included performances with Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis. "Birth of Rock and Roll" was released as a 7" single with a picture sleeve, 885 760–7, on the Smash/America label copyrighted by PolyGram Records produced by Chips Moman. The single reached No. 31 on the Billboard country chart and No. 44 on the Canadian country chart in 1986. The B side was "Rock and Roll (Fais-Do-Do)" which featured Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Roy Orbison. The theme of the song “Birth of Rock and Roll" is about how "Memphis gave birth to rock and roll" in the 1950s at Sun Records. A video of the song was also made featuring Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones as they drove to the historic Sun studios in Memphis, Tennessee in a white Cadillac convertible.