features in: Album Chart of 1958 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1950s |

On 11th December 1957 Carl recorded his final session at Sun Records, spawning a final single for the label, “Glad All Over”, but it went nowhere. The relationship between label-owner Sam Phillips and Carl Perkins was starting to strain, each man expecting more from the other. Six weeks later, Carl had jumped ship and signed with Columbia Records – infuriating Phillips. He did what any label owner would do – rounded up a whole load of single sides on a 12” platter in a bid to squeeze out a few dollars more. Eight single sides were loaded including Carl’s debut, “Movie Magg”, from 1955 and a whole host of big hitters; “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Gone, Gone, Gone”, “Honey Don’t”, “Matchbox” and “Boppin’ the Blues”. Of the four previously unreleased tunes there were two covers – “Only You” (The Platters, 1955) and “Right String Baby, Wrong Yo-Yo” (Douglas Finnell and his Royal Stompers, 1929). “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby”, which would be covered on “Beatles For Sale” in 1964, was also new to the party. Although the album is dominated by Carl’s down-home brand of Rockabilly, it’s the sole country number which steals my greatest affection; “Sure To Fall”, which had been scheduled as a single release (Sun 235) in 1956, finally saw the light of day on this album and almost justifies the purchase price on its own. These days, no-one cares much about how things came to be, and rightly so – its issue in England proved to be highly influential. Carl’s highly swingable feel-good debut album stands as an extremely fine marker of what was a highly productive time at Sun Records. Columbia’s engineers could never quite replicate that intimate magic.
The Jukebox Rebel
28–Nov–2009
Tracklist |
A1 | [02:15] ![]() |
A2 | [02:11] ![]() |
A3 | [02:35] ![]() |
A4 | [02:41] ![]() |
A5 | [02:52] ![]() |
A6 | [03:22] ![]() |
B1 | [03:06] ![]() |
B2 | [02:34] ![]() |
B3 | [02:15] ![]() |
B4 | [02:11] ![]() |
B5 | [02:46] ![]() |
B6 | [02:51] ![]() |