Mickey Lee Lewis-Tutti Frutti-unknown
single
Bit of an
obscure one, this track. I’ve poked around on the internet and cannot find any
specific reference to a Mickey Lee Lewis. I’ve joined some tenuous dots however,
and discovered that Jerry Lee Lewis had a brother called Mickey Gillard. Mickey,
as well as having a full pilots licence(according to Wikipedia), is a bit of a
musician on the side, having released a fair few records from the late 1950’s
until the 1990’s. I’m guessing that Mickey Lee Lewis is, in fact Mickey Gillard,
and that this gem of a cover of Little Richards’ “Tutti Frutti” was Mickey’s
attempt to release a song under the banner of his brothers more famous name,
rather than the Gillard moniker. Of course, I may be totally incorrect and there
might be no connection at all between Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Lee Lewis. It
may all be sheer co-incidence and I may be making too many false assumptions.
It wouldn’t be unusual either for some unknown chancer to have just tried to scam his way to fame and
fortune by trying to pass himself off as something he wasn’t by ripping off
Jerry Lee Lewis’ name. I’d bet there was an Eric Presley out somewhere in the
1950’s as well. (I could actually spend an inordinate amount of time and effort
trawling through the more obscure and esoteric sides of the internet trying to prove
or disprove all this theory, but really life is too short and some things are
best left unexplored (or at least unproven)).
Anyway, despite
who on earth Mickey Lee Lewis really was, he had a pretty decent stab at “Tutti
Frutti”. It’s not one of those songs where someone tries to put their own stamp
or twist upon a classic and it turns out to be embarrassingly dreadful-but
neither is it something that’s simply a carbon copy of the original. The best
way to describe it is if you could imagine a karaoke-style backing track of
“Tutti Frutti” (or even the original backing track as the music itself is quite
faithfully rendered), but having the vocals sung by someone, who whilst they
clearly know and love the song, have a singing voice quite unlike Little
Richards’. On the strength of this cover, Mickey can carry a tune fairly well
and has a good enough range, but with a distinctively country twang. I get the
feeling that straight-up rock and roll was not his natural forte although he
has a good enough go, and by and large, he pulls it off. The more I hear it,
the more I like it. I wonder if there are any other Mickey Lee Lewis tracks out
there? Hopefully there’s at least a whole album of country- inflected rock and
roll covers floating around by the man. If Mickey Lee Lewis was the one and the
same Mickey Gillard, then I have a vision of him piloting a little Cessna
somewhere over the mid-west and singing his heart out in a weird amalgam of
Hank Williams and Elvis.
Get/read/see Totally Shuffled here:
UK : http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CJYZ3CA
US: http://www.amazon.com/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Music-Broken-ebook/dp/B00CJYZ3CA
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