Carl Lee Perkins was born on April 9, 1932, in Tiptonville,
Tennessee, as a poor tenant farmer. He was an American pioneer of
rockabilly music, a mix of rhythm and blues and country music that
evolved at Sun Records in Memphis in the early 1950s. By age seven, he
was playing a guitar his father made from a cigar box, broomstick and
baling wire. In late 1955, a desperately poor and struggling Perkins
wrote the song "Blue Suede Shoes" on an old potato sack.
Produced by Sam Phillips, the record was a massive chart success
charting #1 on the country charts, #2 on the pop charts, and #3 on the
rhythm & blues charts. However, at the peak of the song's national
success, Perkins was involved in a near-fatal car accident. Carl Perkins
died on January 19, 1998, at Jackson-Madison County Hospital, Jackson,
Tennessee, at the age of 65 from throat cancer after suffering several
strokes.
This is a non-profit, informational web page, meant to be a
reminder of the music we listened to 50 years ago. Use of copyrighted
material is consistent with the "fair use" provisions contained in
section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976; the use of copyrighted material is
of a nonprofit, educational nature, intended for the sole purposes of
research and comment and does not significantly negatively affect "the
potential market for or value of the copyrighted work(s)."