Maps of Music

Country Songs for City Folks (1965)

Where the lyrics of Country Songs for City Folks take you, and where it was really made.

The album did not chart on Billboard at release, but it returned four years later under the title All Country and reached number 39 on the country albums chart.

Key places

Recording sessions in Nashville (1965)

Recording site Nashville — The album was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, from August to September 1965. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Country Songs for City Folks is the fifth studio album by American musician and pianist Jerry Lee Lewis
• Released in 1965 on the Smash label
• Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, in August and September 1965
• Credited as a product of Mercury Record Productions, Inc., Chicago, Illinois
• Re-released four years later under the title All Country
• Track list runs twelve songs, including a 1964 version of Crazy Arms

Background

• The album was made during a period of commercial and critical setback in Lewis's career
• That period ended with the later album Another Place, Another Time in 1968
• Green Green Grass of Home opens the track list
• The track list also includes Funny How Time Slips Away by Willie Nelson and The Wild Side of Life
• The Wild Side of Life is a honky-tonk lament associated with Hank Thompson

Recording

• Sessions were held in Nashville from August to September 1965
• North to Alaska is credited with Linda Gail Lewis
• Discogs notes that track A4, North to Alaska, comes from the motion picture of the same name
• Crazy Arms appears in its 1964 version

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · it.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Artist

Career

• American country and rock and roll pianist, singer, and songwriter, nicknamed "The Killer".
• Made first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans; early Sun Records recordings in 1956 in Memphis.
• 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" brought worldwide fame; followed by "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless", and "High School Confidential".
• 1964 live album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is widely regarded as one of the greatest live rock albums.
• Switched to country in 1968 with "Another Place, Another Time", which revived his career; 30 songs reached the Billboard country top 10 across his career.
• Last Man Standing (2006) was his best-selling release; Mean Old Man (2010) was another major seller.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986) and the Country Music Hall of Fame (2022).

Members

• Solo artist; the Million Dollar Quartet session on Sun Records included Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Country Songs for City Folks did not crack the Billboard chart
• Bruce Eder of AllMusic called the album an astoundingly good country album
• Eder singled out the performances of Willie Nelson's Funny How Time Slips Away and Hank Thompson's honky-tonk lament The Wild Side of Life
• The album's commercial showing at release was therefore limited to outside the main pop chart

Reappraisal

• The album rose to number 39 on the country albums chart when it was released again under the title All Country
• That re-release came in the wake of Lewis's comeback four years after the original release
• Italian Wikipedia describes the recording as made during a period of commercial and critical failure in Lewis's career
• The same source says that period ended with the 1968 album Another Place, Another Time
• Eder's praise of the album's performances is the main critical assessment cited in the source

Records

• No entry on the Billboard chart at original release
• Number 39 on the country albums chart after re-release as All Country
• Re-release came four years after the original 1965 issue

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Green Green Grass of Home, which opens the track list, was later covered by Tom Jones in 1967, and that cover climbed charts around the world.
• Tom Jones said more than once that he was a fan of this album and of Jerry Lee Lewis, and he decided to record the track after listening to the album.
• Bruce Eder of AllMusic called the album an astoundingly good country album.
• The track list includes North to Alaska, credited with Linda Gail Lewis, and a 1964 version of Crazy Arms.
• The album was re-released under the title All Country four years after the original release.

Sources: it.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

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