Early life Carl Lee Perkins was born on April 9, 1932, in
Tiptonville, Tennessee, the son of poor
sharecroppers Louise and Buck Perkins (misspelled on his birth certificate as "Perkings"). He had two brothers, Jay and Clayton. From the age of six, he worked long hours in the cotton fields with his family whether school was in session or not. The boys grew up hearing
Southern gospel music sung by white friends in church and by black field workers and sharecroppers in the cotton fields. On Saturday nights Perkins would listen to the
Grand Ole Opry, broadcast from
Nashville on his father's radio.
Roy Acuff's broadcasts from the Opry inspired Perkins to ask his parents for a guitar. Since they could not afford to buy one, his father made one from a
cigar box and a broomstick. Eventually, a neighbor sold his father a worn-out
Gene Autry guitar. Perkins could not afford new strings, and when they broke, he had to retie them. The knots cut his fingers when he would slide to another note, so he began bending the notes, stumbling onto a type of
blue note. Perkins taught himself parts of Acuff's "
Great Speckled Bird" and "
The Wabash Cannonball" having heard them played on the
Opry. He also has cited
Bill Monroe's fast playing and vocals as an early influence. Perkins also learned from John Westbrook, an African-American field worker in his 60s who played blues and gospel music on an old acoustic guitar. Westbrook advised Perkins to "Get down close to it. You can feel it travel down the strangs, come through your head and down to your soul where you live. You can feel it. Let it vib-a-rate". At the age of 14, Perkins wrote a country song called "Let Me Take You to the Movie, Magg".
Sam Phillips was later persuaded by the quality of that song to sign Perkins to his
Sun Records label.
Beginnings as a performer Perkins and his brother Jay had their first paying job (in tips) as entertainers during late 1946 at the Cotton Boll tavern on Highway 45, twelve miles south of Jackson, Tennessee, starting on Wednesday nights. Perkins was 14 years old. One of the songs they played was an up-tempo country shuffle version of
Bill Monroe's "
Blue Moon of Kentucky". Free drinks were one of the perks of playing in a tavern, and Perkins drank four beers that first night. Within a month, Carl and Jay began playing Friday and Saturday nights at the Sand Ditch tavern near Jackson's western border. Both places were the scene of occasional fights and both of the Perkins brothers gained a reputation as fighters. During the next couple of years, as they became better known, the Perkins brothers began playing other taverns around Bemis and Jackson, including El Rancho, the Roadside Inn, and the Hilltop. Carl persuaded his brother Clayton to join them and play the
upright bass, to complete the sound of the band. Perkins began performing regularly on
WTJS in Jackson during the late 1940s as a sometime member of the Tennessee Ramblers with Carl on lead guitar, Junior Vastal on slap bass, and Edd Cisco playing rhythm guitar and singing. He appeared on the radio program
Hayloft Frolic on which he performed two songs. One was "Talking Blues" as done by Robert Lunn on the
Grand Ole Opry. Perkins and his brothers began appearing on
The Early Morning Farm and Home Hour. Positive listener response earned them a 15-minute segment sponsored by Mother's Best Flour. By the end of the 1940s, the Perkins Brothers were the best known band in the Jackson area. Perkins had day jobs during most of these early years including picking cotton, working at various factories and plants and as a pan greaser for the Colonial Baking Company. His brothers had similar pick up jobs. In January 1953, Perkins married Valda Crider, whom he had known for a number of years. When his job at the bakery was reduced to part-time, Valda, who had her own job, encouraged Perkins to begin working the taverns full-time. He began playing six nights a week. Later the same year, he added
W.S. "Fluke" Holland to the band as a drummer. Holland had no previous experience as a musician but had a good sense of rhythm.
Malcolm Yelvington, who remembered the Perkins Brothers when they played in
Covington, Tennessee, in 1953, noted that Perkins had an unusual blues-like style all his own. By 1955, Perkins had made tapes of his material on a borrowed tape recorder and sent them to record companies such as Columbia and RCA. But he used addresses such as Columbia Records, New York City, and seemed dismayed at the lack of response. "I had sent tapes to RCA and
Columbia and had never heard a thing from 'em". As the song faded out, Perkins said, "There's a man in Memphis who understands what we're doing. I need to go see him". According to another telling of the story, it was Valda who said that he should go to Memphis. Later, Presley told Perkins he had traveled to Jackson and had seen Perkins and his group playing at the El Rancho. Years later, the rockabilly singer
Gene Vincent told an interviewer that, rather than Presley's version of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" being a "new sound", "a lot of people were doing it before that, especially Carl Perkins".
Sun Records Perkins successfully auditioned for
Sam Phillips at
Sun Records in early October 1954. "
Movie Magg" and "Turn Around" were released on the Phillips-owned Flip label (151) on March 19, 1955. "Turn Around" became a regional success, and Perkins was booked to appear along with Elvis Presley at theaters in
Marianna and
West Memphis, Arkansas.
Johnny Cash and the
Tennessee Two were the next Sun musicians to be added to the shows. During the summer of 1955 they had junkets to
Little Rock and
Forrest City, Arkansas, and to
Corinth and
Tupelo, Mississippi. Again performing at El Rancho, the Perkins brothers were involved in an automobile accident in Woodside, Delaware. A friend who was driving was pinned by the steering wheel. Perkins dragged him from the burning car. Clayton was thrown from the car but was not seriously injured. Sun released another Perkins song, "Gone Gone Gone", in October 1955, which also became a regional success. It was a "bounce blues in flavorsome combined country and R&B idioms". The A-side was the more traditional country song "
Let the Jukebox Keep On Playing". Commenting on Perkins's playing, Sam Phillips has been quoted as saying I knew that Carl could rock and in fact he told me right from the start that he had been playing that music before Elvis came out on record ... I wanted to see whether this was someone who could revolutionize the country end of the business. Also in the autumn of 1955, Perkins wrote "
Blue Suede Shoes", Several weeks later, on December 19, 1955, Perkins and his band recorded the song during a session at Sun Studio in Memphis. Phillips suggested changes to the lyrics ("Go, cat, go"), and the band changed the end of the song to a "
boogie vamp". After Sun Records headliner Presley left for
RCA in November 1955, Phillips told Perkins, "You're my rockabilly cat now". Sun released "Blue Suede Shoes" on January 1, 1956 and it became a massive chart success. In the United States, it reached number one on
Billboard magazine's
country music chart (the only number one success he would have) and number two on the Billboard Best Sellers popular music chart. On February 11, Presley performed it on CBS-TV's
Stage Show. On March 17, Perkins became the first country artist to reach number three on the
rhythm and blues chart. That night, he performed the song on ABC-TV's
Ozark Jubilee and Presley reprised his performance on
Stage Show. In Britain, Perkins's song reached number 10 on the
UK singles chart. It was the first record by a Sun artist to sell a million copies. Jay Perkins had a fractured neck and severe internal injuries. Later he developed a malignant brain tumor, and died in 1958. On March 23, Presley's band members
Bill Black,
Scotty Moore and
D.J. Fontana visited Perkins on their way to New York to appear with Presley. Fontana recalled Perkins saying, "You looked like a bunch of angels coming to see me". Black told him, "Hey man, Elvis sends his love", and lit a cigarette for him, even though the patient in the next bed was in an
oxygen tent. "Blue Suede Shoes" had sold more than 500,000 copies by March 22, and Sam Philips had planned to celebrate by presenting Perkins with a
gold record on
The Perry Como Show. While Perkins recuperated from his injuries, "Blue Suede Shoes" reached number one on regional pop, R&B, and country charts. It also reached number two on the Billboard pop and country charts, below Elvis Presley's "
Heartbreak Hotel". By mid-April, more than one million copies of "Blue Suede Shoes" had sold. On April 3, while still recuperating in Jackson, Perkins watched Presley perform "Blue Suede Shoes" in his first appearance on
The Milton Berle Show. This was the third time he performed the song on national television.
Return to recording and touring Perkins returned to live performances on April 21, 1956 beginning with an appearance in
Beaumont, Texas, with the Big D Jamboree tour. Before he resumed touring, Sam Phillips arranged a recording session at Sun with Edd Cisco filling in for the still-recuperating Jay. By mid-April, they recorded "
Dixie Fried", "Put Your Cat Clothes On", "Wrong Yo-Yo", "You Can't Make Love to Somebody", "
Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", and "That Don't Move Me". On May 26, Perkins and his band (with Jay Perkins performing wearing a visible neck brace), finally appeared on
The Perry Como Show to perform "Blue Suede Shoes". " with (left to right) Clayton Perkins, W.S. "Fluke" Holland, and Jay Perkins in the 1957 movie
Jamboree Beginning early that summer, Perkins was paid $1,000 to play two songs a night on the extended tour of Top Stars of '56. Other performers on the tour were
Chuck Berry and
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. When Perkins and the group entered the stage in
Columbia, South Carolina, he was shocked to see a teenager with a bleeding chin pressed against the stage by the massed crowd. During the first guitar intermission of "Honey Don't", they were waved offstage and into a vacant dressing room behind a double line of police officers. Appalled by what he had seen and felt, Perkins left the tour. Appearing with
Gene Vincent and
Lillian Briggs in a rock 'n' roll show, he helped attract 39,872 people to the Reading Fair in Pennsylvania on a Tuesday night in late September. Soon after, a full grandstand and one thousand people stood in a heavy rain to hear Perkins and Briggs at the Brockton Fair in Massachusetts. Sun issued more Perkins songs in 1956: "
Boppin' the Blues" / "All Mama's Children" (Sun 243), the B side co-written with Johnny Cash; and "
Dixie Fried" / "I'm Sorry, I'm Not Sorry" (Sun 249). "
Matchbox" / "
Your True Love" (Sun 261) came out in February, 1957. singing both songs. Those performances were included in the
Western Ranch Dance Party series filmed and distributed by Screen Gems. He released "
That's Right", co-written with Johnny Cash, backed with the ballad "Forever Yours", as Sun single 274 in August, 1957. Neither side made it onto the charts. The 1957 film
Jamboree included Perkins performing "
Glad All Over". The song was written by
Aaron Schroeder,
Sid Tepper, and
Roy C. Bennett, Sun released it in January, 1958.
Life after Sun In 1958, Perkins moved to
Columbia Records for which he recorded "Jive After Five", "Rockin' Record Hop", "Levi Jacket (And a Long Tail Shirt)", "Pop, Let Me Have the Car", "Pink Pedal Pushers", "Any Way the Wind Blows", "Hambone", "Pointed Toe Shoes", "Sister Twister", "L-O-V-E-V-I-L-L-E" and other songs. Perkins had been reluctant to undertake the tour, convinced that as forgotten as he had become in America, he would be even more obscure in the UK and did not want to be humiliated by drawing meager audiences. Berry assured him that they had remained much more popular in Britain since the 1950s than they had in the United States, and that there would be large crowds of fans at every show. On the last night of the tour, Perkins attended a party where he sat on the floor sharing stories, playing guitar, and singing songs while surrounded by the
Beatles.
Ringo Starr asked if he could record "Honey Don't". Perkins answered, "Man, go ahead, have at it". The Beatles later recorded covers of "
Matchbox", "
Honey Don't" and "
Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" enabling him to buy a farm for his parents from the royalties, which Perkins adapted from a song originally recorded in 1936 by
Rex Griffin which he added new music to. (A song with the same title was recorded by Roy Newman in 1938). Starr sang the lead on the first two,
George Harrison sang a rare lead on the third. The Beatles also recorded two versions of "Glad All Over" in 1963. Another tour to Germany followed in the autumn. He released "Big Bad Blues" backed with "Lonely Heart" as a single on Brunswick Records with
the Nashville Teens in June, 1964. In 1966, Perkins signed with Dollie Records and released as his first single for them, "Country Boy's Dream", which reached No. 22 in the country chart. That same year
Bob Luman had a Top 40 Country hit with Perkins's song, "Poor Boy Blues". While on tour with the Johnny Cash show in 1968, Perkins went on a four day drinking binge that ended with him hallucinating floridly and passing out. When he regained consciousness, he went out to the beach with his last bottle of alcohol. In his autobiography, he described falling to his knees and declaring, "Lord, ... I'm gonna throw this bottle. I'm gonna show You that I believe in you" before hurling the bottle into the sea and vowing to remain sober. Perkins and Cash, who had his own substance-abuse issues, supported each other in their bids to remain sober. In 1968, Cash recorded the Perkins-written "
Daddy Sang Bass" which incorporates parts of the gospel standard "
Will the Circle Be Unbroken". It rose to the top of the country music chart where it stayed for six weeks. It was a
Country Music Association nominee for 'Song of the Year' the next year. Perkins also played lead guitar on Cash's single "
A Boy Named Sue", recorded live at
San Quentin prison. It went to number one for five weeks on the country chart and number two on the pop chart. (The performance was also filmed by
Granada Television for broadcast). Perkins spent a decade in Cash's touring revue, often as an opening act for Cash as at the Folsom and San Quentin prison concerts, where he was recorded singing "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Matchbox" before Cash took the stage. These performances were not released until the 2000s. He also appeared on the television series
The Johnny Cash Show. On the television program
Kraft Music Hall on April 16, 1969, which Cash hosted, Perkins performed his song "
Restless". Perkins and
Bob Dylan wrote "Champaign, Illinois" in 1969. Dylan was in Nashville from February 12 to February 21, recording his album
Nashville Skyline, a crossover into country. He met Perkins when he appeared on
The Johnny Cash Show on June 7. Dylan had
writer's block and was unable to complete the song until Perkins contributed the rhythm and some lyrics upon which Dylan said to him, "Your song. Take it. Finish it". Perkins registered the song as co-authored and recorded it on his 1969 album,
On Top. Also in 1969, Columbia's Murray Krugman placed Perkins with the
New Rhythm and Blues Quartet, the NRBQ, a rockabilly group based in New York's Hudson Valley. With the group backing him, he recorded two of his staples, "Boppin' the Blues" and "Turn Around", plus songs they sang separately.
Tommy Cash (brother of Johnny Cash) had a Top Ten country gospel hit in 1970 with the song "Rise and Shine" which Perkins wrote. It reached number nine on the
Billboard country chart and number eight on the Canadian country chart.
Arlene Harden had a Top 40 country hit in 1971 with the Perkins composition "True Love Is Greater Than Friendship", from the film
Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1971). That same year,
Al Martino's cover of the song reached number 22 on the
Billboard country chart and number 33 on the
Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Perkins appeared with Cash on the popular TV country series
Hee Haw on February 16, 1974. After a long legal struggle with Sam Phillips over
royalties, Perkins gained ownership of his songs in the 1970s and, in 2003, his widow, who by then owned the catalog, entered into an administration contract with Paul McCartney's
MPL Communications.
Later years The rockabilly revival of the 1980s helped bring Perkins back into the limelight. In 1981, Perkins recorded the song "Get It" with
Paul McCartney. According to one source, he fully co-wrote the song with McCartney. This recording was included on the chart-topping album
Tug of War, released in 1982. During 1985, Perkins re-recorded "Blue Suede Shoes" with
Lee Rocker and
Slim Jim Phantom of the
Stray Cats as part of the soundtrack for the film ''
Porky's Revenge''. In October 1985, Perkins performed on stage in
London for a television special,
Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session, with
George Harrison,
Eric Clapton,
Dave Edmunds, Lee Rocker,
Rosanne Cash and
Ringo Starr. The show was taped live at the
Limehouse Studios. It was broadcast on
Channel 4 on January 1, 1986. Perkins sang 16 songs plus two encores. He and his friends ended the session by singing "Blue Suede Shoes", 30 years after its writing, which brought Perkins to tears. The concert special was a highlight of his later career. The concert was released for DVD by Snapper Music in 2006. Perkins was inducted into the
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985. Wider recognition of his contributions to music came with his induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. The Hall chose "Blue Suede Shoes" as one of its
500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. The song also received a
Grammy Hall of Fame Award. Perkins was inducted into the
Rockabilly Hall of Fame in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the genre. Perkins's only notable film performance as an actor was in
John Landis's 1985 film
Into the Night. The cameo-laden film includes a scene in which characters played by Perkins and
David Bowie die by each other's hand. Perkins returned to the Sun Studio in Memphis in 1986, joining Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and
Roy Orbison on the album ''
Class of '55''. The record was a tribute to their early years at Sun and, specifically, the Million Dollar Quartet
jam session involving Perkins, Presley, Cash, and Lewis in 1956. In 1989, Perkins co-wrote and played lead guitar on
the Judds' number-one country hit, "
Let Me Tell You About Love". That same year, he signed a record deal with Platinum Records for the album
Friends, Family & Legends, featuring performances by
Chet Atkins,
Travis Tritt,
Steve Wariner,
Joan Jett, and
Charlie Daniels, along with
Paul Shaffer and
Will Lee. The song "Wild Texas Wind" became the title track to a made-for-TV
movie featuring
Dolly Parton and
Gary Busey. In 1996,
Willie Nelson, who also appeared in that movie, joined Perkins in a duet version of the song. During the production of this album, Perkins was diagnosed with
throat cancer. Dolly Parton had a Top 20 Country hit in 1991 with "
Silver and Gold", which she and Perkins co-wrote.
Mark O'Connor recorded a version of the Perkins "Restless" in 1991 and had a No. 25 country hit with it in the US, (No. 19 in Canada). Perkins again returned to Sun Studio to record with Scotty Moore, Presley's first guitar player, for the album
706 ReUNION, released by Belle Meade Records which also featured
D. J. Fontana, Marcus Van Storey, and
the Jordanaires. In 1993, Perkins performed with the
Kentucky Headhunters in the music video for a re-recording of his song "Dixie Fried" filmed in
Glasgow, Kentucky. In 1994, he teamed up with
Duane Eddy and
the Mavericks to contribute "Matchbox" to the
AIDS benefit album
Red Hot + Country, produced by the
Red Hot Organization. His last album,
Go Cat Go!, released by the independent Dinosaur Records label in 1996, showcased Perkins singing duets with
Bono, Johnny Cash,
John Fogerty, George Harrison, Paul McCartney,
Willie Nelson,
Tom Petty,
Paul Simon, and Ringo Starr. His last major concert performance was the
Music for Montserrat all-star charity concert at London's
Royal Albert Hall on September 15, 1997, four months before his death.
Posthumous releases In 2025, Sun Records released a new Perkins album,
Some Things Never Change, which had originally been recorded in 1990 but whose recordings were thought to be lost until being rediscovered in 2024. The album was produced by Bill Lloyd and featured Perkins backed by his sons Stan (drums) and Greg (bass), augmented by studio musicians Joe Schenk (piano), Jerry Douglas, and Pete Finney. ==Personal life==