Laura Lee Perkins

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Laura Lee Perkins (born 1939 in Killarney , West Virginia as Alice Faye Perkins ; † April 6, 2018 ) was an American rockabilly musician and pianist .

Life

Childhood and youth

Laura Lee Perkins sang in school and church. After graduating from high school in 1957, she moved to Cleveland , Ohio to pursue a career as a musician. She turned down an offer to work as a waitress in nearby Elyria, Ohio.

Career

In Cleveland, she was promoted by the fiddler Slim Luse. Perkins was discovered shortly afterwards by the well-known DJ Bill Randle of WERE, who had them record some demo tapes in his recording studio in late 1957. Perkins recorded three tracks: Don't Wait Up , Oh La Baby and Come On Baby . Randle sent the recordings to Sun Records in Memphis , Tennessee , and Imperial Records in Hollywood . After both labels showed interest in Perkins, she decided to sign a contract with Imperial. In February 1958, Perkins then traveled to Hollywood to record more songs.

This session was led by Jimmy Haskell and produced three more tracks with Joe Maphis on guitar . Her first single came out that month with Kiss Me Baby and a cover of Hank Williams ' I Just Don't Like This Kind Of Living . Lew Chudd, owner of Imperial, hoped that her piano style would make Perkins a "Female Jerry Lee Lewis". The Billboard magazine rated both titles as well, but none of them came into the charts. Perkins then started an extensive tour through the USA and Canada . A short time later, Perkins' second single was released, but it was also a failure. Chudd's idea of ​​making her a star failed so, and Perkins' settled in Detroit in 1959 , where she married in 1963 and was to raise three sons. From then on she worked as a songwriter for the advertising industry.

In 1988 a small British label released their two unreleased titles Gonna Rock My Baby Tonight and Come On Baby on a single.

In 2006 Perkins released their first album I'm Back and Here We Go! which, in addition to its old titles, also contains newly recorded songs. In 2008 she performed at the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Festival .

Discography

Singles

year title Record company
1958 Kiss Me Baby / I Just Don't Like This Kind of Living Imperial Records
1958 Don't Wait Up / Oh La Baby Imperial Records
1988 Gonna Rock My Baby Tonight / Come On Baby Detour Records
  • Gonna rock my baby tonight
  • Come on baby
 Imperial Records (not published)

Albums

  • 2006: I'm Back and Here We Go!

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roger Wink: RIP Laura Lee Perkins 1939-2018. In: noise11.com. April 23, 2018, accessed May 11, 2018 .
  2. ↑ rocky-52.net (MP3; 2.0 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Perkins, Laura Lee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Perkins, Alice Faye (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rockabilly musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Killarney , West Virginia
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 2018