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Carl Perkins dies at 65
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASHVILLE, Jan 20: Carl Perkins, a rock 'n roll pioneer whose song Blue Suede Shoes and lightning-quick guitar-playing influenced Elvis Presley, the Beatles and a slew of other performers, died. He was 65.Perkins died yesterday from complications related to three strokes he had suffered in November and December, family spokesman Albert Hall said. The tall, broad-shouldered Perkins was famed as one of the proponents of ``Rockabilly,'' a cross of rhythm-and-blues and country music that came out of Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, in the mid-1950s. He also wrote some of the top hit records in rock `n' roll and country music. A near-fatal traffic accident in 1956, coupled with the rise of Presley, kept him from becoming a bigger solo star. Perkins wrote and recorded the 1956 smash Blue Suede Shoes, which Presley later recorded. Perkins' version sold 2 million itself before Presley's rendition also became a hit.Perkins also wrote the Rockabilly standard Dixie Fried and the songs Honey Don't,
Matchbox and Everybody's trying to be my Baby, which were later covered by the Beatles. His relationship with the Beatles lasted long after their breakup in 1970. Perkins dueted with Paul McCartney on the country ballad Get it. On the same record, he played rhythm guitar on the McCartney-Stevie Wonder hit duet, Ebony and Ivory.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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