Billy Lee Riley

Play Radio
Listen to Billy Lee Riley Radio, featuring artists like Warren Smith, Sonny Burgess, Carl Mann, Ronnie Self and more…

183,402 plays (44,729 listeners)

Shop now at Amazon | Send Billy Lee Riley Ringtones to Cell
More options
Add to my Library
Billy Lee Riley (born October 5, 1933 - August 2, 2009 ) was a first generation Rockabilly musician, singer, record producer and songwriter who died in Jonesboro Arkansas.

Born in Pocahontas, Arkansas, the son of a sharecropper, Riley learned to play guitar from black farm workers. After 4 years in the Army, Riley first recorded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1955 before being lured to Sun Studios by Sam Phillips. He recorded “Trouble Bound” for Jack Clement and Slim Wallace. Sam Phillips obtained the rights and he released “Trouble Bound” b/w “”Rock With Me Baby” September 1,1956 (Sun 245). His first hit was “Flyin’ Saucers Rock and Roll” b/w “I Want You Baby” released February 23,1957 (Sun 260) after which he recorded “”Red Hot” b/w “Pearly Lee” released September 30,1957 (Sun 277) both with backing piano by Jerry Lee Lewis.

“Red Hot” was showing a lot of promise as a big hit record, but Sam Phillips pulled the promotion and switched it to “Great Balls Of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis. The record was pulled without a lot of sales. He had other Sun recordings and they, likewise, did not have a lot of sales as his promotion had stopped.

Considered good looking and with wild stage moves, Riley had a brief solo career with his backing band “The Little Green Men”. Riley and his Little Green Men were the main Sun studio band. They were Riley, Roland Janes, J.M. Van Eaton, Marvin Pepper, and Jimmy Wilson, later joined by Martin Willis.
Read more… Edit

Popular tags: rockabilly, rock and roll, 50s, rock n roll, rock  See more

Shouts: 14 shouts

Share this artist:

Top Albums

See more

Top Tracks

1
200
2
87
3
37
4
36
5
34
6
31
7  
29
8
22
9
20
10  
18
10
18
12
16
13
14
14
13
15
12
Buy all tracks at Amazon MP3
See more

Shoutbox

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up (it’s free).
See all 14 shouts

Videos

See more

Listening Now

Top Listeners

See more

Recent Activity

Related Journals

See more

Groups (10)

See more

More Information

Links
Labels
“We're Serious About Last.fm.”

More Last.fm Sites: Blog | Music Manager | Build | Playground (Subscriber VIP zone) | Best of 2011

© 2012 Last.fm Ltd. All rights reserved. | Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | Updated Feb 11, 2009
Some user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
Text may also be available under the GNU Free Documentation License.