union	International Tennis Federation
first	19th century (U.K.)
contact	No
team	Single or doubles
category	Racquet sport
equipment	Tennis ball, tennis racquet
olympic	1896–1924, 1988–present }}

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including people in wheelchairs.

The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England in the late 19th century as "lawn tennis" which has close connections to various field/lawn games as well as to the ancient game of real tennis. Up to then, "tennis" referred to the latter sport: for example, in Disraeli's novel Sybil (1845), Lord Eugene De Vere announces that he will "go down to Hampton Court and play tennis. As it is the Derby [classic horse race], nobody will be there". After its creation, lawn tennis spread throughout the upper-class English-speaking population before spreading around the world.

The rules of tennis have not changed much since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tie-break in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point challenge system, which allows a player to challenge the line (or chair) umpire's call of a point. Players have unlimited opportunity to challenge, but once three incorrect challenges are made in a set, they cannot challenge again until the next set. If the set goes to a tie break, players are given one additional opportunity to challenge the call. This electronic review, currently called Hawk-Eye, is available at a limited number of high-level ATP and WTA tournaments.

Tennis is enjoyed by millions of recreational players and is also a hugely popular worldwide spectator sport, especially the four Grand Slam tournaments (also referred to as the "Majors"): the Australian Open played on hard courts, the French Open played on red clay courts, Wimbledon played on grass courts, and the US Open played also on hard courts.

History

Most historians believe that tennis originated in France in the 12th century, but the ball was then struck with the palm of the hand. It was not until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called "tennis." It was popular in England and France, although the game was only played indoors where the ball could be hit off the wall. Henry VIII of England was a big fan of this game, which is now known as real tennis.

Between 1859 and 1865 Harry Gem and his friend Augurio Perera developed a game that combined elements of rackets and the Basque ball game pelota, which they played on Perera's croquet lawn in Birmingham, United Kingdom. In 1872, along with two local doctors, they founded the world's first tennis club in Leamington Spa.

In December 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed and patented a similar game — which he called sphairistike (, from ancient Greek meaning "skill at playing at ball"), and was soon known simply as "sticky" — for the amusement of his guests at a garden party on his estate of Nantclwyd, in Llanelidan, Wales. He likely based his game on the evolving sport of outdoor tennis including real tennis. According to some tennis historians, modern tennis terminology also derives from this period, as Wingfield borrowed both the name and much of the French vocabulary of real tennis and applied them to his new game. The first championships at Wimbledon in London were played in 1877. The first Championships culminated a significant debate on how to standardize the rules.

In America in 1874 Mary Ewing Outerbridge, a young socialite, returned from Bermuda where she met Major Wingfield. She laid out a tennis court at the Staten Island Cricket Club in New Brighton Staten Island, New York. The exact location of the club was under what is now the Staten Island Ferry terminal. The first American National tournament in 1880 was played there. An Englishman named O.E Woodhouse won the singles match. There was also a doubles match which was won by a local pair. There were different rules at each club. The ball in Boston was larger than the one normally used in NY. On May 21, 1881, the United States National Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association) was formed to standardize the rules and organize competitions. The U.S. National Men's Singles Championship, now the US Open, was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island. The U.S. National Women's Singles Championships were first held in 1887. Tennis was also popular in France, where the French Open dates to 1891. Thus, Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open (dating to 1905) became and have remained the most prestigious events in tennis. Together these four events are called the Majors or Slams (a term borrowed from bridge rather than baseball).

The comprehensive rules promulgated in 1924 by the International Lawn Tennis Federation, now known as the International Tennis Federation, have remained largely stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change being the addition of the tie-break system designed by James Van Alen. That same year, tennis withdrew from the Olympics after the 1924 Games but returned 60 years later as a 21-and-under demonstration event in 1984. This reinstatement was credited by the efforts by the then ITF President Philippe Chatrier, ITF General Secretary David Gray and ITF Vice President Pablo Llorens, and support from IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. The success of the event was overwhelming and the IOC decided to reintroduce tennis as a full medal sport at Seoul in 1988.

The Davis Cup, an annual competition between men's national teams, dates to 1900. The analogous competition for women's national teams, the Fed Cup, was founded as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ITF also known as International Tennis Federation.

In 1926, promoter C.C. Pyle established the first professional tennis tour with a group of American and French tennis players playing exhibition matches to paying audiences. The most notable of these early professionals were the American Vinnie Richards and the Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen. Once a player turned pro he or she could not compete in the major (amateur) tournaments.

In 1968, commercial pressures and rumors of some amateurs taking money under the table led to the abandonment of this distinction, inaugurating the open era, in which all players could compete in all tournaments, and top players were able to make their living from tennis. With the beginning of the open era, the establishment of an international professional tennis circuit, and revenues from the sale of television rights, tennis's popularity has spread worldwide, and the sport has shed its upper/middle-class English-speaking image (although it is acknowledged that this stereotype still exists).

In 1954, Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island. The building contains a large collection of tennis memorabilia as well as a hall of fame honoring prominent members and tennis players from all over the world. Each year, a grass-court tournament and an induction ceremony honoring new Hall of Fame members are hosted on its grounds.

Equipment

Part of the appeal of tennis stems from the simplicity of equipment required for play. Beginners need only a racquet and balls.

Racquets

The components of a tennis racquet include a handle, known as the grip, connected to a neck which joins a roughly elliptical frame that holds a matrix of tightly pulled strings. For the first 100 years of the modern game, racquets were of wood and of standard size, and strings were of animal gut. Laminated wood construction yielded more strength in racquets used through most of the 20th century until first metal and then composites of carbon graphite, ceramics, and lighter metals such as titanium were introduced. These stronger materials enabled the production of oversized rackets that yielded yet more power. Meanwhile technology led to the use of synthetic strings that match the feel of gut yet with added durability.

Under modern rules of tennis, the racquet must adhere to the following guidelines;

The hitting area, composed of the strings, must be flat and generally uniform.

The frame of the hitting area may not be more than 29 inches in length and 12.5 inches in width.

The entire racquet must be of a fixed shape, size, weight, and weight distribution. There may not be any energy source built into the racquet.

The racquet must not provide any kind of communication, instruction or advice to the player during the match.

The rules regarding racquets have changed over time, as material and engineering advances have been made. For example, the maximum length of the frame had been 32 inches until 1997, when it was shortened to 29 inches.

Balls

Tennis balls are of hollow rubber with a felt coating. Traditionally white, the predominant color was gradually changed to Optic Yellow in the latter part of the 20th century to allow for improved visibility.

Miscellaneous

Advanced players improve their performance through a number of accoutrements. Vibration dampers may be interlaced in the proximal part of the string array for improved feel. Racket handles may be customized with absorbent or rubber-like materials to improve the players' grip. Players often use sweat bands on their wrists to keep their hands dry as well. Finally, although the game can be played in a variety of shoes, specialized tennis shoes have wide, flat soles for stability and a built-up front structure to avoid excess wear.

Manner of play

:For individual terms see: Glossary of tennis

Court

Tennis is played on a rectangular, flat surface, usually grass, clay, a hardcourt of concrete and/or asphalt and occasionally carpet (indoor). The court is 78 feet (23.77 m) long, and 27 feet (8.23 m) wide for singles matches and 36 ft (10.97 m) for doubles matches. Additional clear space around the court is required in order for players to reach overrun balls. A net is stretched across the full width of the court, parallel with the baselines, dividing it into two equal ends. The net is 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) high at the posts and 3 feet (91.4 cm) high in the center.'''

The modern tennis court owes its design to Major Walter Clopton Wingfield who, in 1873, patented a court much the same as the current one for his stické tennis (sphairistike). This template was modified in 1875 to the court design that exists today, with markings similar to Wingfield's version, but with the hourglass shape of his court changed to a rectangle.

Lines

The lines that delineate the width of the court are called the baseline (farthest back) and the service line (middle of the court). The short mark in the center of each baseline is referred to as either the hash mark or the center mark. The outermost lines that make up the length are called the doubles sidelines. These are the boundaries used when doubles is being played. The lines to the inside of the doubles sidelines are the singles sidelines and are used as boundaries in singles play. The area between a doubles sideline and the nearest singles sideline is called the doubles alley, which is considered playable in doubles play. The line that runs across the center of a player's side of the court is called the service line because the serve must be delivered into the area between the service line and the net on the receiving side. Despite its name, this is not where a player legally stands when making a serve. The line dividing the service line in two is called the center line or center service line. The boxes this center line creates are called the service boxes; depending on a player's position, he or she will have to hit the ball into one of these when serving. A ball is out only if none of it has hit the line or the area inside the lines upon its first bounce. All the lines are required to be between 1 and in width. The baseline can be up to wide if so desired.

Play of a single point

The players (or teams) start on opposite sides of the net. One player is designated the server, and the opposing player is the receiver. Service alternates game by game between the two players (or teams.) For each point, the server starts behind their baseline, between the center mark and the sideline. The receiver may start anywhere on their side of the net. When the receiver is ready, the server will serve, although the receiver must play to the pace of the server.

In a legal service, the ball travels past the net (without touching it) and into the diagonally opposite service box. If the ball hits the net but lands in the service box, this is a let or net service, which is void, and the server gets to retake that serve. The player can serve any number of let services in a point and they are always treated as voids and not as faults. A fault is a serve that falls long or wide of the service box, or does not clear the net. There is also a "foot fault", which occurs when a player's foot touches the baseline or an extension of the center mark before the ball is hit. If the second service is also a fault, the server double faults, and the receiver wins the point. However, if the serve is in, it is considered a legal service.

A legal service starts a rally, in which the players alternate hitting the ball across the net. A legal return consists of the player or team hitting the ball before it has bounced twice or hit any fixtures except the net, provided that it still falls in the server's court. A player or team cannot hit the ball twice in a row. The ball must travel past the net into the other players' court. A ball that hits the net during a rally is still considered a legal return. The first player or team to fail to make a legal return loses the point.

Scoring

A tennis match is determined through the best of 3 or 5 sets. While recreational players may agree to play any number of sets, depending upon time availability or stamina, on the professional circuit, including all four Grand Slam tournaments, Davis Cup, and the final of the Olympic Games, women play 3 set matches, while men play 5 set matches. For men, the first player to win three sets wins the match, and for women, the first player to win two sets wins the match. A set consists of games, and games, in turn, consist of points.

A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving. A game is won by the first player to have won at least four points in total and at least two points more than the opponent. The running score of each game is described in a manner peculiar to tennis: scores from zero to three points are described as "love", "fifteen", "thirty", and "forty" respectively (see Tennis score.) If at least three points have been scored by each player, making the player's scores equal at forty apiece, the score is not called out as "forty-forty", but rather as "deuce". If at least three points have been scored by each side and a player has one more point than his opponent, the score of the game is "advantage" for the player in the lead. During informal games, "advantage" can also be called "ad in" when the serving player is ahead, or "ad out" when the receiving player is ahead. The score of a tennis match during play is always read with the serving player's score first. In tournament play, the chair umpire calls the point count (e.g., "fifteen-love") after each point. At the end of a game, the chair umpire also announces the winner of the game and the overall score.

A game point occurs in tennis whenever the player who is in the lead in the game needs only one more point to win the game. The terminology is extended to sets (set point), matches (match point), and even championships (championship point). For example, if the player who is serving has a score of 40-love, the player has a triple game point (triple set point, etc.) as the player has three consecutive chances to win the game. Game points, set points, and match points are not part of official scoring and are not announced by the chair umpire in tournament play.

A break point occurs if the receiver, not the server, has a chance to win the game with the next point. Break points are of particular importance because serving is generally considered advantageous, with the server being expected to win games in which they are serving. A receiver who has one (score of 30-40), two (score of 15–40) or three (score of love-40) consecutive chances to win the game has break point, double break point or triple break point, respectively. If the receiver does, in fact, win their break point, the game is awarded to the receiver, and the receiver is said to have converted their break point. If the receiver fails to win their break point it is called a failure to convert. Winning break points, and thus the game, is also referred to as breaking serve, as the receiver has disrupted, or broken the natural advantage of the server. If in the following game, the server, who is now the receiver, also wins a break point, it is often referred to as breaking back.

A set consists of a sequence of games played with service alternating between games, ending when the count of games won meets certain criteria. Typically, a player wins a set by winning at least six games and at least two games more than the opponent. If one player has won six games and the opponent five, an additional game is played. If the leading player wins that game, the player wins the set 7–5. If the trailing player wins the game, a tie-break is played. A tie-break, played under a separate set of rules, allows one player to win one more game and thus the set, to give a final set score of 7–6. Only in the final sets of matches at the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, the Olympic Games, Davis Cup, and Fed Cup are tie-breaks not played. In these cases, sets are played indefinitely until one player has a two-game lead. A "love" set means that the loser of the set won zero games. In tournament play, the chair umpire announces the winner of the set and the overall score.

In tournament play, the chair umpire announces the end of the match with the well-known phrase "Game, set, match" followed by the winning person's or team's name. The final score in sets is always read with the winning player's score first, even if the winning player loses set(s) during the match (e.g., "6-2, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5").

Rule variations

+Variations	!Name	!Description
No ad	The first player or doubles team to win four points wins the game, regardless of whether the player or team is ahead by two points. When the game score reaches three points each, the receiver chooses which side of the court (advantage court or deuce court) the service is to be delivered on the seventh and game-deciding point.
Pro set	Instead of playing multiple sets, players may play one "pro set". A pro set is first to 8 (or 10) games by a margin of two games, instead of first to 6 games. A 12-point tie-break is usually played when the score is 8–8 (or 10–10). These are often played with no-ad scoring.
Match tiebreak	This is sometimes played instead of a third set. This is played like a regular tiebreak, but the winner must win ten points instead of seven. Match tiebreaks are used in the Hopman Cup for mixed doubles, on the Association of Tennis Professionals

Another, however informal, tennis format is called [[Canadian doubles. This involves three players, with one person playing a doubles team. The single player gets to utilize the alleys normally reserved only for a doubles team. Conversely, the doubles team does not use the alleys when executing a shot. The scoring is the same as a regular game. This format is not sanctioned by any official body.

"Australian doubles", another informal and unsanctioned form of tennis, is played with similar rules to the "Canuk" style, only in this version, players rotate court position after each game. As such, each player plays doubles and singles over the course of a match, with the singles player always serving. Scoring styles vary, but one popular method is to assign a value of 2 points to each game, with the server taking both points if he or she holds serve and the doubles team each taking one if they break serve.

Wheelchair tennis can be played by able-bodied players as well as people who require a wheelchair for mobility. An extra bounce is permitted. This rule makes it possible to have mixed wheelchair and able-bodied matches. It is possible for a doubles team to consist of a wheelchair player and an able-bodied player (referred to as "one-up, one-down"), or for a wheelchair player to play against an able-bodied player. In such cases, the extra bounce is permitted for the wheelchair users only.

Surface

There are five types of court surface used in professional play. Each surface is different in the speed and height of the bounce of the ball. The same surface plays faster indoors than outdoors.

!Name	!Description
	Examples are red clay (used at the French Open and many other tournaments, especially in Europe and Latin America) and green clay (an example of which is Har-Tru and used mainly in the U.S.). Clay courts normally have a slower paced ball and a fairly true bounce with more spin.
Carpet	Any form of removable court covering, including carpeting and artificial turf. The bounce can be higher or lower than a hard court.
Wood	Popular from the 1880s through the first half of the 20th century, there are no longer any professional tournaments held on wood.

Officials

In most professional play and some amateur competition, there is an officiating head judge or chair umpire (usually referred to as the umpire), who sits in a raised chair to one side of the court. The umpire has absolute authority to make factual determinations. The umpire may be assisted by line judges, who determine whether the ball has landed within the required part of the court and who also call foot faults. There also may be a net judge who determines whether the ball has touched the net during service. In some tournaments, certain line judges, usually those who would be calling the serve, are replaced by electronic sensors that beep when an out call would have been made. In some tournaments, electric line calls are not made, but rather are used to assist the linespeople. When a ball lands in a spot where the linesperson is not sure if the ball was in or out, a noise is made that only linespeople can hear (because they are wearing headsets), and helps them to make the call. In some open-tournament matches, players are allowed to challenge a limited number of close calls by means of electronic review. The US Open, the NASDAQ-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, the US Open Series, and World Team Tennis started using a "challenge" system in 2006 and the Australian Open and Wimbledon introduced the system in 2007. This used the Hawk-Eye system and the rules were similar to those used in the NFL, where a player gets a limited number of opportunities to challenge per match/set. More recently, a player may use unlimited challenges in a set, provided that he or she is not incorrect more than three times. In clay-court matches, such as at the French Open, a call may be questioned by reference to the mark left by the ball's impact on the court surface.

The referee, who is usually located off the court, is the final authority about tennis rules. When called to the court by a player or team captain, the referee may overrule the umpire's decision if the tennis rules were violated (question of law) but may not change the umpire's decision on a question of fact. If, however, the referee is on the court during play, the referee may overrule the umpire's decision.

Ball boys and girls may be employed to retrieve balls, pass them to the players, and hand players their towels. They have no adjudicative role. In rare events (e.g., if they are hurt or if they have caused a hindrance), the umpire may ask them for a statement of what actually happened. The umpire may consider their statements when making a decision. In some leagues, especially junior leagues, players make their own calls, trusting each other to be honest. This is the case for many school and university level matches. The referee or referee's assistant, however, can be called on court at a player's request, and the referee or assistant may change a player's call. In unofficiated matches, a ball is out only if the player entitled to make the call is sure that the ball is out.

Junior tennis

In tennis, a junior is a player 18 and under who is still legally protected by a parent or guardian. Players on the main adult tour who are under 18 must have documents signed by a parent or guardian. These players, however, are still eligible to play in junior tournaments.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) conducts a junior tour that allows juniors to establish a world ranking and an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) or Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ranking. Most juniors who enter the international circuit do so by progressing through ITF, Satellite, Future, and Challenger tournaments before entering the main circuit. The latter three circuits also have adults competing in them. Some juniors, however, such as Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Frenchman Gaël Monfils, have catapulted directly from the junior tour to the ATP tour by dominating the junior scene or by taking advantage of opportunities given to them to participate in professional tournaments.

In 2004, the ITF implemented a new rankings scheme to encourage greater participation in doubles, by combining two rankings (singles and doubles) into one combined tally. Junior tournaments do not offer prize money except for the Grand Slam tournaments, which are the most prestigious junior events. Juniors may earn income from tennis by participating in the Future, Satellite, or Challenger tours. Tournaments are broken up into different tiers offering different amounts of ranking points, culminating with Grade A.

Leading juniors are allowed to participate for their nation in the Junior Fed Cup and Davis Cup competitions as well. To succeed in tennis often means having to begin playing at a young age. To facilitate and nurture a junior's growth in tennis, almost all tennis playing nations have developed a junior development system. Juniors develop their play through a range of tournaments on all surfaces, accommodating all different standards of play. Talented juniors may also receive sponsorships from governing bodies or private institutions.

Match play

A tennis match is intended to be continuous. Because stamina is a relevant factor, arbitrary delays are not permitted. In most cases, service is required to occur no more than 20 seconds after the end of the previous point. This is increased to 90 seconds when the players change ends (after every odd-numbered game), and a 2 minute break is permitted between sets. Other than this, breaks are permitted only when forced by events beyond the players' control, such as rain, damaged footwear, damaged racquet, or the need to retrieve an errant ball. Should a player be determined to be stalling repeatedly, the chair umpire may initially give a warning followed by subsequent penalties of "point", "game", and default of the match for the player who is consistently taking longer than the allowed time limit.

In the event of a rain delay, darkness or other external conditions halting play, the match is resumed at a later time, with the same score as at the time of the delay, and the players at the same end of the court when rain halted play, or at the same position (north or south) if play is resumed on a different court.

Balls wear out quickly in serious play and, therefore, in ATP and WTA tournaments, they are changed after every nine games with the first change occurring after only seven games, because the first set of balls is also used for the pre-match warm-up. As a courtesy to the receiver, the server will often signal to the receiver before the first serve of the game in which new balls are used as a reminder that they are using new balls. However, in ITF tournaments like Fed Cup, the balls are changed in a 9–11 style. Continuity of the balls' condition is considered part of the game, so if a re-warm-up is required after an extended break in play (usually due to rain), then the re-warm-up is done using a separate set of balls, and use of the match balls is resumed only when play resumes.

A recent proposed rules change is to allow coaching on court during a match on a limited basis. This has been instituted in women's tennis for WTA Tour events from 2009 onwards.

Shots

A competent tennis player has eight basic shots in his or her repertoire: the serve, forehand, backhand, volley, half-volley, overhead, drop shot, and lob.

Serve

A serve (or, more formally, a "service") in tennis is a shot to start a point. The serve is initiated by tossing the ball into the air and hitting it (usually near the apex of its trajectory) into the diagonally opposite service box without touching the net. The serve may be hit under- or overhand. If the ball hits the net on the first serve and bounces over into the correct diagonal box then it is called a "let" and the server gets two more additional serves to get it in. If the server misses his or her first serve and gets a let on the second serve, then they get one more try to get the serve in the box.

Experienced players strive to master the conventional overhand serve to maximize its power and placement. The server may employ different types of serve including flat serve, topspin serve, slice serve, and kick (American twist) serve. A reverse type of spin serve is hit in a manner that spins the ball opposite the natural spin of the server, the spin direction depending upon right- or left-handedness. If the ball is spinning counterclockwise, it will curve right from the hitter's point of view and curve left if spinning clockwise.

Some servers are content to use the serve simply to initiate the point; however, advanced players often try to hit a winning shot with their serve. A winning serve that is not touched by the opponent is called an "ace".

Grips

Players use various grips during play, including the continental (The "Handshake Grip"), eastern (Can be either semi-eastern or full eastern. Usually used for backhands.), and western (semi-western or full western, usually for forehand grips) grips. Most players change grips during a match depending on what shot they are hitting for example a slice shot and serve you would have a continental grip.

Forehand

For a right-handed player, the forehand is a stroke that begins on the right side of the body, continues across the body as contact is made with the ball, and ends on the left side of the body. There are various grips for executing the forehand, and their popularity has fluctuated over the years. The most important ones are the continental, the eastern, the semi-western, and the western. For a number of years, the small, apparently frail 1920s player Bill Johnston was considered by many to have had the best forehand of all time, a stroke that he hit shoulder-high using a western grip. Few top players used the western grip after the 1920s, but in the latter part of the 20th century, as shot-making techniques and equipment changed radically, the western forehand made a strong comeback and is now used by many modern players. No matter which grip is used, most forehands are generally executed with one hand holding the racquet, but there have been fine players with two-handed forehands. In the 1940s and 50s, the Ecuadorian/American player Pancho Segura used a two-handed forehand to achieve a devastating effect against larger, more powerful players. Currently, France's Fabrice Santoro uses a two-handed forehand. Some females such as Monica Seles and France's Marion Bartoli also use a two-handed forehand.

Backhand

For right-handed players, the backhand is a stroke that begins on the left side of their body, continues across their body as contact is made with the ball, and ends on the right side of their body. It can be executed with either one hand or with both and is generally considered more difficult to master than the forehand. For most of the 20th century, the backhand was performed with one hand, using either an eastern or a continental grip. The first notable players to use two hands were the 1930s Australians Vivian McGrath and John Bromwich, but they were lonely exceptions. The two-handed grip gained popularity in the 1970s as Björn Borg, Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors, and later Mats Wilander and Marat Safin used it to great effect, and it is now used by a large number of the world's best players, including Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams. Two hands give the player more control, while one hand can generate a slice shot, applying backspin on the ball to produce a low trajectory bounce. Reach is also limited with the two-handed shot. The player long considered to have had the best backhand of all time, Don Budge, had a powerful one-handed stroke in the 1930s and 1940s that imparted topspin onto the ball. Ken Rosewall, another player noted for his one-handed backhand, used a very accurate slice backhand through the 1950s and 1960s. A small number of players, notably Monica Seles, use two hands on both the backhand and forehand sides.

Other shots

A volley is a shot returned to the opponent in mid-air before the ball bounces, generally performed near the net, and is usually made with a stiff-wristed punching motion to hit the ball into an open area of the opponent's court. The half volley is made by hitting the ball on the rise just after it has bounced, once again generally in the vicinity of the net. The swinging volley is hit out of the air as the player approaches the net. It is an offensive shot used to take preparation time away from the opponent, as it returns the ball into the opponent's court much faster than a standard volley. From a poor defensive position on the baseline, the lob can be used as either an offensive or defensive weapon, hitting the ball high and deep into the opponent's court to either enable the lobber to get into better defensive position or to win the point outright by hitting it over the opponent's head. If the lob is not hit deeply enough into the other court, however, an opponent near the net may then hit an overhead smash, a hard, serve-like shot, to try to end the point. Finally, if an opponent is deep in his court, a player may suddenly employ an unexpected drop shot, by softly tapping the ball just over the net so that the opponent is unable to run in fast enough to retrieve it. Advanced players will often apply back spin to a drop shot, causing the ball to "skid" upon landing and bounce sideways, with less forward momentum toward their opponent, or even backwards towards the net, thus making it even more difficult to return.

Tournaments

Tournaments are often organized by gender and number of players. Common tournament configurations include men's singles, women's singles, and doubles, where two players play on each side of the net. Tournaments may be arranged for specific age groups, with upper age limits for youth and lower age limits for senior players. Example of this include the Orange Bowl and Les Petits As. There are also tournaments for players with disabilities, such as wheelchair tennis and deaf tennis. In the four Grand Slam tournaments, the singles draws are limited to 128 people for each gender.

Most large tournaments Seed players, but players may also be matched by their skill level. According to how well a person does in sanctioned play, a player is given a rating that is adjusted periodically to maintain competitive matches. For example, the United States Tennis Association administers the National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP), which rates players between 1.0 and 7.0 in 1/2 point increments. Average club players under this system would rate 3.0–4.5 while world class players would be 7.0 on this scale.

Grand Slam tournaments

The four Grand Slam tournaments are considered to be the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. They are held annually and include, in chronological order, the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Apart from the Olympic Games, Davis Cup, Fed Cup, and Hopman Cup, they are the only tournaments regulated by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The ITF's national associations, Tennis Australia (Australian Open), the French Tennis Federation (French Open), the United States Tennis Association (US Open), and the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and Lawn Tennis Association (Wimbledon), are delegated the responsibility to organize these events.

Aside from the historical significance of these events, they also carry larger prize funds than any other tour event and are worth double the number of ranking points to the champion than in the next echelon of tournaments, the Masters 1000 (men) and Premier events (women). Another distinguishing feature is the number of players in the singles draw. There are 128, more than any other professional tennis tournament. This draw is composed of 32 seeded players, other players ranked in the world's top 100, qualifiers, and players who receive invitations through wild cards. Grand Slam men's tournaments have best-of-five set matches throughout. Grand Slam tournaments are among the small number of events that last two weeks, the others being the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California and the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida. Currently, the Grand Slam tournaments are the only tour events that have mixed doubles contests. Grand Slam tournaments are held in conjunction with wheelchair tennis tournaments (with the exception being Wimbledon, where the grass surface prevents this) and junior tennis competitions. Grand Slam tournaments are often seen as the culmination of a particular season, such as the US Open Series. These tournaments also contain their own idiosyncrasies. For example, players at Wimbledon are required to wear predominantly white, a rule that has motivated certain players, such as Andre Agassi, to skip the tournament. Wimbledon has its own particular methods for disseminating tickets, often leading tennis fans to follow complex procedures to obtain tickets.

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="background:#f7f8ff; font-size:95%; border:gray solid 1px; border-collapse:collapse;" |+Grand Slam Tounaments !Period !Tournament !Location !Surface |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | January || Australian Open || Melbourne || Hard (Plexicushion) |- | May–June || French Open || Paris || Clay |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | June–July || Wimbledon || London || Grass |- | August–September ||US Open || New York City || Hard (DecoTurf) |}

Masters 1000

The ATP World Tour Masters 1000 is a group of nine tournaments that form the second-highest echelon in men's tennis. Each event is held annually, and a win at one of these events is currently worth 1000 ranking points. When the Association of Tennis Professionals, led by Hamilton Jordan, began running the men's tour in 1990, the directors designated the top nine tournaments, outside of the Grand Slam events, as "Super Nine" events. These eventually became the Tennis Masters Series. In November at the end of the tennis year, the world's top eight players compete in the ATP World Tour Finals, a tournament with a rotating locale. It is currently held in London, England.

On August 31, 2007 the ATP announced that major changes will take place in 2009. The Masters Series will be renamed to the “Masters 1000”, with the addition of the number 1000 referring to the number of ranking points earned by the winner of each tournament. Contrary to earlier plans, the number of tournaments will not be reduced from nine to eight and the Monte Carlo Masters will remain part of the series although, unlike the other events, it will not have a mandatory player commitment. The Hamburg Masters event will be downgraded to a 500 point event. The Madrid Masters will move to May and onto clay courts, and a new tournament in Shanghai will take over Madrid's former indoor October slot. In 2011 six of the nine “1000” level tournaments will be combined ATP and WTA events.

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="background:#f7f8ff; font-size:95%; border:gray solid 1px; border-collapse:collapse;" |+Current Masters 1000 tournaments (2009) !Start Month !Tournament Name !City !Surface !Opening |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | March | BNP Paribas Open | Indian Wells | Hard | Outdoors |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | March | Sony Ericsson Open | Miami | Hard | Outdoors |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | April | Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters | Monte-Carlo | Clay | Outdoors |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | April | Internazionali BNL d'Italia | Rome | Clay | Outdoors |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | May | Mutua Madrileña Masters Madrid | Madrid | Clay | Outdoors |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | August | Rogers Cup | Montreal, Toronto | Hard | Outdoors |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | August | Western & Southern Financial Group Masters & Women's Open | Cincinnati | Hard | Outdoors |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | October | Shanghai Masters 1000 presented by Rolex | Shanghai | Hard | Outdoors |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" | November | BNP Paribas Masters | Paris | Hard | Indoors |}

250 and 500 Series

The International Series for men is split into two categories, both run by the ATP: the 250 Series and 500 Series. Like the Masters 1000, these events offer various amounts of prize money, and some regular International Series events offer larger prize monies than 500 Series tournaments. The Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships offer the largest financial incentive to players, with total prize money of US$1,426,000.

Challenger Tour and Futures Tournaments

The Challenger Tour for men is the lowest level of tournament administered by the ATP. It is composed of roughly 160 events and, as a result, features a more diverse range of countries hosting events. The majority of players use the Challenger Series to work their way up the rankings, including World No. 1s Pete Sampras, Marcelo Ríos, Patrick Rafter, and Gustavo Kuerten. Andre Agassi, between winning Grand Slam tournaments, plummeted to World No. 141 and used Challenger Series events for match experience and to progress back up the rankings. The Challenger Series offers prize funds of between US$25,000 and US$150,000.

Below the Challenger Tour are the Futures tournaments, events on the ITF Men's Circuit. These tournaments also contribute towards a player's ATP rankings points. Futures Tournaments offer prize funds of between US$10,000 and US$15,000. Approximately 530 Futures Tournaments are played each year.

Premier events

Premier events for women form the most prestigious level of events on the Women's Tennis Association Tour after the Grand Slam tournaments. These events offer the largest rewards in terms of points and prize money. Within the Premier category are Premier Mandatory, Premier 5, and Premier tournaments. The tiering system in women's tennis was introduced in 1988. At the time of its creation, only two tournaments, the Lipton International Players Championships in Florida and the German Open in Berlin, comprised the Tier I category. In 2009, four tournaments are Premier Mandatory, five tournaments are Premier 5, and ten tournaments are Premier.

Players

Professional tennis players enjoy the same relative perks as most top sports personalities: clothing, equipment and endorsements. Like players of other individual sports such as golf, they are not salaried, but must play and finish highly in tournaments to obtain money. In recent years, some controversy has surrounded the involuntary or deliberate noise caused by players` grunting.

Grand Slam tournament winners

Players who have played at least part of their careers during the open era and who have won at least two singles titles at Grand Slam tournaments.

Male

Roger Federer (16)

Pete Sampras (14)

Roy Emerson (12)

Rod Laver (11)

Björn Borg (11)

Rafael Nadal (10)

Ken Rosewall (8)

Jimmy Connors (8)

Ivan Lendl (8)

Andre Agassi (8)

John Newcombe (7)

John McEnroe (7)

Mats Wilander (7)

Boris Becker (6)

Stefan Edberg (6)

Manolo Santana (4)

Jim Courier (4)

Guillermo Vilas (4)

Arthur Ashe (3)

Jan Kodeš (3)

Gustavo Kuerten (3)

Novak Djokovic (3)

Stan Smith (2)

Ilie Năstase (2)

Johan Kriek (2)

Lleyton Hewitt (2)

Yevgeny Kafelnikov (2)

Patrick Rafter (2)

Sergi Bruguera (2)

Marat Safin (2)

Female

Margaret Court (24)

Steffi Graf (22)

Chris Evert (18)

Martina Navrátilová (18)

Serena Williams (13)

Billie Jean King (12)

Monica Seles (9)

Maria Bueno (7)

Justine Henin (7)

Evonne Goolagong Cawley (7)

Venus Williams (7)

Martina Hingis (5)

Kim Clijsters (4)

Hana Mandlíková (4)

Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (4)

Darlene Hard (3)

Ann Haydon Jones (3)

Maria Sharapova (3)

Virginia Wade (3)

Lindsay Davenport (3)

Jennifer Capriati (3)

Lesley Turner Bowrey (2)

Nancy Richey Gunter (2)

Tracy Austin (2)

Mary Pierce (2)

Amélie Mauresmo (2)

Svetlana Kuznetsova (2)

Greatest male players

A frequent topic of discussion among tennis fans and commentators is who was the greatest male singles player of all time. By a large margin, an Associated Press poll in 1950 named Bill Tilden as the greatest player of the first half of the 20th century. From 1920–1930, Tilden won singles titles at Wimbledon three times and the U.S. Championships seven times. In 1938, however, Donald Budge became the first person to win all four Grand Slam singles titles during the same calendar year and won six consecutive Grand Slam singles titles in 1937 and 1938. Tilden called Budge "the finest player 365 days a year that ever lived." And in his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer said that, based on consistent play, Budge was the greatest player ever. Some observers, however, also felt that Kramer deserved consideration for the title. Kramer was among the few who dominated amateur and professional tennis during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Tony Trabert has said that of the players he saw before the start of the open era, Kramer was the best male champion. By the latter half of the 1950s and 1960s, Budge and others had added Pancho Gonzales and Lew Hoad to the list of contenders. Budge reportedly believed that Gonzales was the greatest player ever. Gonzales said about Hoad, "When Lew's game was at its peak nobody could touch him.  ... I think his game was the best game ever. Better than mine. He was capable of making more shots than anybody. His two volleys were great. His overhead was enormous. He had the most natural tennis mind with the most natural tennis physique."

During the open era, first Rod Laver and then more recently Björn Borg and Pete Sampras were regarded by many of their contemporaries as among the greatest ever. Andre Agassi, the first of two male players in history to have achieved a Career Golden Slam in singles tennis (followed by Rafael Nadal), has been called the best service returner in the history of the game. He is the first man to win slams on all modern surfaces (previous holders of all slams played in an era of grass and clay only), and is regarded by a number of critics and fellow players to be among the greatest players of all time. Roger Federer is now considered by many observers to have the most "complete" game in modern tennis. He has won 16 grand slam titles, the most for any male player. Many experts of tennis, former tennis players and his own tennis peers believe Federer is the greatest player in the history of the game. Federer's biggest rival Rafael Nadal is regarded as the greatest competitor in tennis history by former players and is regarded to have the potential to be the greatest of all time.

Greatest female players

In popular culture

David Foster Wallace, an amateur tennis player himself at Urbana High School in Illinois, included tennis in many of his works of nonfiction and fiction including "Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness," the autobiographical piece "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley," and Infinite Jest, which is partially set at the fictional "Enfield Tennis Academy" in Massachusetts. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) features Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson), a tennis pro who suffers from depression and has a breakdown on court in front of thousands of fans. Wimbledon (2004) is a film about a discouraged pro tennis player (Paul Bettany) who meets a young woman on the women's tennis circuit (Kirsten Dunst) who helps him find his drive to go and win Wimbledon. In The Squid and the Whale (2005), Joan (Laura Linney) has an affair with her kids' tennis coach, Ivan (William Baldwin). In a symbolic scene, Joan's ex-husband, Bernard (Jeff Daniels), loses a tennis match against Ivan in front of the kids. Woody Allen's Match Point (2005) features a love affair between a former tennis pro (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who falls in love with his best friend's fiance (Scarlett Johansson).

Confetti (2006) is a mockumentary which sees three couples competing to win the title of "Most Original Wedding of the Year". One competing couple (Meredith MacNeill and Stephen Mangan) are a pair of hyper-competitive professional tennis players holding a tennis-themed wedding.

There are several tennis video games including Mario Tennis, the TopSpin series, Wii Sports, and Grand Slam Tennis.

In the Japanese anime and manga series known as Prince of Tennis, the main character is Echizen Ryoma, a tennis prodigy who recently moves to Japan and attends Seishun Academy. He joins the tennis club and has defeated many of his upperclassmen, gaining a spot in the team's regulars. The team's ultimate goal is to compete in the National Middle School Tennis Championship but they must play against other teams along the way to reach their goal.

See also

;General

Tennis strategy

Tennis games

Glossary of tennis

Tennis technology

History of tennis

;Other forms

Paddle tennis

Real tennis

Soft tennis

Turbo tennis

Types of tennis match ;Statistics

Tennis statistics

Tennis male players statistics

Major professional tennis tournaments before the Open Era (1927–1967)

World number one male tennis player rankings (1913–2009)

List of ATP number 1 ranked players (1973–present)

List of WTA number 1 ranked players (1975–present)

Tennis players with most titles since 1968

Tennis performance timeline comparison (men)

Tennis performance timeline comparison (women)

References

;Notes

;Further reading

We Have Come a Long Way. King, Billie Jean and Starr, Cynthia. (1998) McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-07024-625-9

The Tennis Junkie's Guide (To Serious Humor). Whitehead, Dave. (2002) iUniverse ISBN 0-595-65364-2

External links

International Tennis Federation site

ATP Tennis: Men's Professional Tennis Sony Ericsson WTA Tour:Women's Professional Tennis

USTA: United States Tennis Association

Tennis Grand Slam tournaments history

Category:Racquet sports

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name	Tennessee Ernie Ford
background	solo_singer
birth name	Ernest Jennings Ford
born	February 13, 1919Bristol, Tennessee, United States
died	October 17, 1991Reston, Virginia, United States
instrument	Vocals, Guitar, violin
genre	Country & Western, Pop, Gospel
occupation	Singer, actor }}

Ernest Jennings Ford (February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991), better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres. Today, he is best remembered for his hit recording of "Sixteen Tons".

Biography

Early years

Born in Bristol, Tennessee, to Clarence Thomas Ford and Maud Long, Ford began his radio career as an announcer at WOPI-AM in Bristol, Tennessee. In 1939, the young bass-baritone left the station to study classical singing at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in Ohio. First Lieutenant Ford served in World War II as the bombardier on a B-29 Superfortress flying missions over Japan. After the war, Ford worked at radio stations in San Bernardino and Pasadena, California. In San Bernardino, Ford was hired as a radio announcer. He was assigned to host an early morning country music disc jockey program titled Bar Nothin' Ranch Time. To differentiate himself, he created the personality of "Tennessee Ernie," a wild, madcap exaggerated hillbilly. He became popular in the area and was soon hired away by Pasadena's KXLA radio.

Ford also did musical tours. The Mayfield Brothers of West Texas, including Smokey Mayfield, Thomas Edd Mayfield, and Herbert Mayfield, were among Ford's warmup bands, having played for him in concerts in Amarillo and Lubbock, Texas, during the late 1940s. At KXLA, Ford continued doing the same show and also joined the cast of Cliffie Stone's popular live KXLA country show Dinner Bell Roundup as a vocalist while still doing the early morning broadcast. Cliffie Stone, a part-time talent scout for Capitol Records, brought him to the attention of the label. In 1949, while still doing his morning show, he signed a contract with Capitol. He also became a local TV star as the star of Stone's popular Southern California Hometown Jamboree show. RadiOzark produced 260 15-minute episodes of The Tennessee Ernie Show on transcription disks for national radio syndication.

He released almost 50 country singles through the early 1950s, several of which made the charts. Many of his early records, including "The Shotgun Boogie", "Blackberry Boogie," and so on were exciting, driving boogie-woogie records featuring accompaniment by the Hometown Jamboree band which included Jimmy Bryant on lead guitar and pioneer pedal steel guitarist Speedy West. "I'll Never Be Free," a duet pairing Ford with Capitol Records pop singer Kay Starr, became a huge country and pop crossover hit in 1950. A duet with Ella Mae Morse, False Hearted Girl was a top seller for the Capitol Country and Hillbilly division, and has been evaluated as an early tune.

Ford eventually ended his KXLA morning show and in the early 1950s, moved on from Hometown Jamboree. He took over from band-leader Kay Kyser as host of the TV version of NBC quiz show Kollege of Musical Knowledge when it returned briefly in 1954 after a four-year hiatus. He became a household name in the U.S. largely as a result of his hilarious portrayal of the 'country bumpkin,' "Cousin Ernie" on three episodes of I Love Lucy. He called Ricky Ricardo "Cousin Ricky Rickerdo". Most famous was the scene of Cousin Ernie and "The Wicked City Woman" (Lucy). where two of the greatest lines were derived. "You got quite a hitch in your get-a-long", referring to Lucy's swinging of her hips while portraying "The Wicked City Woman". This portrayal as "The Wicked City Woman" was an attempt to scare Cousin Ernie out of the city and Ricky & Lucy's home by "Vamping" (rubbing his head and messing up his hair). Instead of scaring him, Cousin Ernie liked it, and the famous lines "Vamp me some more " was born as a renowned favorite memory of "Cousin Ernie" on "I Love Lucy".

In 1955, Ford recorded "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" (which reached number 4 on the country chart) with "Farewell to the Mountains" on side B.

"Sixteen Tons"

right|frame|Sixteen Tons album coverFord scored an unexpected hit on the pop charts in 1955 with his rendition of Merle Travis' "Sixteen Tons", a sparsely arranged coal-miner's lament that Travis wrote in 1946, based on his own family's experience in the mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Its fatalistic tone contrasted vividly with the sugary pop ballads and rock & roll just starting to dominate the charts at the time:

:You load sixteen tons, what do you get? :Another day older and deeper in debt. :Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go; :I owe my soul to the company store...

With a unique clarinet-driven pop arrangement by Ford's musical director, Jack Fascinato, "Sixteen Tons" spent ten weeks at number one on the country charts and eight weeks at number one on the pop charts, and made Ford a crossover star. It became Ford's 'signature song.'

Later years

Ford subsequently helmed his own prime-time variety program, The Ford Show, which ran on NBC television from October 4, 1956, to June 29, 1961. In an ironic play of words, the show was named not after Ernie, but rather, the sponsor—Ford automobiles. Ford Theatre, an anthology series, had run in the same time slot on NBC in the preceding 1955-1956 season. Ford's program was notable for the inclusion of a religious song at the end of every show; Ford insisted on this despite objections from network officials who feared it might provoke controversy. This became the most popular segment of his show. He earned the nickname "The Ol' Pea-Picker" due to his catch-phrase, "Bless your pea-pickin' heart!" He began using the term during his disc jockey days on KXLA.

In 1956 he released Hymns, his first gospel music album, which remained on Billboard's Top Album charts for 277 consecutive weeks; his album "Great Gospel Songs" won a Grammy Award in 1964. After the NBC show ended, Ford moved his family to Portola Valley in Northern California. He also owned a cabin near Grandjean, Idaho on the upper South Fork of the Payette River where he would regularly retreat.

A photo of Ford with country singer Hank Thompson and Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby appeared in the 1988 book, The Ruby-Oswald Affair, by Alan Adelson.

From 1962-65, Ford hosted a daytime talk/variety show, The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show (later known as Hello, Peapickers) from KGO-TV in San Francisco, broadcast over the ABC television network.

Ford was the spokesman for the Pontiac Furniture Company in Pontiac, Illinois in the 1970s.

Ford's experiences as a navigator and bombardier in World War II led to his involvement with the Confederate Air Force (now the Commemorative Air Force), a war plane preservation group in Texas. He was a featured announcer and celebrity guest at the annual CAF Airshow in Harlingen, Texas, from 1976 to 1988. He donated a once-top-secret Norden Bombsight to the CAF's B-29 bomber restoration project. In the late 1970s, as a CAF colonel, Ford recorded the organization's theme song "Ballad of the Ghost Squadron."

Over the years, Ford was awarded three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for radio, records, and television. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990.

Offstage, both Ford and wife Betty contended with serious alcohol problems; Betty had the problem since the 1950s. Though his drinking worsened in the 60's, he worked continuously, seemingly unaffected by his heavy intake of Cutty Sark whiskey. By the 1970s, however, it had begun to take an increasing toll on his health and ability to sing. After Betty's substance abuse-related death in 1989, Ernie's liver problems, diagnosed years earlier, became more apparent, but he refused to reduce his drinking despite repeated doctors' warnings. In 1990, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. His last interview was taped in September 1991 by his old friend Dinah Shore for her TV show. His physical deterioration by then was quite obvious.

Ford received posthumous recognition for his gospel music contributions by adding him to the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1994.

Personal life

Ford was married to Betty Heminger from September 18, 1942, until her death on February 26, 1989; they had two children - Jeffrey Buckner “Buck” Ford (born January 6, 1950) and Brion Leonard Ford (born September 3, 1952 in San Gabriel, California - died Friday, October 24, 2008 in White House, Tennessee, of lung cancer at age 56).

Less than four months after Betty's death, Ford, who had long suffered from severe alcoholism, married again. On September 28, 1991, he fell into severe liver failure at Dulles Airport, shortly after leaving a state dinner at the White House hosted by then President George H. W. Bush. Ford died in H. C. A. Reston Hospital Center, in Reston, Virginia, on October 17—exactly 36 years after "Sixteen Tons" was released, and one day shy of the first anniversary of his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ford was interred at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, Palo Alto, California, Plot: Lot 242 Sub 1, Urn Garden. His second wife, Beverly Wood Ford (1921–2001), died ten years after Ernie and her body was interred with her husband's.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Chart Positions		RIAA	Label
		! width="50"	! width="50"
	This Lusty Land
	Spirituals
Ford Favorites
Ol' Rockin' Ern
	Nearer the Cross
Star Carol
	Gather Round
Friend We Have
	Sing a Hymn with Me
Sixteen Tons
Sing a Spiritual with Me
Come to the Fair
	Civil War Songs of the North
Civil War Songs of the South
Looks at Love
Hymns at Home
	Mississippi Showboat
I Love to Tell the Story
Book of Favorite Hymns
	Long Long Ago
We Gather Together
Story of Christmas
	Great Gospel Songs
Country Hits Feelin' Blue
World's Best Loved Hymns
	Let Me Walk with Thee
Sing We Now of Christmas
	My Favorite Things
Wonderful Place
God Lives
Bless Your Pea Pickin' Heart
	Aloha
Faith of Our Fathers
	Our Garden of Hymns (w/ Marilyn Horne)
World of Pop and Country Hits
O Come All Ye Faithful
	Songs I Like to Sing
New Wave
Holy Holy
	America the Beautiful
Everything Is Beautiful
	Abide with Me
C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S
Folk Album
	Mr. Words and Music
Standin' in the Need of Prayer
	Country Morning
Sings About Jesus
	Make a Joyful Noise
Ernie Sings & Glen Picks (w/ Glen Campbell)
	His Great Love
For the 83rd Time
1977	He Touched Me
1978	Swing Wide Your Golden Gate
1980	Tell Me the Old Story
1984	Keep Looking Back

Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions		Album
		! width="50"	! width="50"
	"Tennessee Border"
"Country Junction"
"Smokey Mountain Boogie"
"Blues Stay Away from Me" (w/ Merle Travis)
"Mule Train"
"Anticipation Blues"
	"The Cry of the Wild Goose"
"Feed'em in the Morning"
"Ain't Nobody's Business But My Own" (w/ Kay Starr)
"I'll Never Be Free" (w/ Kay Starr)
"What This Country Needs"
"Cincinnati Dancing Pig" (w/ The Starlighters)
"Little Juan Pedro"
	"The Shotgun Boogie"
"Tailor Made Woman" (w/ Joe "Fingers" Carr)
"Ocean of Tears" (w/ Kay Starr)
"You're My Sugar" (w/ Kay Starr)
"Mr. and Mississippi"
"The Strange Little Girl"
"Kissin' Bug Boogie"
"Hey Good Lookin'" (w/ Helen O'Connell)
"Rock City Boogie" (w/ The Dinning Sisters)
	"Hambone"
"Everybody's Got Girl But Me"
"Snowshoe Thompson"
"Blackberry Boogie"
"False Hearted Girl" (w/ Ella Mae Morse)
	"I Don't Know"
"Hey, Mr. Cotton Picker"
"Don't Start Courtin' in a Hot Rod Ford" (w/ Molly Bee)
"Kiss Me Big"
	"Honeymoon's Over" (w/ Betty Hutton)
"River of No Return"
"Ein Zwei Drei"
"Somebody Bigger Than You or I"
	"The Ballad of Davy Crockett"
"His Hands"			Spirituals
"Sixteen Tons"
	"You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry"
"That's All"
"John Henry"			This Lusty Land
"Rovin' Gambler"
"Rock and Roll Boogie"			single only
"First Born"
	"Watermelon Song"
"One Suit"
"False Hearted Girl"			This Lusty Land
"In the Middle of an Island"
"Ivy League"
	"Bless Your Pea Pickin' Heart"
"Sunday Barbeque"
"Glad Rags"
	"Black-Eyed Susie"
"Sunny Side of Heaven"
	"O Mary Don't You Weep"			Sing a Spiritual with Me
"Little Klinker"
"Bless the Land"
	"Dark as a Dungeon"
"Little Red Rockin' Hood"
	"Take Your Girlie to the Movies"			Mississippi Showboat
"Rags an Old Iron"			single only
"How Great Thou Art"			I Love to Tell the Story
	"Hicktown"			single only
"Now It's All Over"			Bless Your Pickin' Heart
"Sing We Now of Christmas"A			Sing We Now of Christmas
1966	"God Lives"			God Lives
	"Lahaina Luna"			Aloha
"Hand-Me-Down Things"			single only
1968	"Talk to the Animals"			World of Pop and Country Hits
1969	"Honey-Eyed Girl (That's You That's You)"			New Wave
1970	"Rainy Night in Georgia"			Everything Is Beautiful
1971	"Happy Songs of Love"
1972	"Pea-Pickin' Cock"
	"Printers Alley Stars"
"Farther Down the River (Where the Fishin's Good)"
"Colorado Country Morning"B
	"Sweet Child of Sunshine"
"I've Got Confidence"
	"Come On Down"
"Baby" (w/ Andra Willis)			Country Morning
"The Devil Ain't a Lonely Woman's Friend"			single only
	"I Been to Georgia On a Fast Train"
"Dogs and Sheriff John"

^A"Sing We Now of Christmas" peaked at #2 on the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada.

^B"Colorado Country Morning" peaked at #85 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada.

Notes

References

External links

Tennessee Ernie Ford Official Website

Sixteen Tons - The Story Behind the Legend

Category:1919 births Category:1991 deaths Category:People from Bristol, Tennessee Category:American Methodists Category:American country singers Category:American male singers Category:American gospel singers Category:American television personalities Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Palo Alto, California Category:United States Air Force airmen Category:Southern Gospel performers

cs:Tennessee Ernie Ford de:Tennessee Ernie Ford es:Tennessee Ernie Ford fr:Tennessee Ernie Ford it:Tennessee Ernie Ford nl:Tennessee Ernie Ford pt:Tennessee Ernie Ford simple:Tennessee Ernie Ford

Name	Levon Helm
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Mark Lavon Helm
Birth date	May 26, 1940
birth place	Marvell, Arkansas, United States
Instrument	Vocals, drums, mandolin, guitar, bass, harmonica
Genre	Rock and roll, rhythm and blues, rock, blues, country, folk
Occupation	Musician, songwriter, actor, producer
Years active	1957–present
Label	Capitol, Mobile Fidelity, MCA, Breeze Hill, Levon |Helm Studios, ABC, Vanguard, Roulette Records
Associated acts	The Band, Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks, Bob Dylan, Levon Helm's Ramble on the Road, Levon Helm and The RCO All-Stars, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band
Website	}}

Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (born May 26, 1940), is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band. Helm is known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, and creative drumming style highlighted on many of The Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", "Ophelia" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". His 2007 comeback album Dirt Farmer earned the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in February 2008, and in November of that year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #91 in the list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2010, Electric Dirt, his 2009 follow-up to Dirt Farmer, won the first ever Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, an inaugural category in 2010.

Biography

Early years

Helm was born in Elaine, Arkansas, and grew up in Turkey Scratch, a hamlet west of Helena, Arkansas, the son of Nell and Diamond Helm, who were cotton farmers and also great lovers of music who encouraged their children to play and sing. Young Lavon (as he was christened) began playing the guitar at the age of eight and also played drums during his formative years. He saw Bill Monroe & his Blue Grass Boys at the age of six and decided then and there to become a musician.

Arkansas in the 1940s and 50s was at the confluence of a variety of musical styles—blues, country and R&B;—that later became known as rock and roll. Helm was influenced by all these styles listening to the Grand Ole Opry on radio station WSM and R&B; on radio station WLAC out of Nashville, Tennessee. He also saw traveling shows such as F.S. Walcott's Rabbit's Foot Minstrels that featured top African-American artists of the time.

Another early influence on Helm was the work of harmonica, guitarist and singer Sonny Boy Williamson II, who played blues and early R&B; on the King Biscuit Time radio show on KFFA in Helena and performed regularly in Marvell with blues guitarist Robert Jr. Lockwood. In his 1993 autobiography, This Wheel's on Fire - Levon Helm and the Story of The Band, Helm describes watching Williamson's drummer, James "Peck" Curtis, intently during a live performance in the early 1950s and later imitating this R&B; drumming style. Helm established his first band, The Jungle Bush Beaters, while in high school.

Helm also witnessed some of the earliest performances by southern country, blues and rockabilly artists such as Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty, Bo Diddley and a fellow Arkansan, Ronnie Hawkins. At age 17, Helm began playing in clubs and bars around Helena.

The Hawks

After graduating from high school, Helm was invited to join Ronnie Hawkins' band, The Hawks, who were a popular bar and club act across the South and also in Canada, where rockabilly acts were very popular. Soon after Helm joined The Hawks, they moved to Toronto, Canada, where, in 1959, they signed with Roulette Records and released several singles, including a few hits.

Helm reports in his biography, This Wheel's on Fire, that fellow Hawks band members had difficulty pronouncing "Lavon" correctly, and started calling him "Levon" () because it was easier.

In the early 1960s Helm and Hawkins recruited an all-Canadian lineup of musicians: guitarist Robbie Robertson, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson- although all the musicians were multi-instrumentalists. In 1963, the band parted ways with Hawkins and started touring under the name "Levon and The Hawks," and later as "The Canadian Squires" before finally changing back to "The Hawks." They recorded two singles, but remained mostly a popular touring bar band in Texas, Arkansas, Canada and on the East Coast where they found regular summer club gigs on the New Jersey shore.

By the mid 1960s, Bob Dylan was interested in performing electric rock music and asked The Hawks to be his backing band. Disheartened by fans' negative response to Dylan's new sound, Helm returned to Arkansas for what turned out to be a two-year layoff, being replaced by Mickey Jones. During this period Helm ended up working on off-shore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico until he was asked to rejoin the band. After the Hawks toured Europe as Dylan's backing band, they followed Dylan to reside in the area in and around Woodstock, New York and remained under salary to him. There they recorded a large volume of demo and practice tapes, playing almost daily with Dylan, who had completely withdrawn from public life the previous year. These recordings were widely bootlegged and the best tracks were officially released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes double album. The songs and themes developed during this period played a crucial role in the group's future direction and style. The Hawks members began writing their own songs. Rick Danko and Richard Manuel also shared writing credits with Dylan on a few songs. In 1967, Danko called Helm and invited him to return to the band in Woodstock.

The Band

Helm returned to the group, which by then was often referred to simply as "the band." While contemplating a recording contract Helm had dubbed the band as "The Crackers." However, when Robertson and Albert Grossman worked out the contracts, the group's name was cited as "The Band." Under these contracts, The Band was contracted to Grossman, who in turn contracted their services to Capitol Records. The arrangement allowed The Band to release recordings on other labels only if the work was done in support of Dylan. This allowed The Band to play on Dylan's Planet Waves album and on The Last Waltz, both non-Capitol releases. They recorded the album Music From Big Pink, which catapulted them into stardom.

On Big Pink, Manuel was the most prominent vocalist and Helm sang mainly backup, with the exception of "The Weight," but as Manuel's health deteriorated and Robbie Robertson's songwriting increasingly looked south for influence and direction, subsequent albums relied more and more on Helm's vocals, alone or in harmony with Danko. Helm played drums for perhaps 85% of The Band's songs, including most of those for which he sang lead. On the others, Manuel switched to drums while Helm played mandolin or, on rare occasion, guitar or bass. The entire group was multi-instrumental and for certain songs the group featured Manuel on drums, Helm on mandolin (as on "Evangeline"), rhythm guitar (the 12-string guitar backdrop to "Daniel and the Sacred Harp" is by Helm), or bass (while Danko played fiddle).

Helm remained with The Band until their 1976 farewell performance, The Last Waltz, which was recorded in a documentary film by Martin Scorsese. Although many now know Helm through his appearance in the concert film – a performance remarkable for the fact that Helm's vocal tracks appear substantially as he sang them during a grueling concert – he repudiated his involvement with the film shortly after the final scenes were shot and, in his autobiography, offers scathing criticisms of the film and of his former bandmate, Robertson, who produced it.

Solo artist and the reformed Band

With the breakup of The Band in its original form, Helm began working on a solo album Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars, which was followed soon thereafter by Levon Helm. He recorded solo albums in 1980 and 1982 entitled American Son and (once again) Levon Helm. Helm also participated in Paul Kennerley's 1980 country music concept album, The Legend of Jesse James, singing the role of Jesse James alongside Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and Albert Lee.

In 1983, The Band reunited without Robbie Robertson, with Jim Weider on guitar. But then Manuel committed suicide while on tour in 1986. Helm, Danko and Hudson continued in The Band, releasing the album Jericho in 1993 and High on the Hog in 1996. The final album from The Band was the 30th anniversary album, Jubilation, released in 1998.

In 1989, Helm and Rick Danko toured with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band. Other musicians in the band included Joe Walsh, Dr. John, Nils Lofgren, Billy Preston, Clarence Clemons and Jim Keltner. Garth Hudson guested on accordion on certain dates. Levon played drums, harmonica and sang "The Weight" and "Up On Cripple Creek" each night.

Helm published an autobiography entitled This Wheel's on Fire in 1993.

Helm performed with Rick Danko and Garth Hudson as The Band in 1990 at Roger Waters' Epic The Wall Live In Berlin concert to an estimated 300,000 to half a million people.

The Midnight Ramble

Helm's performance career in the 2000s has revolved mainly around the Midnight Ramble at his home and studio, "the Barn," in Woodstock, New York. These concerts, featuring Helm and a variety of musical guests, have allowed Helm to raise money for medical bills and to resume performing after a nearly career-ending bout with cancer.

Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer in the late 1990s after suffering hoarseness. Advised to undergo laryngectomy, Helm instead underwent an arduous regimen of radiation treatments at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Although the tumor was successfully removed, his vocal cords were damaged, and his clear, powerful tenor voice was replaced by a quiet rasp. Initially Helm only played drums and relied on guest vocalists at the Rambles, but Helm's singing voice grew stronger and on January 10, 2004, he sang for the first time at one of his Ramble Sessions. In 2007, during production of Dirt Farmer, he estimated that his singing voice was 80% recovered.

The Levon Helm Band features his daughter Amy Helm, along with Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Jimmy Weider (the Band's last guitarist), Jimmy Vivino, Mike Merritt, Brian Mitchell, Erik Lawrence, Steven Bernstein, Howard Johnson (tuba player in the horn section that played on The Band's "Rock of Ages" and "The Last Waltz" live albums), Byron Isaacs, and blues harmonica player Little Sammy Davis. He hosts Midnight Rambles at his home in Woodstock, New York that are open to the public.

The Midnight Ramble is an outgrowth of an idea Helm explained to Martin Scorsese in The Last Waltz. Earlier in the 20th century, Helm explained, traveling medicine shows and music shows such as F.S. Walcott Rabbit's Foot Minstrels, featuring African-American blues singers and dancers, would put on titillating performances in rural areas. This was also turned into a song by the Band, "The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show," with the name altered so the lyric was easier to sing.

"After the finale, they'd have the midnight ramble," Helm told Scorsese. With young children off the premises, the show resumed: "The songs would get a little bit juicier. The jokes would get a little funnier and the prettiest dancer would really get down and shake it a few times. A lot of the rock and roll duck walks and moves came from that."

Artists who have performed at the Rambles include Helm's former bandmate Garth Hudson, as well as Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Chris Robinson, Allen Toussaint, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan and Jimmy Vivino of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien's" The Max Weinberg 7. Other performers have included Sean Costello, The Muddy Waters Tribute Band, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Justin Townes Earle, Bow Thayer, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Ricki Lee Jones, Kate Taylor, Ollabelle, The Holmes Brothers, Catherine Russell, Norah Jones, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Phil Lesh (along with his sons Grahame and Brian), Hot Tuna (although Jorma Kaukonen introduced the group as "The Secret Squirrels"), MichaelAngelo D'Arrigo with various members of the Sistine Chapel, Johnny Johnson, Ithalia, and David Bromberg.

For drumming, in recent years Helm has switched to the matched grip and adopted a less busy, greatly simplified style, as opposed to his years with The Band when he played with the traditional grip.

Helm has been touring every year for the last few years, generally on the northeastern part of the American mainland, traveling to shows by private bus. Since 2007, Helm has performed in larger venues including the Beacon Theater in New York. Dr. John and Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band, Govt. Mule) and Garth Hudson played at the concerts as well along with several other guests. At a show in Vancouver, Canada, Elvis Costello joined to sing "Tears of Rage." The Alexis P. Suter Band has been an opening act. Helm is a favorite of Don Imus and has been frequently featured on Imus in the Morning. In the Summer of 2009 it was reported that a reality television series centering around the Midnight Ramble was in the works.

Dirt Farmer and After

Fall 2007 saw the release of Dirt Farmer, Helm's first studio solo album since 1982. Dedicated to Helm's parents and co-produced by his daughter Amy, the album combines traditional tunes Levon recalled from his youth with newer songs (by Steve Earle, Paul Kennerley and others) which flow from similar historical streams.

The album was released to almost immediate critical acclaim, and earned him a Grammy Award in the Traditional Folk Album category for 2007.

Helm declined to attend the Grammy Awards ceremony, instead holding a "Midnight Gramble" and celebrating the birth of his grandson, named Lavon (Lee) Henry Collins in honor of Helm, whose birth name is Mark Lavon Helm and who was called by his middle name since a young age.

In 2008 Levon Helm performed at Warren Haynes' Mountain Jam Music Festival in Hunter, NY. Helm played alongside Warren Haynes on the last day of the three-day festival. Levon also joined Bob Weir & Ratdog on stage as they closed out the festival. Levon Helm performed to great acclaim at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, held June 12–15.

Helm drummed on a couple of tracks for Jorma Kaukonen's February, 2009 album River of Time, recorded at the Levon Helm studio.

Helm released Electric Dirt on his own label on June 30, 2009. The album won a best album Grammy for the newly created Americana category in 2010. He performed on the David Letterman show on July 9, 2009, touring, in a supporting role, with the Black Crowes during the same year.

In March, 2010, a documentary on Helm's day-to-day life titled Ain't in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm was released. Directed by Jacob Hatley, it made its debut at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, and went on to screen at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June.

On May 11, 2011, the Ramble at the Ryman live album was released by Welk Records. It was recorded during a show at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium in 2008 and features Levon Helm' s band (led by multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell and vocalist and mandolinist Amy Helm) playing The Band's well-known songs as well as Helm's solo material.

As an actor

Helm has also had a considerable career as an actor. He has appeared in the movies The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Shooter, Smooth Talk, The Right Stuff, The Dollmaker, Feeling Minnesota, End of the Line, In the Electric Mist, Fire Down Below, Staying Together and portrayed Loretta Lynn's father in the film Coal Miner's Daughter opposite Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones.

Tributes

Marc Cohn wrote the song "Listening to Levon" in 2007. "The Man Behind the Drums," written by Robert Earl Keen and Bill Whitbeck, appeared on Keen's 2009 album The Rose Hotel.

Discography

With The Band

1968 Music from Big Pink

1969 The Band

1970 Stage Fright

1971 Cahoots

1972 Rock of Ages (live concert album)

1973 Moondog Matinee (collection of covers)

1974 Before the Flood (live album with The Band and Bob Dylan)

1975 Northern Lights - Southern Cross

1975 The Basement Tapes (with Bob Dylan)

1977 Islands

1978 The Last Waltz (live concert album with additional studio material)

1993 Jericho

1996 High on the Hog

1998 Jubilation

Selected solo and other efforts

1977 Levon Helm & the RCO All-Stars (ABC) U.S. #142 1978 Levon Helm (ABC) U.S. #206

1980 American Son (MCA)

1982 Levon Helm (Capitol)

1999 The Ties That Bind (Raven Records)

2000 Souvenir, Vol. 1 (Breeze Hill) – Levon Helm & The Crowmatix

2005 Midnight Ramble Sessions Volume I

2005 Midnight Ramble Sessions Volume II

2006 Levon Helm & the RCO All Stars Live (Levon Helm Studios)

2007 Dirt Farmer (Vanguard), U.S. #102

2009 Electric Dirt (Dirt Farmer Music), U.S. #36

2011 Ramble At The Ryman (Vanguard)

References

External links

Levon Helm's Official Site

Levon Helm's biography

[ Allmusic]

Review of Dirt Farmer

RS Editor's Review: Electric Dirt

Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:ABC Records artists Category:American autobiographers Category:American country rock musicians Category:American drummers Category:American male singers Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:Cancer survivors Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from Arkansas Category:Actors from Arkansas Category:People from Phillips County, Arkansas Category:The Band members Category:Vanguard Records artists

da:Levon Helm de:Levon Helm es:Levon Helm fr:Levon Helm nl:Levon Helm ja:リヴォン・ヘルム no:Levon Helm nn:Levon Helm pl:Levon Helm pt:Levon Helm sv:Levon Helm

name	Jerry Lee Lewis
background	solo_singer
landscape	yes
alias	The Killer
birth date	September 29, 1935
origin	Ferriday, Louisiana, U.S.
instrument	Vocals, piano, guitar
genre	Rock and roll, country, rockabilly, blues, Honky tonk, gospel
occupation	Singer, songwriter, pianist
label	Sun, Mercury, Sire/Warner Bros, MCA
years active	1954–present
website	www.jerryleelewis.com}}

Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The Killer'. His guitarist for more than 40 years is Kenny Lovelace.

Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In 2003, Rolling Stone Magazine listed his box set All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology number 242 on their list of "500 greatest albums of all time". In 2004, they ranked him number 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2008, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Jerry Lee Lewis is the last surviving member of both Sun Records' Class of 55 and the Million Dollar Quartet - which both alltogether included Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley, as well as Lewis himself.

Early life

Lewis was born to the poor family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis in Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, and began playing piano in his youth with two cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. His parents mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano. Influenced by a piano-playing older cousin, Carl McVoy (who later recorded with Bill Black's Combo), the radio, and the sounds from the black juke joint across the tracks, Haney's Big House, Lewis main influence growing up was Moon Mullican.

His mother enrolled him in Southwest Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, so that her son would be exclusively singing his songs to the Lord. But Lewis daringly played a boogie woogie rendition of "My God Is Real" at a church assembly that sent him packing the same night. Pearry Green, then president of the student body, related how during a talent show Lewis played some "worldly" music. The next morning, the dean of the school called Lewis and Green into his office to expel them. Lewis said that Green should not be expelled because "he didn't know what I was going to do." Years later Green asked Lewis: "Are you still playing the devil's music?" Lewis replied "Yes, I am. But you know it's strange, the same music that they kicked me out of school for is the same kind of music they play in their churches today. The difference is, I know I am playing for the devil and they don't."

After that incident, he went home and started playing at clubs in and around Ferriday and Natchez, Mississippi, becoming part of the burgeoning new rock and roll sound and cutting his first demo recording in 1954. He made a trip to Nashville circa 1955 where he played clubs and attempted to build interest, but was turned down by the Grand Ole Opry as he had been at the Louisiana Hayride country stage and radio show in Shreveport. Recording executives in Nashville suggested he switch to playing a guitar.

Lewis traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in November 1956, to audition for Sun Records. Label owner Sam Phillips was in Florida, but producer and engineer Jack Clement recorded Lewis's rendition of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms" and his own composition "End of The Road". During December 1956, Lewis began recording prolifically, as a solo artist and as a session musician for such Sun artists as Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. His distinctive piano can be heard on many tracks recorded at Sun during late 1956 and early 1957, including Carl Perkins' "Matchbox", "Your True Love", "You Can Do No Wrong", and "Put Your Cat Clothes On", and Billy Lee Riley's "Flyin' Saucers Rock'n'Roll". Formerly, rockabilly had rarely featured piano, but it proved an influential addition and rockabilly artists on other labels also started working with pianists.

On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley dropped in on Phillips to pay a social visit while Perkins was in the studio cutting new tracks with Lewis backing him on piano. Johnny Cash was also there watching Perkins. The four started an impromptu jam session, and Phillips left the tape running. These recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, survived, and have been released on CD under the title Million Dollar Quartet. Tracks also include Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" and "Paralyzed", Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", Pat Boone's "Don't Forbid Me" and Presley doing an impersonation of Jackie Wilson (who was then with Billy Ward and the Dominoes) on "Don't Be Cruel".

Lewis's own singles (on which he was billed as "Jerry Lee Lewis and his Pumping Piano") advanced his career as a soloist during 1957, with hits such as "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire", his biggest hit, bringing him international fame, despite criticism for the songs' overtly sexual undertones which prompted some radio stations to boycott them. In 2005, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.

According to several first hand sources, including Johnny Cash, Lewis himself, who was devoutly Christian, was also troubled by the sinful nature of his own material, which he firmly believed was leading himself and his audience to hell. This aspect of Lewis's character was depicted in Waylon Payne's portrayal of Lewis in the 2005 film Walk the Line, based on Cash's autobiographies.

Lewis would often kick the piano bench aside and play standing, rake his hands up and down the keyboard for dramatic accent, sit on the keyboard and even stand on top of the instrument. His first TV appearance, in which he demonstrated some of these moves, was on The Steve Allen Show on July 28, 1957, where he played the song "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On". It is widely believed that he once set fire to a piano at the end of a live performance, in protest at being billed below Chuck Berry. but he is quoted in an online article in Esquire Magazine as saying "I never set fire to a piano. I'd like to have got away with it, though. I pushed a couple of them in the river. They wasn't any good."

His dynamic performance style can be seen in films such as High School Confidential (he sang the title song from the back of a flatbed truck), and Jamboree. He has been called "rock & roll's first great wild man" and also "rock & roll's first great eclectic." Classical composer Michael Nyman has also cited Lewis's style as the progenitor of his own aesthetic.

Scandal

Lewis's turbulent personal life was hidden from the public until a May 1958 British tour where Ray Berry, a news agency reporter at London's Heathrow Airport (the only journalist present), learned about Lewis's third wife, Myra Gale Brown. She was Lewis's first cousin once removed and only 13 years old. (Brown, Lewis, and his management all insisted she was 15). Lewis was nearly 23 years old. The publicity caused an uproar and the tour was cancelled after only three concerts.

The scandal followed Lewis home to America, and as a result, he was blacklisted from radio and almost vanished from the music scene. Lewis felt betrayed by numerous people who had been his supporters. Dick Clark dropped him from his shows. Lewis even felt that Sam Phillips had sold him out when the Sun Records boss released "The Return of Jerry Lee", a bogus "interview" cut together by Jack Clement from excerpts of Lewis's songs, which made light of his marital and publicity problems. Only Alan Freed stayed true to Jerry Lee Lewis, playing his records until Freed was removed from the air because of payola allegations.

Jerry Lee Lewis was still under contract with Sun Records, and kept recording, regularly releasing singles. He had gone from $10,000 a night concerts to $250 a night spots in beer joints and small clubs. He had few friends at the time whom he felt he could trust. It was only through Kay Martin, the president of Lewis's fan club, T. L. Meade, (aka Franz Douskey) a sometime Memphis musician and friend of Sam Phillips, and Gary Skala, that Lewis went back to record at Sun Records.

By this time, Phillips had built a new state-of-the-art studio at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, thus abandoning the old Union Avenue studio where Phillips had recorded B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Lewis, Johnny Cash and others, and also opened a studio in Nashville. It was at the latter studio that Lewis recorded his only major hit during this period, a rendition of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" in 1961. In Europe other updated versions of "Sweet Little Sixteen" (September 1962 UK) and "Good Golly Miss Molly" (March 1963) entered the Hit Parade. On popular EPs, "Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes", "I've Been Twistin'", "Money" and "Hello Josephine" also became turntable hits, especially in nascent discothèques. Another recording of Lewis playing an instrumental boogie arrangement of the Glenn Miller Orchestra favorite "In the Mood", was issued on the Phillips International label under the pseudonym of "The Hawk," but disc jockeys quickly figured out the distinctive piano style, and this gambit failed.

Lewis's Sun recording contract ended in 1963 and he joined Smash Records, where he made a number of rock recordings that did not further his career.

His popularity recovered somewhat in Europe, especially in the UK and Germany, during the mid-1960s. A concert album, Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1964), recorded with The Nashville Teens, is widely considered one of the greatest live rock and roll albums ever. Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes: "Live at the Star Club is extraordinary, the purest, hardest rock & roll ever committed to record."

Family

Lewis has been married seven times. His first marriage, to Dorothy Barton, lasted for 20 months, from February 1952 to October 1953 although there is some question that Lewis may have married Barton earlier than 1952. In a 1978 People magazine interview Lewis stated "I was 14 when I first got married. My wife was too old for me; she was 17." His second marriage to Jane Mitchum was of dubious validity because it occurred 23 days before his divorce from Barton was final. They were married for four years, from September 1953 to October 1957. They had two children. He then married Myra Gale Brown in December 1957. She was his first cousin once removed, and thirteen at the time of the marriage. This marriage caused a scandal that nearly destroyed his career. He had to marry her twice due to not being fully divorced from Jane Mitchum when he married her. They had two children and divorced in December 1970 after 13 years of marriage. His fourth marriage was to Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, and ended when she drowned in the swimming pool at their home. They were married for 12 years, from October 1971 to August 1983. His fifth wife was Shawn Stephens. This marriage ended with her death from a methadone overdose. They were married for three months, from June to August 1984. His seventh marriage was to Kerrie McCarver, with whom he had one child. This marriage lasted 20 years and ended in divorce in 2004.

Lewis has had at least four children. Two additional people have claimed to be his children, but they had no proof. In 1962, his son Steve Allen Lewis drowned in a swimming pool accident when he was three, and in 1973, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr., was killed at the age of 19 when he overturned the Jeep he was driving. His current living children are a son, Jerry Lee Lewis III, and a daughter, Phoebe Allan Lewis.

Later career

In the 1960s, Lewis's attempts at a comeback as a rock and roll performer had stalled during four years with Smash Records until he began recording country ballads. He had already recorded a country-oriented LP for the label Country Songs for City Folks. In 1968, his single "Another Place, Another Time" became a Top 10 success and led to a string of Top Ten singles including the 1968 number-one country single "To Make Love Sweeter For You" that brought Lewis renewed stardom among country music fans, much like that which ex-rockabilly Conway Twitty began to cultivate during that same time. His shift to country reflected the fact that he had grown up listening to the Grand Ole Opry. Lewis's country hits during this period include "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)", "She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left of Me)", "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye", "Once More With Feeling", "There Must Be More to Love Than This", "Touching Home", "Would You Take Another Chance on Me", "Me & Bobby McGee", "Think About It, Darlin'", "Sometimes a Memory Ain't Enough", and "Tell Tale Signs". Lewis's singles and albums were issued on Mercury records instead of Smash from 1970 on. Lewis's renewed popularity encouraged Sun International Inc. to issue previously unpublished recordings dating from 1963 including "Invitation to Your Party", "One Minute Past Eternity", "I Can't Seem To Say Goodbye" and "Waiting For A Train" on singles that also did well on the country music charts in 1969/70. Lewis's successes continued throughout the decade and he eventually began to re-emphasize his rock and roll past with hits like his 1972 revival of The Big Bopper's rock classic "Chantilly Lace" and "Drinkin' Wine Spo dee-o dee" as well as looking at middle age with the 1977 "Middle Age Crazy". In 1979, he signed with Elektra Records and had his last major country hit with 1981's "Thirty-Nine and Holding." He spent a very brief period with MCA Records in 1983 but left the label due to unspecified differences.

In 1989, a major motion picture based on his early life in rock & roll, Great Balls of Fire!, brought him back into the public eye, especially when he decided to re-record all his songs for the movie soundtrack. The film was based on the book by Lewis's ex-wife, Myra Gale Lewis, and starred Dennis Quaid as Lewis, Winona Ryder as Myra, and Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Swaggart. The movie focuses on Lewis's early career and his relationship with Myra, and ends with the scandal of the late 1950s. A year later, in 1990, Lewis made minor news when a new song he co-wrote called "It Was the Whiskey Talking, Not Me" was included in the soundtrack to the hit movie Dick Tracy. The song is also heard in the movie, playing on a radio.

The public downfall of his cousin, television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, resulted in more adverse publicity to a troubled family. Swaggart is also a piano player, as is another cousin, country music star Mickey Gilley. All three listened to the same music in their youth, and frequented Haney's Big House, the Ferriday club that featured black blues acts. Lewis and Swaggart have had a complex relationship over the years.

Lewis's sister, Linda Gail Lewis has recorded with Lewis, toured with his stage show for a time and more recently recorded with Van Morrison.

"The Killer", a nickname he has had since childhood, is known for his forceful voice and piano production on stage. He was described by Roy Orbison as the best raw performer in the history of rock and roll music.

In 1986, Lewis was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That year, he returned to Sun Studio in Memphis to team up with Orbison, Cash, and Perkins along with longtime admirers like John Fogerty to create the album Class of '55, a sort of followup to the "Million Dollar Quartet" session, though in the eyes of many critics and fans, lacking the spirit of the old days at Sun.

In 1998 he toured Europe with Chuck Berry and Little Richard. On February 12, 2005, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy (which also grants the Grammy Awards). On September 26, 2006, a new album titled Last Man Standing was released, featuring many of rock and roll's elite as guest stars. Receiving positive reviews, the album charted in four different Billboard charts, including a two week stay at number one on the Indie charts.

A DVD entitled Last Man Standing Live, featuring concert footage with many guest artists, was released in March 2007, and the CD achieved Lewis's 10th official gold disk for selling over half-a-million copies in the US alone. Last Man Standing is Lewis's biggest selling album of all time. It features contributions from Mick Jagger, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Rod Stewart, among others.

On November 5, 2007, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio honored Jerry Lee Lewis with six days of conferences, interviews, a DVD premiere and film clips, dedicated to him entitled The Life And Music of Jerry Lee Lewis. On November 10, the week culminated with a tribute concert compered by Kris Kristofferson. Lewis was present to accept the American Music Masters Award and closed his own tribute show with a rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

On February 10, 2008, he appeared with John Fogerty and Little Richard on the 50th Grammy Awards Show, performing "Great Balls of Fire" in a medley with "Good Golly Miss Molly".

Lewis now lives on a ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi with his family.

On June 4, 2008, Jerry Lee Lewis was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

On July 4, 2008, he appeared on A Capitol Fourth and performed the finale's final act with a medley of "Roll Over Beethoven", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" and "Great Balls of Fire".

In October 2008 as part of a very successful European tour, Jerry Lee Lewis returned to the UK, almost exactly 50 years after his ill-fated first tour. He appeared at two London shows: a special private show at the 100 Club on October 25 and at the London Forum on October 28 with Wanda Jackson and his sister, Linda Gail Lewis.

2009 marked the sixtieth year since Lewis's first public performance when he performed "“Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" at a car dealership on November 19, 1949 in Ferriday Louisiana.

In August 2009, in advance of his new album, a single entitled "Mean Old Man" was released for download. It was written by Kris Kristofferson. An EP featuring this song and four more was also released on amazon.com on November 11.

On October 29, 2009, Lewis opened the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Discography

Hits and awards

Between 1957 and 2006, the date of his latest release "Last Man Standing", 47 singles plus 22 albums (The Session counted as 2 albums) made the Top Twenty Pop, Jukebox, Rock, Indie and/or Country charts in USA or UK. Fourteen reached the number 1 position. He's had ten official gold disks, the latest being for the 2006 album 'Last Man Standing', plus unofficial ones issued by his record company Mercury for albums which sold over a quarter of a million copies. His 2006 duets CD Last Man Standing has sold over half a million worldwide, his biggest selling album ever. Jerry Lee Lewis is also among the Top 50 all-time Billboard Country artists. It is also rumored that the soundtrack album to the movie, Great Balls Of Fire, has now sold over a million copies. The original Sun cut of "Great Balls of Fire" was elected to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and Jerry's Sun recording of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" received this honor in 1999. Only recordings which are at least 25 years old and have left a lasting impression can receive this honor. Along with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison, Jerry received a Grammy in the spoken word category for the very rare album of interviews released with some early copies of The Class of 55 album in 1986. On February 12, 2005, Jerry received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award the day before the Recording Academy's main Grammy Awards ceremony, which he also attended, picture below. On October 10, 2007, Jerry received the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame's American Music Masters Award.

Compositions by Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis has written or co-written many songs during his career:

End of the Road, 1956 – this is indeed an original song and not the same as Irving Berlin's song (that inspired it) as the lyrics and melody are totally different apart from the refrain "the way is dark and the night is long" (which Lewis turns around) and "Waiting at the end of the road".

Jerry's Boogie (a.k.a. 'Black Bottom Stomp'), 1956 – was previously recorded as Black Bottom Stomp by Jelly Roll Morton but Jerry Lee's rendition is his own and changes a lot of the old song.

Lewis Boogie, 1956

Pumpin' Piano Rock, 1957

All Night Long, 1957

High School Confidential, 1958

Live & Let Live, 1958 – sometimes credited to Jerry Lee, but this actually was recorded by Bill Monroe, Moon Mullican, Gene Sullivan & Wiley Walker, and Jimmie Davis before.

Memory Of You, 1958

Hello, Hello Baby, 1958

Baby, Baby, Bye Bye, 1960

Lewis Workout, 1960

Whole Lotta Twistin' Goin' On, 1962 – new lyrics

He Took It Like A Man, 1963

Baby, Hold Me Close, 1965

My Baby Don't Love No One But Me, 1965

Rockin' Jerry Lee, 1966

What A Heck Of A Mess, 1966

Lincoln Limousine, 1966

Alvin, 1970

Pilot Baby, 1980s

Crown Victoria Custom '51, 1995

New Orleans Boogie (Jerry Lee's Boogie), 1952

Blues Like Midnight, 1980s–2000s – a 12 bar blues often done by Jerry Lee in concert. It is sometimes entirely based around Jimmie Rodgers verses but not recorded by Rodgers in this form. On other versions, Lewis adds in original verses as well.

Quotation

NME – June 1963

NME – November 1978

Footnotes

References

External links and sources

The Official Jerry Lee Lewis Website

Rockin' My Life Away by Jimmy Guterman, a full online biography

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Jerry Lee Lewis page for his hits, biography.

Selected videos

Whole Lotta Shakin' Going on

Category:1935 births Category:Living people Category:American country singers Category:American male singers Category:American rock musicians Category:American rock pianists Category:American rock singers Category:American pop singers Category:American pop pianists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Rockabilly musicians Category:American composers Category:Sun Records artists Category:Sire Records artists Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:American Pentecostals Category:People from Ferriday, Louisiana Category:People from Concordia Parish, Louisiana Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductees Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Charly Records artists Category:Smash Records artists

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name	Kikki Danielsson
background	solo_singer
origin	Osby, Sweden
genre	CountryCountry popDansband musicPopSchlager
years active	1969–present
label	Mariann Grammofon AB
associated acts	NickiesWizexChipsRoosarnaKikki, Bettan & Lotta
notable instruments	Accordion }}

Ann-Kristin "Kikki" Danielsson (born 10 May 1952 in Osby, Sweden) is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs. Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. She also gained popularity at the US country stage during the 1980s. In 1986, she had the "Kikki i Nashville" TV show.

Life and work

Totally, she has participated nine times at the Swedish Melodifestivalen and one time at the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix. She has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twice, in 1982 (as a part of the Swedish pop and country group Chips with the song "Dag efter dag", finishing 8th) and in the 1985 (solo) with the song "Bra vibrationer", finishing 3rd.

Kikki Danielsson was born in Osby, but was adopted and lived on a farm in Älmhult, Småland from the age of five. There, she became the only child in the family while her younger sister was adopted to another place. As a five-year-old girl, Kikki Danielsson made her first singing performance, which occurred at the local Sunday school's Lucia party in her Småland home church, singing the Christmas song När Jesusbarnet låg en gång. As a child, she sang in the local church choir.

As a 17-year old girl, Kikki Danielsson begun as a singer in dansband Nickies and in 1973 she switched to another dansband, Wizex, with which she participated at the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1978. She left Wizex in 1982, but as a member of the pop and country group Chips, she participated at the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1980, 1981 and 1982. She has also been a popular Svensktoppen artist, with hits as the Melodifestivalen songs, but also other songs, like "Papaya Coconut" in 1987. She willingly sings country and has contributed in radio and TV shows in the U.S. in the 1980s.

During the second half of 1984, she married Swedish musician Kjell Roos, who led the "dansband" Roosarna, with which she sang between 1990 and 1999. In 1985 she gave birth to their first child. In late 1987 she released the Christmas album "Min barndoms jular". Together with Roosarna, she had many Svensktoppen hits during the 1990s. In 1994, the "dansband of the year" prize at the Grammis was awarded to Kikki Danielsson & Roosarna. In 1999 she separated from Kjell Roos. However, the musical co-operation re-started in 2003.

Kikki Danielsson has also sang at the 2001 Stockholm Pride. Together with Lotta Engberg and Elisabeth Andreassen she participated at the Swedish Melodifestivalen 2002 and together they called themselves Kikki, Bettan & Lotta and had an own dinner show during the second half of 2002 and participated at the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix in 2003.

Kikki Danielsson participated at Melodifestivalen 2006 with the song "I dag & i morgon", written by Thomas G:son and Calle Kindbom, which reached the final in the Stockholm Globe Arena, where it finished at the 10th and last place. Totally, she has participated nine times at the Swedish Melodifestivalen and one time at Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix.

From November 28-December 17, 2006, she toured Sweden with a band on the "Julstämning med Kikki" Christmas concert tour.

Her periods of problems with alcohol have been a popular topic of the Scandinavian press (Danielsson first started drinking heavily to self-medicate as a result of her rheumatoid arthritis), as has her weight problem, in which she has become borderline obese. Because of her weight problem, she appeared in Du är vad du äter, the Swedish version of "You are what you eat", in 2006 where she made great progress and lost several pounds.

In January 2010, it was announced that Kikki Danielsson together with Sören "Sulo" Karlsson and The Diamond Dogs would record the single Maybe I'll Do, and on 13 July 2010 she appeared at Allsång på Skansen. On 13 April 2011 she released the album Första dagen på resten av mitt liv, where she worked together with Sören "Sulo" Karlsson.

Melodifestivalen, Melodi Grand Prix and Eurovision entries

Melodifestivalen 1978: Miss Decibel (with Wizex) - 2nd place

Melodifestivalen 1980: Mycke' mycke' mer (with Chips) - 4th place

Melodifestivalen 1981: God morgon (with Sweets 'n Chips) - 2nd place

Melodifestivalen 1982: Dag efter dag (with Chips) - winner

:8th place at the Eurovision Song Contest 1982

Melodifestivalen 1983: Varför är kärleken röd? - 2nd place

Melodifestivalen 1985: Bra vibrationer - winner

:3rd place at the Eurovision Song Contest 1985

Melodifestivalen 1992: En enda gång - 4th place

Melodifestivalen 2002: Vem é dé du vill ha (Kikki, Bettan & Lotta) - 3rd place

Melodi Grand Prix 2003: Din hand i min hand (Kikki, Bettan & Lotta) - 4th place

Melodifestivalen 2006: I dag & i morgon - 10th place

Discography

Solo albums

Rock'n Yodel (1979)

Just Like a Woman (1981)

Kikki (1982)

Varför är kärleken röd? (1983)

Singles Bar (1983)

Midnight Sunshine (1984)

Kikkis 15 bästa låtar (1984)

Bra vibrationer (1985)

Papaya Coconut (1986)

Min barndoms jular (1987) (Christmas album)

Canzone d'Amore (1989)

På begäran (1990)

Vägen hem till dej (1991)

In Country (1992)

Jag ska aldrig lämna dig (1993)

På begäran 2 (1994)

Långt bortom bergen (1997)

I mitt hjärta (1999)

100% Kikki (2001)

Fri - En samling (2001)

Nu är det advent (2001) (Christmas album)

I dag & i morgon (2006)

Kikkis bästa (2008)

Första dagen på resten av mitt liv (2011)

References

External links

Kikki Danielsson

Kikki in the Eurovision Song Contest 1985

Grammis awards of 1994, with Kikki Danielsson & Roosarna as "Dansband of the year"

Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:People from Osby Municipality Category:Melodifestivalen contestants Category:Melodifestivalen winners Category:Melodi Grand Prix contestants Category:Swedish Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1982 Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1985 Category:Swedish accordionists Category:Swedish country singers Category:Swedish dansband singers Category:Swedish pop singers Category:Yodelers Category:Swedish female singers Category:Schlager

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