In 1964, Jerry Lee Lewis was at a low point in his career. The rock and roll wild man, best known for the 1950s chart toppers “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire,” had been backlisted in the U.S. for years following his drug and alcohol induced bad behavior and scandalous marriage to his teen cousin, Myra Gale Brown.
But a chance recording during a cheap tour in West Germany changed the game for the piano-playing rock pioneer—even though the album was only released in Europe and unavailable in the U.S. for years.
In January 2026, The Guardian ranked Lewis’s Live at the Star-Club, Hamburg as the best live album of all time. The 1964 album, which was not released in the U.S. for nearly 30 years due to legal issues, beat out James Brown’s Live at the Apollo, The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Live at Monterey, and the more recent Beyoncé – Homecoming: The Live Album for the best live album spot.
The Guardian’s ranking described Lewis’ album as a fast-paced performance that “should be a disaster” but instead captures “the feral essence of rock’n’roll like nothing else.”
An unexpected classic
According to NPR, Lewis was desperate when he recorded what would become one of his greatest albums. He was paid so little during a 1964 tour in England and Germany that he couldn't even afford to bring his own musicians on the road with him, the outlet noted. At the Star-Club gig in Hamburg, Germany, on April 5, 1964, he was accompanied by backup band the Nashville Teens, which featured guitarists Pete Shannon and John Allen, Ray Phillips (bass), and John Hanken (drums), per the album’s liner notes.
Philips Records Germany producer Siggi Loch recorded Lewis’s show, which included unhinged performances of everything from “Long Tall Sally to “Good Golly, Miss Molly” to "Hound Dog.” The entire 13-song recording clocked in at just 37 minutes long.
Jerry Lee Lewis on stage. (Photo by Screen Archives on Getty Images)Photo by Screen Archives on Getty Images
While fans scavenged for bootleg copies of Live at the Star-Club, the album wasn’t officially available in the U.S. until an early 1990s release by Rhino Records, according to Rolling Stone. The music magazine's later review of the album teased, “Live at the Star-Club, Hamburg is not an album, it’s a crime scene: Jerry Lee Lewis slaughters his rivals in a 13-song set that feels like one long convulsion.”
In the 2014 biography, Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, Lewis told author Rick Bragg that while Live at the Star-Club was “a big monster record," the record company "never paid” him a penny for it.
Lewis also claimed that he didn’t know the Star-Club show was being recorded. In an interview with Vintage Rock magazine shortly before his death in 2022, he said, “They didn’t ask me to record it, and I’m still waiting on them!”
"It was a great show, though. We played our hearts out that night," Lewis added.
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