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Joe Hill Lewis Personal Copy

In the world of music and collecting records there are some true rarities and this is one of them. Joe Hill Lewis was an icon of the early postwar blues era, he recorded one of the first demos released by Sam Phillips before he even started his Sun Records label.

Joe went on to record for Sun, Checker and Big Town, but this 45 was released in ‘56 by a man Joe worked for who ran a jukebox company, Les Vendor of Canale Amusement as can be seen stamped on this label. And this was Joe’s own copy as can be seen by his signature on the bottom right. Perhaps only 100 copies of this 45 were pressed, no one really knows but only a handful have turned up over the years.

Joe replaced BB King at WOAI in Memphis and was a DJ there for awhile. Some of his R&B 45s from his DJ days including this one will be offered at the upcoming Austin Record Convention in May 2023. Don’t miss it if you like good records and music!