{"id":24645,"date":"2015-03-16T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=24645"},"modified":"2026-07-22T07:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:51:08","slug":"cover-me-is-that-all-to-the-ball-mr-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2015\/03\/16\/cover-me-is-that-all-to-the-ball-mr-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Is That All to the Ball (Mr. Hall)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“[Billy Lee Riley] was a true original. He did it all: He played, he sang, he wrote. He would have been a bigger star but Jerry Lee came along. And you know what happens when someone like that comes along. You just don\u2019t stand a chance.<\/span><\/p>\n

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So Billy became what is known in the industry — a condescending term, by the way — as a one-hit wonder. But sometimes, just sometimes, once in a while, a one-hit wonder can make a more powerful impact than a recording star who\u2019s got 20 or 30 hits behind him.<\/span><\/p>\n

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He did it with style and grace. You won\u2019t find him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He\u2019s not there. Metallica is. Abba is. Mamas and the Papas — I know they\u2019re in there. Jefferson Airplane, Alice Cooper, Steely Dan — I\u2019ve got nothing against them. Soft rock, hard rock, psychedelic pop. I got nothing against any of that stuff, but after all, it is called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Billy Lee Riley is not there. Yet. —\u00a0<\/span>Bob Dylan,\u00a0<\/em><\/span>February 2015<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We feature a lot of obscure covers here on the Shuffle, but today we’re pushing the envelope with a cover of a song that was never a hit by an artist that never made it big. Oh, and technically Bruce didn’t even cover it–he just soundchecked it twice, ten years apart.<\/p>\n

If you’re not familiar with the story of Billy Lee Riley, you’re probably also not a subscriber to Andrew Hickey’s excellent and essential podcast,\u00a0A History of Rock in 500 Songs<\/em>. Go check out Episode 57 for the full and fascinating backstory on one of rock’s great unsung influencers, and if you’re a student of rock history, consider subscribing while you’re there. I learn new things from Andrew every week. (Plug over now.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, suffice it to say that Riley had a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when he wasn’t he was probably at least doing the wrong thing. He had a couple of almost-hits in “Flying Saucers Rock and Roll” and “Red Hot” in 1957, but Riley was never able to translate his regional successes into national ones. But he was a rockabilly pioneer, and he shaped the sound of Sun Records. Riley’s story intertwined with Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, The Beach Boys, Glen Campbell and many other artists whose recordings he contributed to and influenced.<\/p>\n

By the time Riley released “Is That All to the Ball (Mr. Hall),” in 1958, his popularity had already peaked. Good luck finding reviews or references to it–even in modern profiles of Riley, it’s rarely mentioned.<\/p>\n