Jerry Lott
Jerry Lott (January 30, 1938 – September 4, 1983) was an American musician and singer-songwriter known for the 1958 rockabilly single, Love Me.[1][2][3] The single was released by Dot Records in 1960 with the namesake track and "Whisper Your Love" as an A-side and B-side.
Music career and recordings
In June 1958, Lott recorded "Love Me" and "Whisper Your Love" at Gulf Coast Studios in Mobile, Alabama, with guitarist Frank Holmes, bassist-pianist William Yates, and drummer Hugo Brooks as session musicians. Dot Records issued the songs as the A-side and B-side of the single, Love Me, in January 1960, crediting “M. Lott” as the songwriter; it is classified by Discogs within the rockabilly music genre.[4]
Later accounts suggest that Pat Boone encouraged Lott him to adopt a more distinctive stage persona, leading to his use of the stage name The Phantom, after the comic strip character.[5][6][7]
Biography
Jerry Lott was born on January 30, 1938 in Prichard, Alabama, and as an infant moved with his parents to Leakesville, Mississippi.[8][6] He and Billie Faye Starling married on November 8, 1958 in George County, Mississippi.[7] He saw Elvis Presley live and began playing rockabilly music.[1][9] In 1966, Lott was injured in a car crash in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and became paraplegic.[6]
Lott was interviewed in 1980 by Derek Glenister for New Commotion magazine. and mentions that after seeing Elvis Presley perform on the Louisiana Hayride in 1956, immediately "turned [his] head around" and felt compelled to play heavier, louder, and faster music in line with his "inner self".[9] Accordingly, Lott began using his given name as a stage name to represent his stylistic change.[5][7] Upon the release of the single, Love Me, Jerry "The Phantom" Lott was billed on concert tour as "The Gulf Coast Fireball."[1][9] In the same interview, He stated that he went into the studio after working for months on "Whisper Your Love" but without a song for the other side of the record, and "someone suggested I wrote something like Elvis ... 'See if you spark rock 'n' roll a little bit'".[7][10] On the second take, the one that was used, he "blew one of the controls off the wall".[7] "Love Me" was also covered by The Cramps, a psychobilly group, and The Bananamen, a side project of British rockabilly band The Sting-rays.[1]
He died in his hometown of Leakesville, Mississippi, on September 5, 1983, aged 45.
References
- ^ a b c d "The Phantom". Big Hollow Twang Musical Archive. GeoCities musical archive. 2009. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
- ^ Stephens, Dave (April 17, 2019). "The Phantom". Toppermost. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
- ^ Frémeaux & Associés. Dictionnaire Chronologique du Rock 1945-1962 [Chronological Dictionary of Rock] (PDF) (III ed.). Frémeaux & Associés. p. 48. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
With his stage name and mask borrowed from a comic book masked vigilante...The Phantom was a country singer before Elvis stormed in. He cut this overexcited rockabilly without warning, which has since become an underground classic.
- ^ ""Love Me" by The Crammps (The Phantom cover)". Sonichits Lyrics. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
- ^ a b Pyro, Howie (June 23, 2014). "We have Pat Boone to thank for the most psychotic and deranged rockabilly record of all time!". Dangerous Minds. Retrieved August 23, 2025.
- ^ a b c Stephens, Dave (April 17, 2019). "The Phantom". Toppermost.
- ^ a b c d e "Jerry "The Phantom" Lott - "Love Me"". Seven45RPM. June 17, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
- ^ "Vol.5 - Rockabilly From The Vaults Of Dot Records (CD)". Bear Family Records. Bear Family Records (issuing label). Retrieved August 29, 2025.
- ^ a b c Callahan, Mike; Edwards, David (April 1, 2025). "Randy Wood: The Dot Records Story" (Music history archive). Both Sides Now. Both Sides Now Publications. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
- ^ Michael Dregni, Rockabilly: The Twang Heard 'Round the World: The Illustrated History, Minneapolis: Voyageur, 2011, ISBN 9780760340622, WwC&pg=PA116 pp. 116–17.