This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's continue our week of interviews from our archive with R&B, rockabilly and early rock 'n' roll musicians and songwriters. Up next, we have Carl Perkins, one of ...

“Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly” by Jeff Apter, Citadel Press, 240 pages, $29. Readers fortunate enough to have spent their adolescence during the 1950s will certainly remember singer Carl ...

Let's get back to my interview with Carl Perkins, one of the originators of rockabilly. Perkins, who died in 1998, wrote "Blue Suede Shoes," the hit song sung by Elvis Presley, which became the first ...

Perkins also wrote "Honey Don't," which was covered by the Beatles. Later on, Perkins' songs were recorded by Dolly Parton, the Judds and George Strait. I spoke with him in 1996 after he'd written a ...