Occasionally, on my emails I’ve been using the footer, “Yeah that doctor told me, ‘Son you don’t need no pills, just a handful of nickels and a jukebox will cure your ills.’ Carl Perkins, disabled rockabilly pioneer” I thought people might like to know a bit more. On the website, Rockabilly Hall of Fame, I found a description of his disability experience just after “Blue Suede Shoes” hit the top of the charts and became Sun Records only million seller.
Ready to cash in on a national basis, Carl and the boys headed up to New York for the first time to appear on the Perry Como Show. While enroute their car rammed the back of a poultry truck, putting Carl and his brother Jay in the hospital with a cracked skull and broken neck, respectively. While in traction, Perkins saw Presley performing his song on the Dorsey Brother Stage Show, his moment of fame and recognition snatched away from him.
Carl sold more copies of “Blue Suede Shoes” but, Elvis became identified with the song.