(1955) Sun ''Honey Don't'' (Take 1) Carl Perkins

STUDIO SESSION FOR CARL PERKINS AT THE MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE FOR SUN RECORDS 1955 SUN RECORDING STUDIO 706 UNION AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE SUN SESSION: MONDAY DECEMBER 19, 1955 SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - SAM C. PHILLIPS "HONEY DON'T" Composer: - Carl Perkins Publisher: - B.M.I. - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated Matrix number: - None - Take 1 - Not Originally Issued (2:06) Recorded: - December 19, 1955 Released: - 1990 First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15494-1-18 mono THE CLASSIC CARL PERKINS Reissued: April 27, 2012 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17240-1-30 mono CARL PERKINS - THE SUN ERA OUTTAKES The two outtakes of ''Honey Don't'' are differ considerably from the released version. The lyrics are different from Sun 234 - for example the repeated ''please, please, please''. The verses in the second outtake are almost incoherent. (How come you will you say when you don’t/ Tell me baby don't you know you won't''). And the long-mysterious - for-many-of-us line in the release about ''you got that sand all over your feet'' (a mystery solved by listening to ''Honky Tonk Babe/Gal'' and discovering that the sand came from a dance floor) doesn't appear in either of these outtakes. The arrangement evolves toward the final released version too. In the first outtake, W.S. ''Fluke'' Holland plays his drums through what was supposed to be band silence behind Carl's vocal. At the time, it was a mistake though for the released version they decided it had been a good idea. W.S. ''Fluke'' Holland remembers, the episode quite clearly. ''I played through the stops because I didn't know any better. When we listened to the playback I said to Sam, 'Well that doesn't sound too bad and what does it hurt?'. And Sam said It doesn't hurt anything and that's what makes it different. 'So we just decided to leave it in. Things like that happened at Sun all the time. It wasn't anything anybody planned, but it worked out just fine''. The beginning of the guitar solo in the first outtake is very different from the one on the released version; by to second outtake, the solo we all know is taking shape. But all of that matters little. Both of these outtakes are wonderful in just the way that the released version is. One key to it all is the energetic and a remarkably fluent boogie guitar figures that Carl plays during the verses and in the second halves of the solos. The other is Carl's enthusiastic vocals, they're so good that the words fade into unimportance. We can wonder how different popular culture would have been if Cleveland had shared Tennessee's preference for this side of Sun 234. Three other songs are recorded at the same time: "Sure To Fall" (with Jay taking the lead), "Tennessee" (with Jay joining Carl on the chorus), and "Honey Don't". None of the trade papers knew what to call Carl's Shoes or its flipside "Honey Don't" when it was released in December 1955. Terms like "rhythm ditty" or country boogie were tossed around, but it wasn't until the fall of 1956 that the world would begin hearing the phrase rockabilly to describe what had been born at Sun. (HD) (MH) Name (Or. No. Of Instruments) Carl Lee Perkins - Vocal and Guitar James Buck Perkins - Rhythm Guitar Lloyd Clayton Perkins - Bass W.S. "Fluke" Holland - Drums © - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

Added 1 Jul 2026