Two years before Jerry Lee Lewis recorded Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, Big Maybelle laid down a version produced by a young Quincy Jones that established the song’s rhythmic and attitude blueprint. This episode explores the life of Mabel Louise Smith, born in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1924, who started singing gospel in church, made her professional debut at age 12 with Dave Clark’s Memphis Band, and spent years touring with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and the orchestras of Christine Chatman and Tiny Bradshaw.

We look at why her 1947 solo debut for King Records under her own name fell flat, and how producer Fred Mendelsohn’s 1952 rebrand at OKeh Records unlocked her career with Gabbin’ Blues, Way Back Home, and My Country Man. The episode follows her through Candy on Savoy Records, the 1957 Apollo Theater and 1958 Newport Jazz Festival appearances captured in the film Jazz on a Summer’s Day, the heroin addiction and shifting tastes of the 1960s, and her surprising 1967 chart return with a blues-soaked cover of 96 Tears.

• How singing over a 12-piece brass section without monitors built the breath control and projection behind her sound
• Why the stage name Big Maybelle worked as a promise to audiences rather than a stereotype
• The way Jerry Lee Lewis openly credited her version while segregated radio formats steered the mainstream reward to him
• Her death from a diabetic coma in Cleveland on January 23, 1972, at age 47, and the posthumous album The Last of Big Maybelle
• Later recognition including a W.C. Handy Award for the OKeh reissue, Candy’s entry into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011, and her song’s appearance in the video game Fallout 4