Author Mike Dennis has announced the publication of his rock & roll novel, CADILLAC'S COMIN' on Amazon.com’s Kindle. It’s a tale of a one-hit wonder who recorded for Sun Records in the 1950s.
It’s June, 1958. Elvis Presley has gone into the army, while Jerry Lee Lewis has just returned from a career-shattering trip to England with his 13-year-old wife. Rock & roll music is under attack from all sides and is in real danger of disappearing, as its two most dynamic artists are effectively removed from the picture. Sun, an independent Memphis label responsible for many of the seminal rock & roll hits, has chosen piano rocker Ike Thacker from its impressive stable of artists to assume the mantle of the "King of Rock & Roll".
Ike is one of the most powerful performers on the American scene, combining a white-hot stage presence with his natural talent for writing big songs. This one-two punch makes him the prime candidate for the top rock & roll artist in the world, and he makes up to five thousand dollars a night, a fortune by 1958 standards.
Sam Phillips, Sun's founder and president, sees an opportunity to push his company into the highest echelons of the record business, becoming, in trade parlance, a "major label". But first, the fledgling music called rock & roll must be firmly established with a hero, a leader at the top, who of course is under contract to Sun. Sam's got it all planned out: Ike will do a starmaking tour, as his new record, CADILLAC'S COMIN', shoots up the charts. The record will become a smash hit, a movie deal will then be signed, and he's even slated to make an appearance on the prestigious Ed Sullivan Show, following which he will be universally recognized as the king of rock & roll. And of course, Sun will move into a controlling position in the music industry, selling millions of records in the process. All very nice, but Ike proves difficult to control.
Set in Memphis in the turbulent early years of rock & roll, and later in New Orleans' shadowy demimonde, CADILLAC'S COMIN' is a valentine to the rockabilly pioneers of the 1950s, who operated in the dark, with no rules, no guidelines, no precedents, and virtually no adult supervision. Against this chaotic backdrop, they nevertheless managed to solidify rock & roll’s place in American culture.
CADILLAC'S COMIN' is selling for just $2.99. Kindle owners may download the novel directly, while non-Kindle owners can first download the Kindle app for free onto their computers.
