Why Ronnie Self never made it as a performer is one of the great mysteries and injustices of pop music history. He had the look and the sound -- a mix of country, rockabilly, and R&B that sometimes made him sound like a white Little Richard, but mostly like the young Elvis or Carl Perkins -- and he wasn't lacking for good songs, which he mostly wrote himself. He should have been there, thought of in the same breath as Perkins or Jerry Lee Lewis; instead, he's a footnote in rock & roll history outside of Europe, where he's treated as a legend.
Self was born in Tin Town, MO, o...