706 Union Avenue Sessions

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This 706 Union Avenue Sessionography is a non-commercial labor of love and is in no way associated with any commercial activity

Material Research, Collecting and Updating by John Klompenhouwer

MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE – Established in October 1949 in Memphis, Tennessee by Samuel Cornelius Phillips and opened January 1950. The studio was in a converted radiator shop on 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee. Behind the dusty, bent Venetian blinds is a three-desk office. The office is identified only by a small neon sign in the window, which says Memphis Recording Service. Even without a desk, Sam Phillips somehow manages to run eleven corporations from the building at 706 Union, which consist of a tiny reception room (two desks), a studio which doubles as a mailing room, a control room with attached bathroom, a promotion office (one desk), and a storage room.

Some have wondered why Sam Phillips never dressed up the studio or hung out a sign identifying it as the Sun Record Company. Phillips has several reasons: "I just felt like if I put up a big sign on this little building or tried to fancy it up, it would look all out of proportion. There's something about that little Memphis Recording Service sign that just goes with it".

MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE (THE ACOUSTICS) - One of Sun Studio's defining characteristics are its unique acoustics. As noted on the Website of Department of Interior as part of the record when the Department designated Sun Studio as a National Historic Landmark:

It was one of the first music recording studios that took acoustics into consideration in its design. The acoustical tiles on the ceiling and on the front and rear walls were installed in patterns so that the room does not have any parallel surfaces. Beginning at the front wall of the studio, there are rows of tiles that angle down from the ceiling, then sharply back up for four rows to a section that is two rows deep and lays flat on the ceiling. Four more rows angle down and sharply back up to another section laid flat. This pattern repeats down the length of the ceiling and gives the ceiling a kind of undulating appearance. In section it is similar to the design of a jerkin-head roof, and in appearance somewhat like short, adjacent barrel vaults spanned between the building's side walls. Tiles on the front and rear walls also project out at intervals rather than lay flat on the surface. The tile was installed in this way to prevent standing waves of sound in the studio. The same acoustical tiles still hang on the studio walls to this day.

SUN RECORDS - Established in January 1952 in Memphis, Tennessee  by Samuel Cornelius Phillips and Jim Bulleit and o pened February 1952. Even in the 1950s Sun Records was applauded as something special, both by fans and - more surprisingly - by the music business. Sun was also recognised as one man's eccentric vision. Even then, Sam Phillips' role as a man who had made a difference was acknowledged. At that time, the major labels employed grey interchangeable men; the independent labels were in the hands of more flamboyant individuals, but it was rare in record companies great or small to find someone of singular artistic vision. The music business has always been, first and last, a business. The trend has been to follow trends.

Sun Records was Sam Phillips; Sam Phillips was Sun Records. Art and commerce came together. The earth moved a little bit. The story of Sam Phillips' background in radio, has often be told and his desire to open a recording studio that would bring his own talent to fruition, as well as that of the men and women who entered his studio. It happened in Memphis, Tennessee, perhaps the only place in which Phillips could have realised his vision. It happened in the 1950s, perhaps the only decade in which it could have happened. The Sun Records story is the confluence of the right man, the right time, and the right place.

"Sam knew something different", was how one-time Sun artist Ray Harris put it, and that - quite simply - is the best explanation of what happened. Here are the ultimate documentation of the "something different" that Sam Phillips knew. They tell the Sun Records story the way that it actually unfurled week-by-week, release-by-release. The records that reshaped popular music are here together with the blind alleys that Sam Phillips went down in his quest for that something different. The million-sellers are cheek-by-jowl with the records that only sold to family and friends. There are alternate takes, this is the way that Sun Records was meant to be experienced.

Talking to journalist David Halberstam, Sam Phillips explained his thinking. "I have my faults, a lot of faults, I guess", he said, "but I have one real gift and that gift is to look another person in the eye and be able to tell if he has anything to contribute, and if he does, I have the additional gift to free him from whatever is restraining him". its a self-description that would sound pompous and self-aggrandising were it not demonstrably true. SUN 209 is evidence, of course, but so - in its way - is SUN 175, the first Sun record. On it, a teenage saxophonist with a raw, unmoulded style plays with the authority of a Charlie Parker or an Earl Bostic. He is showcased in a dramatic way. You could probably find precedents for the sound that Sam Phillips coaxed from his equipment for that recording, but the fact is that Phillips himself wasn't aware of them. He was making it up as he went along. This sessions enable you to trace the way that Phillips' ideas on production, songs and artists unfolded.

From the outset, Phillips had the intention that he and his artists were to go their own way. As the sixties wore on, Sun releases increasingly referenced what was happening around them, but at the beginning and for the most of the fifteen or so years that Sun operated under Sam Phillips' direction, the criterion for releasing a record was whether it made Sam Phillips feel good. It was tantamount to commercial autism. You need to spend a few years in the record business to recognise just how unusual it is for someone to deliberately strike their own course and succeed, and how doubly unusual for someone to juggle the creative and business ends. John Hammond, the legendary Columbia Records A&R man who signed Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan and many others, wasn't running his own company with all the headaches that entails. Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records had partners, and then Time-Warner's money behind him; Sam Phillips was to all intent and purpose a one man show, and no-one would lend him any money until he didn't need it. The Chess brothers or King Records' Syd Nathan can't really be said to have had a commanding artistic vision in the way that Sam Phillips did. That Sun Records was both artistically and commercially successful was truly an extraordinary achievement.

The indisputable fact is that the reputation of Sun Records is founded upon a series of recordings made between 1952 and 1959 in Sam Phillips' little storefront studio at 706 Union Avenue. When Sam Phillips settled down to sketch out his corporate letterhead in 1952, he positioned his rooster crowing at the dawn's early rays. To the right of the rooster he placed his first attempt at a corporate slogan, "Up Above Them All With Records That Sell", which represented more wishful thinking than achievement. Beneath the address ran the second slogan, "Consistently Better Records for Higher Profits". They weren't elegant words, but they defined both Phillips' trademark and his credo.

On January 1952, the Memphis Recording Service became the Sun Record Company. It released it's first record on March 1, 1952 but did not produce a hit until a year later when Rufus Thomas recorded "Bear Cat" (SUN 181). The company's second hit was "Just Walkin' In The Rain" (SUN 186) sung by the Prisonaires, a group of black inmates at the state penitentiary in Nashville. During the label's first years, Phillips primarily recorded black artists, but he sought to record black music performed by white singers, who would make the music acceptable to a wider audience. Ultimately, Sun's combination of white country music sung with a black rhythm-and-blues feel broadened the scope of American music and brought Sun Records the sound for which it became world famous.

This "rockabilly" music was made most popular by Elvis Presley, whose first recordings were two Ink Spots songs in 1953, Not pleased with the result, Phillips had Presley work with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black and, in 1954, released Presley's first professional record, which contained the songs "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" (SUN 209). It was immediately successful, and Elvis Presley recorded eight more songs for Sun before Phillips sold Presley's contract to RCA in November 1955 for $ 35,000 plus $ 5,000 more for back royalties owed to the singer. The sum was an unprecedented amount in the business and provided Sun the financial stability to work with and record other white southern musicians, like Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins and many others.

With a spontaneous feel, an echo effect, and a simple, crisp, aggressive sound, Sun's recordings established several of its unknown artists as stars. Early in 1956 Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" (SUN 234) became a tremendous success, making the company solvent for the first time. Johnny Cash's first hit was "I Walk The Line" (SUN 241) in the fall of 1956, and Sun produced Roy Orbison's early recordings during the same year. Then, during 1957 and 1958, Jerry Lee Lewis proved profitable to Sun with his hits "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" (SUN 267), "Great Balls Of Fire" (SUN 281), and "Breathless" (SUN 288). Sun's subsidiary, the Phillips International label produced major hits by Carl Mann and Charlie Rich.

In the early 1960s production was much less active and Sun's recordings appealed more to a local audience than to a national one. Cash, Perkins, and Orbison had all moved to larger recording companies, and Lewis left in 1962. Phillips retired in 1968 and, in the following year on July 1, 1969, sold a controlling interest in Sun to Shelby S. Singleton of Nashville. The sale brought about the formation of the Sun International Corporation, headquartered in Nashville, and the transfer of the nearly 3,000 master tapes and the original record catalogs by Sun artists (excluding Elvis Presley, whose materials had previously been transferred to RCA?).

The Sun era had ended, but not before rejuvenating American popular music. Under the direction of Sam Phillips, Sun's artists established the rockabilly sound and the roots of rock and roll. Phillips and his company made this possible by nurturing the talents of southern artists; by marketing their music through 43 independent record distributors and an overseas distribution affiliate in London and Germany, and, most importantly, by concentrating on and developing a southern musical tradition.

The original Sun space was not restored to recording until Memphis musician Gary Hardy took over in 1987. U2 cut a number of tracks for 1988s album "Rattle And Hum" at the son of Sun, supervised by "Cowboy" Jack Clement, Sam Phillips' assistant from the old days. Recording is now done at night for everybody!

The Phillips -  78rpm standard single are mono. White label. The Phillips logo printed at top of the label. The catalog number is on the disc at the bottom. The singles had different numbers on A and B sides.  The Phillips label issued one record 9001/9002.

Sun Records -  78/45rpm standard singles are mono. Yellow label. They have a circle of musical notes and staff around the entire label, with exception of the bar wherein "Memphis, Tennessee" appears. The letters SUN pressed in light brown on the rooster at the top of the label. On 78rpm, Cock on the label above the hole.  The original Sun label issued singles in a SUN 174 series to SUN 407.

Flip Records -  78/45rpm standard singles are mono. Red label. Grey above with the horizon between the two running through the spindle hole, and the grey upper half contained the company name and is decorated with four records. Matrix number left from the spindle hole. Catalog number of the disc at bottom. T he original Flip label issued singles in a Flip 501 series up to Flip 504.

Phillips International -  78/45rpm standard singles are mono. Blue label with geographic distortions, a subdued blue map of the world (with most of Europe and all of Asia conspicuously missing). Phillips International logo at the top of the label that reads: Sam C. Phillips International Corp. and is printed between the red-white-blue pennant. The fine print on the bottom of the label restricted its reach to New York, Memphis and Hollywood.  The original Phillips International label issued singles in a PI 3516 up to PI 3586 series.

Plastic Products and Music Sales

Plastic Products

1746 Chelsea

Buster Williams opened Plastic Products to manufacture records inside these Quonset huts in 1949. In that same year the 45rpm format record was introduced to the market. The durable and inexpensive 45 proved invaluable to the jukebox industry, which Williams already had a business. Williams also owned Music Sales, a wholesale company that supplied records to retail businesses.

Plastic Products was the second independently owned record manufacturer in the United States. Other pressing plants were owned by the major entertainment companies. Buster Williams did business with a number of small independent recording companies who created music outside the mainstream of popular entertainment of the time. He offered generous credit terms to these under financed companies as long as they allowed Plastic Products to manufacture what they created. Without his service perhaps Sun and Stax Records of Memphis would not have survived to create their now famous songs.

Williams had as many at 40 clients, including Chess, Atlantic and Ace Records. The Bihari Brothers moved part of their management and promotional office from Los Angeles to 1794 Chelsea to take advantage of his services.

In 1956, when rock and roll became popular, Plastic Products had the ability to manufacture thirty thousand records a day. Williams designed his own equipment to manufacture every step of the process. In one building the ingredients of the vinyl record are mixed and cooked. The dough was then cut by machine into strips. In another building the actual recorded song or songs were transferred from the original acetate by an electroplating process into a metal cylinder. Two of the buildings were filled with pressing machines. Workers inserted the master cylinder and label onto each pressing machine. Then they placed the soft, warm “wax” into the press and clamped down on the wax.

Front of one of the Quonset Huts (Photo courtesy of Mike Freeman)

Above is my proposed text for a historic marker about Plastic Products and Buster Williams. With any luck we may have this marker verified by the Shelby County Historic Commission, and set in place this summer. Funding for this marker was offered by a tour customer of mine, who saw the Quonset Huts with Jimmy Ogle. If things go as planned I will later write about her and her gift. 

A lot of people know about Sun Records, Stax, Elvis and many of the other talented performers. But few know that Williams helped make their success possible.

Memphis once had a music industry that covered every part of the creation of recorded music that we enjoyed. From talented performers and songwriters, to recording studios, to the labels that marketed the music, to the wholesale distribution of the label releases and finally to the actual manufacture of the record itself. Buster Williams was responsible for the manufacturing and a significant part of the wholesale business in Memphis.

Major entertainment companies created and sold most of the recorded music at the time, and controlled much of the production of records. But these same companies did not invest in recording or production in Memphis. Virtually all the recorded music that was created in Memphis from World War II onward was done by start up, locally owned companies. Many independent companies failed. 

The best "on the scene" written source that I used for the marker text was a 1956 full page newspaper story written by Ben S Parker. It was completed by photos of Elvis on stage at Russwood, Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two recording at Sun, and two women employees operating pressing machines at Plastic Products.

Part of the 1956 story shows the women making records (Photo courtesy of Mike Freeman)

I was actually inside one of the Huts in 1983, and the pressing machines were all lined up and ready to go. This was just before the compact disc replaced vinyl records. I worked for Jake Schorr then, who owned Jefferson Square restaurant. We lost the restaurant in a fire. After that we salvaged some of the equipment and stored it in the Hut. Jake's childhood friend was Robert Williams Jr, son of the founder of Plastic Products. On occasional visits with Jake I have learned a lot about the Williams family businesses and of music history.

Williams also owned a company that serviced and operated jukeboxes, Williams Distributing Inc, and Music Sales, 1117 Union, a company that supplied inventory of recordings to retail stores and to jukebox companies. Again Williams provided valuable service to independent labels in Memphis and elsewhere. He sold their creative product to retail stores and to jukebox suppliers throughout, according to the 1956 newspaper story, at least one third of the United States.

All information and visual articles about Plastic Products written by Mike Freeman, writer, publicist and Memphis Historian, Memphis, Tennessee, April 1, 2012.

THE BLUES YEARS - When Sam Phillips formally opened the Memphis Recording Service, large numbers of local blues musicians walked through the company front door. In order to understand Phillips' success, it is necessary to examine his relationship with Memphis musicians and key figures in the music business.

At the time, the record business was dominated by corporate giants. The major record labels - Decca, RCA, Columbia, and Capitol - soon found that they were challenged by three new labels: MGM, Mercury, and London. To Phillips' surprise, none of these companies paid any attention to the blues.

Several small labels - Chess, Atlantic, Imperial, and others - were competing for the artists at the center of Sam Phillips' attention, however. At first, the Memphis Recording Service simply recorded master tapes for these other small labels to release. Leonard Chess or one of the Bihari brothers would order a tape, and Sam Phillips would record the artist. While there was no money in making these recordings for others, Phillips found it excellent training for future success with his own label.

Initially, Phillips' plan was to sign and record some of the best local artists, and sell the master tapes to the growing army of independent record labels. He began asking around about music groups that he could record. If a band could be recorded effectively, Sam Phillips reasoned, the master could be sold to a name record label by his recording company.

Bill McCall of 4-Star and Gilt-Edge Records became one of Sam Phillips' earliest customers. 4-star, a Los Angeles-based company, had discovered Cecil Gant, a black crossover piano player with a boogie-woogie sound. McCall also bought songs from an Oakland-based songwriter, Bob Geddins. Geddins was one of many black songwriters who convinced McCall that black artists could record in a white vein. The ties that Phillips established with McCall not only helped educate Sam about the record business, but McCall provided an example of a slick record promoter whose astuteness interested him even more in the commercial possibilities of black music.

When Bill McCall asked Sam Phillips to cut some demos for 4-Star, Sam jumped at the chance. In May and June 1951, Sam Phillips recorded two blues artists, a piano player, Lost John Hunter, and a blues guitarist, Charlie Burse. One song from this session "Cool Down Mama" (4-Star 1942) by Lost John Hunter and the Blind Bats was registered with B.M.I. in September 1951 and released to immediate obscurity. It is an important song, because this was Sam Phillips, first blues release.

Sam Phillips also entered into an agreement with Modern Records magnates Jules and Saul Bihari to produce tapes for their new RPM label. After recording Joe Hill Louis, Phineas Newborn, and the Gospel Travelers, Sam Phillips once again was struck with the notion of turning out his own records. The Joe Hill Louis tapes intrigued Phillips because he realized that Louis' versatile musical talents could be used in the studio to back other artists.

The Biharis recognized Memphis' unique musical talent. In the summer of 1949, B.B. King signed a contract with the RPM label and recorded songs that became Memphis hits. B.B. King's "Woke Up This Morning", "B.B's Blues", and "B.B's Boogie" were songs that Sam Phillips loved, and they influenced his decision to open his own record business. RPM had not only released B.B. King's records, but regularly scouted local Memphis clubs for new acts. When some of the artists that Sam Phillips recorded for the Biharis opted for other labels, there were harsh words. By late 1951, the tension between Phillips and Bihari brothers were obvious to most musicians hanging around the Memphis Recording Service; Phillips, everyone also noticed, thought incessantly about turning out his own records.

Sam Phillips' reputation as an innovative producer was largely due to his recording of "Rocket 88". The tune featured the lead vocal of Ike Turner's saxophonist, Jackie Brenston.

Sam Phillips recorded Walter Horton's harmonica and jug band virtuoso Jack Kelly. Sam recorded Jackie Boy, Little Walter and Johnny London.

Sam Phillips was a perfectionist with an ear for the right sound, and if the sound wasn't exactly right he shelved plans for the record. The key to Sun Records reputation and success was the quality of its product. From the beginning, Sun recordings had to be commercial in order to be released. All of the early blues recording sessions, which took place at night because Sam was selling his products during the day, were supervised by Phillips' because he didn't trust the instincts of those around him.

One of the most obscure but significant Memphis musicians was an harmonica player named James Cotton. In 1953, Cotton's band featured guitarist Pat Hare, and in December of that year Sam Phillips brought Cotton and his band into Sun Records to record two songs.

It was Les Bihari who made the deal with Sam Phillips to produce masters for Modern, and they released some Howlin' Wolf tunes. Many of the Howlin' Wolf songs that Phillips recorded were not released, because of arguments over songwriting credit.

Most Sun Records' artists have commented that Sam Phillips did pay his artists a fair royalty. He was often late with the royalty payments, but this was due to the lack of available cash. During recording sessions, Phillips paid a small, but fair, wage to his session men.

By 1952, however, Sun Records was established as a legitimate business. The first two years were experimental ones as Phillips learned the ropes. It was necessary to turn a profit with vanity records to guarantee that enough money could be generated to continue the Sun Records operation. Once the company began, however, Phillips was confident that he could turn out successful blues records.

From 1951 to 1953, Sam Phillips strongest efforts were in the blues field, where he turned out some of the finest music in the South. He recorded or listened to B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Big Walter Horton, Little Junior Parker, Willie Nix, Big Ma Rainey, Howlin' Wolf, Rosco Gordon, and Rufus Thomas among others. In Memphis, blues artists enabled Sam Phillips to sell large quantities of records. Phillips paid the artist a fair price for the music and didn't interfere with their recording style. It was this widespread confidence in Phillips' production techniques that fostered a word-of-mouth reputation which brought the South's best blues acts to the Sun studio.

By the oddest coincidence, the man who is ascribed as having written the first "Memphis Blues", in 1912, W.C. Handy, was born - like Sam Phillips - in Florence, Alabama. Handy became a bandleader, playing dances throughout the South, tunes like "Cotton Blossoms" or "Sousa's Stars And Stripes Forever". However, Handy also heard the music of the field hands and railroad workers as he travelled through the South, and one night in 1903 at Tutwiler railroad station he heard a "lean, loose-jointed Negro" play a blues which featured the line "Goin' where the Southern cross the Dog". It was a revelation to Handy, and he gradually incorporated elements of blues into his work. Like Sam Phillips would some half-century later, Handy too, worked in Memphis and in 1909 found himself hanging out at Pee Wee's saloon and gambling joint, and working to elect. E.H. Crump as Mayor. The tune he used gradually became the "Memphis Blues", with its 12-bar format. It was the first of many blues, but the (relatively unsophisticated) musicians whom Handy had learned from would have to wait their turn in the spotlight until he advent of the 78-rpm disc.

Black musicians had been recorded on wax cylinders as early as 1902, but what is widely accepted as the first blues recording - Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" - wasn't made until 1920. Its subsequent success ensured that many more would follow, and after running the gamut of vaudeville singers, Jazz bands and Choirs, the record companies gradually picket up the courage to record country blues - and were frequently astonished at the resulting sales figures.

From 1927 onwards, Memphis was often the target of field recording units, but after the Depression this ceased - apart from one lone ARC session in 1939. Strangely enough, three of the singers featured here in this publication - Charlie Burse, Jack Kelly, and Jimmy DeBerry - got a chance to record then, their last sessions before recording for Sam Phillips more than a decade later.

The outbreak of World War 2, allied to record company policy, the shellac shortage, and the recording ban enforced by the AFM scotched any further local blues-oriented recording dates in the short-term. Meanwhile, the major record companies had settled into a formulaic rut (so what's new?) using session musicians, and generally ignoring individual talent from the South. They continued in this vein after the war, and were subsequently usurped by the burgeoning power of the Independent labels, who were quick to exploit public demand for more exciting, up-to-date rhythm and blues, and soon swept the majors out of the scene.

Sam Phillips was the forefront of this upsurge, and initially, he had Memphis - the natural migration point for blacks from the Tri-State area (Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee) - virtually to himself. He sought out local musicians via radio shows (notably his own spot on WREC radio and his "blood brother" Dewey Phillips daily WHBQ radio show) and talents scouts (e.g. Ike Turner) and quickly built up the roster of talent which earned him a formidable reputation - and ultimately, the successes which led to the appearance of serious competition locally via labels like Meteor Records.

After great blues came great rockabilly but after a decade of hectic recording Phillips started to lose interest and eventually sold out, investing his money in the Holiday Inn chain. But that's another story.

THE COUNTRY YEARS - Of all the musical styles associated with Sun Records, country music is the least well recognised and the least well documented. This is surprising because country music appeared on the magic yellow label from the first full year of operation until the last. Moreover, most of the artists primarily associated with Sun Records began their careers in country music or went on to carve out a career in country music.

However, when we came to compile the Sun Country Years we encountered some special problems. Sam Phillips and his producers recorded a lot of country music. Even before the birth of Sun Records, Phillips was recording country music for Chess and 4-Star Records. If we included every country performance from those seventeen years the list of recordings would be an unmanageable size.

As Sun's fame grew, hundreds of artists made the trek to Union and Marshall, hoping that they would be discovered in the same way as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. Hundreds more mailed in demo tapes, many of which remain unheard to this day. Some of those tapes were shipped to Nashville with the Sun tape inventory and we have included a few examples of them. Perhaps a couple were not recorded at 706 Union but we judged them to be of sufficient interest that they warranted inclusion.

We started listening to this music many years ago and it seems as though each major project, in particular the Sun Boxes series, deepens out appreciation of the music, the environment which gave birth to it and the actual recording industry during those far off years. Despite the plethora of Sun reissues it is really hard to believe that you are scratching the bottom of the barrel when you uncover previously unknown Charlie Feathers recordings or bring some of the previously unknown or little known artists into the spotlight.

The music scene has changed out of all recognition in the years since the first of these performances was recorded. In technical terms alone, the changes have been dramatic. The acetates that Sam Phillips used in 1950 were supplanted by tape which has now been supplanted by computer scans of the audio signal. The 78rpm disc, the primary medium for sound recordings in 1950, was supplanted by microgroove which is, in turn, being supplanted by compact disc. It is now commonplace to fit one hour's worth of music onto a disc that is several inches smaller and several ounces lighter than the old 78s that held the fruits of Phillips' first efforts.

Yet, somehow, the music that Sam Phillips recorded in his tiny studio in an era so different from the present has survived to sound better with each passing year. As country music surrenders its soul in the quest for the Holy Grail of crossover, it becomes necessary to look back over your shoulder. It will be a sad day when there is no place for Charlie Feathers or Doug Poindexter singing their hearts out with a painfully simple, pure hillbilly backing. This country music is very special and we're betting that much of it will be around long after most of today's country music is forgotten.

It is probably fair to say that there was a classic period for country music on Sun Records. It fell between 1954 and 1956 when most of the country music that emanated from Sam Phillips' little studio was achingly pure and almost totally untouched by rhythm and blues. Success, of course, came with the rockabilly boom that dawned in 1956 and most of the classic country music recorded on Sun sold abysmally. When Sam Phillips calculated Earl Peterson's royalty statement in May 1955, SUN 197 had sold five copies in the preceding six months, bringing the total sales to 2868, but 196 copies had been returned. Total royalties amounted to $94.17 but Peterson had already purchased $60 worth of records, reducing the total amount owed to $34.17 peanuts - even in 1955.

It is hard to pinpoint the reasons for the dismal sales. Some artists such as Slim Rhodes had strictly local appeal. Slim's radio and, later, television, appearances ensured that his product would sell well in Memphis and the surrounding area. The Ripley Cotton Choppers, only seemed to sell well in Ripley (population 450). Charlie Feathers briefly cracked the Memphis charts with "Peepin' Eyes" thereby ensuring that he would at least see a follow-up but, in general, it seems as though Phillips had a hard time selling his country titles.

Perhaps one reason lay in the nature of the country music industry. It was dominated by the major labels. In April 1955, for example, Decca held five of the fifteen slots in the country charts. The only smaller labels to get a look-in were Dot, Imperial and Fabor. Initially, Phillips had geared his operation to the rhythm and blues market which was dominated by independent labels with strong distribution channels to support them. By the time Phillips cracked the country charts with Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash in the late months of 1955, the entire picture was starting to chance; the boundaries were starting to blur. Moreover, it is possible that Sam Phillips, with his limited resources, spent too much time getting Elvis Presley and later Johnny Cash off the ground, and that Earl Peterson, Doug Poindexter, Hardrock Gunter, Charlie Feathers, Jimmy Haggett and the Miller Sisters suffered as a result.

Sam Phillips was also afflicted by a desperate lack of Cash flow in 1954-1955. Sun had seen their main blues hits in 1953 and by 1955 distributors were still playing for new Presley product with returned blues titles. Sam Phillips was also trying to buy back his brother Jud's share of Sun (which Jud had probably bought from Jim Bulleit) and repay an unrecouped advance from Chess Records. Little wonder therefore that he found neither the time nor the money to promote his unknown country acts into a fiercely competitive marketplace that was dominated by Decca, Columbia and RCA. He could not neglect Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash but the inevitable result was that other artists suffered. Jud Phillips was back in Alabama and Sun was reduced to a two-person operation during this critical period.

However, sales are not the only criteria by which music is measured. If that were the case we'd be preparing the Four Lads or Hugo Winterhalter boxed sets. The country music that Phillips produced was difficult music. It is not easy on the ears, nor does it have the immediately appealing frenetic drive of rockabilly. It can take repeated exposure to see the tormented and primitive beauty in Charlie Feathers "I've Been Deceived". However, it is the same rawness that has enabled the music to survive these many years. When Charlie Feathers was settling down to record "I've Been Deceived", the pop and country markets were gripped by Davy Crockett mania. "The Ballad Of Davy Crockett" sold seven million copies on 20 labels. Feathers' single barely crept into four figures. However, 30 years later, Davy Crockett is a long forgotten crazy, and "I've Been Deceived" survives to sound better than ever. Pure country soul counts for something after all.

The first country record on Sun was out-of-date before the cutting stylus left the lathe. The Ripley Cotton Choppers represented a throwback to the pre War era. Their sound owed more to the Carter Family than to prevailing trends in country music. The same could be said of Howard Seratt. But then Phillips could never be accused of being mainstream. But the left-field approach brought its rewards when Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash cracked the country charts with smartingly original music.

Much of the music that Sam Phillips recorded, especially between 1954 and 1956, betrayed some of the influence of country music's lately departed king, Hank Williams. Unlike many labels, Phillips was not slavishly Williams' style. Artists such as Doug Poindexter, Carl Perkins and Charlie Feathers used Williams' style as the basis of their own but it was still very much the artist's personality that shone through.

Sam Phillips was also fortunate to have a country house band of stellar quality. Perhaps if they had played together as long as their Nashville counterparts their music would have become formula-ridden and humdrum. As it was, every performance seemed to be minted afresh. The intensity of Stanley Kesler's steel guitar matched with Bill Cantrell's fiddle and the deadened bass string sound of Quinton Claunch adds so much to these sessions.

In fact, Claunch and Cantrell offered Sam Phillips the major country hit to emerge from Memphis before Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. The song was "Daydreamin'" by Bud Deckelman. It was finally released on Meteor after it had been mastered in Sam Phillips' studio which must have it doubly galling. Meteor's triumph was short-lived, however, because Deckelman departed almost immediately for MGM, leaving both Sun and Meteor with "Daydreamin'" sequels by other artists. Deckelman was closer to Hank Williams than any of Phillips' artists which is probably the reason why MGM were so pleased to secure him. Unfortunately, no-one had told MGM that there was only one Hank Williams.

Within a few months, the limited success of "Daydreamin'" was swept aside in the rockabilly revolution. However, Sun never forsook country music even after the success of "Blue Suede Shoes". Ernie Chaffin, Mack Self and others produced delightful country music that was almost an anachronism as the trend towards crossover product gathered momentum. Even beyond the scope of the recordings, Sun recorded country artists but none could even come close outselling the long departed Johnny Cash. Finally, when it seemed as though the bottom of the barrel has been reached for Cash repackages, Sun signed Dane Stinit, an artist who modeled his style on Cash. Unfortunately, just as no-one seemed to have told MGM that there was only Hank Williams, so it seemed that no-one told Sun that there was only one Johnny Cash. Stinit reportedly lured Sam Phillips back into the control room, but to no avail.

Sam Phillips recorded some truly excellent country music. It was original, it was profoundly soulful and some of it crossed the fine line between uptempo hillbilly music and rockabilly. Perhaps more than anything else, this highlights the fact that virtually all of the rockabillies would have been singing hillbilly music if they had auditioned a few months or a few years earlier. They all left something behind in little 7" tape boxes that resembled country music. Only Sonny Burgess and Billy Riley veered towards rhythm and blues and, of course, Roy Orbison always had his sights set filmly on the pop charts. Harold Jenkins (Also known as Conway Twitty) left behind a pure and gentle country ballad. Warren Smith left a large and hauntingly beautiful legacy of country music that presaged his move to country with Liberty Records. Jack Clement, whose mind moved concurrently in half a dozen directions, never forsook his country roots. Even Charlie Rich, the most urbane and musically eclectic of them all, left some title in the can (as well as on record) that predated his own monumental success with country music. Country music was the common wellspring. When Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins gathered together in Phillips' studio at the end of 1956 they came together musically on common ground: country gospel and good old country music. It might not have paid for the Cadillacs and the diamond rings but it was never too far beneath the surface.

THE ROCKING YEARS - Rock and Roll is the generic term used to describe the dominant strain of American popular music from 1955 to 1965. In general, rock and roll was teenage-oriented dance music that synthesized elements of black and white folk and popular music styles, specifically and most conspicuously, rhythm and blues and country (or hillbilly) music, is superseded by Elvis Presley, born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and reared in Memphis, Tennessee. All of the other subsequent rock and roll innovators, with the arguable exception of Chuck Berry (born, San Jose, California, 1926), were native southerners: Carl Perkins (born, Bermis, Tennessee, 1932), Jerry Lee Lewis (born, Ferriday, Louisiana, 1935), Buddy Holly (born, Lubbock, Texas, 1936), Fats Domino (born, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1928), Little Richard (born, Macon, Georgia, 1932).

From 1955 to 1958 rock and roll remained largely a southern phenomenon. Two principal regional recording centers were Memphis and New Orleans, each of which produced a distinctive idiom of its own. Memphis, long a cultural crossroads where various southern musical traditions flourished, especially Mississippi Delta blues and hillbilly music, produced a dynamic hybrid known as rockabilly.

Rockabilly was firmly rooted in country music but drew heavily from black sources, most notably gospel and rhythm and blues. It was characterized by small ensembles (often a trio), stringed instrumentation, and a persistent yet light beat layered over frenzied vocalizing and an echo produced in the recording studio. The classic rockabilly sound, engineered by Sam Phillips and performed by Elvis Presley (vocal and acoustic rhythm guitar), Scotty Moore (electric lead guitar), and Bill Black (acoustic upright bass) was first recorded at Phillips' Sun Records studio in Memphis in July 5-6, 1954. Sun soon attracted dozens of aspiring young musicians from across the South who performed in a style similar to Presley's. Important Sun artists after Elvis Presley were Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Billy Riley, Sonny Burgess, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich and Conway Twitty. A definitive rockabilly group from Memphis, which recorded for the New York-based Coral label, was the Rock And Roll Trio (Johnny Burnette, Dorsey Burnette, and Paul Burlison).

After 1955 the basic Memphis rockabilly sound underwent a gradual modification. Elvis Presley moved toward a mainstream rock and roll sound after signing with RCA Victor in November 1955. Jerry Lee Lewis introduced his own boogie-woogie-based piano style into rockabilly with his first Sun releases in 1955. Beginning in 1957 Buddy Holly created an original pop-influenced variant of rockabilly, exemplified by such recordings as "That'll Be The Day" (1957), "Peggy Sue" (1957), and "Rave On" (1958). In Louisiana, Dale Hawkins recorded in a strong blues-influenced style, which gained its greatest expression in the hit recording "Suzie Q" (1957). Numerous influential rockabilly artists lived and recorded in Los Angeles after 1955, including Gene Vincent (originally from Virginia), whose best-known song was "Be Bop A Lula" (1956), Wanda Jackson (originally from Oklahoma), the most talented female rockabilly performer; Eddie Cochran, next to Carl Perkins, the finest rockabilly songwriter, who recorded such definitive items as "Summertime Blues" (1958) and "Something Else" (1959), and Ricky Nelson (born in New Jersey), who sold more rockabilly recordings than anyone other than Elvis Presley. Nelson and the Nashville-based Everly Brothers followed Presley and Holly in moving rockabilly in the direction of pop music by removing much of the rawness and dynamism from the idiom. The Everly Brothers were especially significant for introducing the traditional hillbilly duet style into rock and roll. Their best recordings such as "Wake Up Little Susie" (1957), and "Bye, Bye Love" (1957), retained much of the potency of early rockabilly. A few mainstream country performers also recorded in a rockabilly mode, most notably Marty Robbins and Johnny Horton.

The New Orleans sound, which formed the second major component of southern rock and roll, was infused with the blues. It was characterized by small ensembles (usually five or six pieces) whose central instrument was the piano. Accompaniment usually consisted of saxophones, drums, electric bass, and horns. It was noted for a heavy, rolling beat and Carribean-derived polyrhythms. New Orleans vocalists, most of whom were black, sang with the thick inflections indigenous to the city. Most of the songs identified with New Orleans rock and roll were exuberant, joyous, and urgent, yet less frenzied than those from rockabilly music. Lyrics were seldom teen oriented.

Though no record label of comparable importance to Sun Records existed in New Orleans - most of the city's recordings were released by West Coast companies such as Imperial and Specialty - virtually every recording made in the city came from the studio of engineer and producer Cosimo Matassa. Matassa and Dave Bartholomew, a musician, writer, and producer, were key figures in the evolution of a distinctive New Orleans rock and roll style.

The quintessential New Orleans rock and roll performer was Fats Domino, a musical heir of the great rhythm and blues pianist Professor Longhair (Henry Roeland Byrd). Domino was a popular rhythm and blues recording artist in the early 1950s, and he made his entry onto the national pop charts in 1955 with "Ain't That A Shame". In the 1955-60 period, Domino produced a remarkable series of hit recordings, including "Blueberry Hill" (1956) and "I'm walking" (1957).

Other important contributors to the New Orleans sound included Lloyd Price, Smiley Lewis, Huey Smith, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Frankie Ford, Bobby Charles, and Jimmy Clanton. Clanton, a white performer, accomplished the closest approximation of the New Orleans style to a mainstream rock and roll sound with recordings like "Just A Dream" (1958). The only non-Louisiana artist to play a significant role in the popularization of the New Orleans style was Little Richard (Penniman) of Macon, Georgia. Little Richard became one of the most dynamic and controversial rock and roll performers of the 1950s with such hits as "Tutti Frutti" (1955) and "Rip It Up" (1956).

By the early 1960s rockabilly music had largely been subsumed by the rock and roll mainstream. The New Orleans sound remained a vital and distinctive regional rock and roll form, though it too declined in popularity and experienced a certain degree of accommodation with the mainstream approach. Both Memphis and New Orleans ceased to be important recording centers. Most southern musicians left to work in Los Angeles, New York, or Nashville where, if successful, they tended to produce recordings of minimal regional identity. Southern rock and roll, which, in the forms of rockabilly and New Orleans music, had exerted a formative influence on the creation of a national rock and roll style, now merely existed as one element within the broad form as evinced by such representative recordings of the period as Johnny Tillotson's "Poetry In Motion" (1960), Johnny Burnette's "You're Sixteen" (1960), and Elvis Presley's "Return To Sender" (1962).

After 1963 American rock and roll began to succumb to the so-called British Invasion, spearheaded by the Beatles, who were soon followed by such groups as the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and Gerry and the Pacemakers. Ironically, the British invaders were themselves extremely indebted to the southern-derived forms of early rock and roll and thus revived much of the southern character and identity of the music. The most successful American rock and roll recording artist of the mod-1960s was Johnny Rivers, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana (born 1940), who had begun his musical career as a rockabilly stylist. Rivers's music combined many varied styles, from urban folk music to rockabilly, but retained its essential southern character.

By 1966 the Beatles and Bob Dylan (another musician devoted to southern musical forms) led the way toward "rock" as contrasted to rock and roll. Rock had a general, national (and even international) identity. It was a form oriented more toward concerts than dance and was linguistically and thematically sophisticated and complex. Only in the early 1970s, with the emergence of the Allman Brothers Band and the attendant success of Capricorn records of Maco, Georgia, did a specific, self conscious, and identifiable southern rock style evolve.

THE GOSPEL YEARS  - It is easy to forget that many of our favorite musicians at Sun Records, who recorded in fields as diverse as country, blues and rockabilly, were profoundly religious. Their backgrounds predisposed them to sing gospel music, although the economics of their careers often precluded it. Sun label-owner Sam Phillips was in much the same position. Hardly was nevertheless in a poor position to sell gospel music. He tried early and, almost without exception, he failed.

Ultimately, Phillips adopted a policy of dissuading his artists from recording too much gospel music. When LPs became part of Sun's release schedule, Phillips occasionally included one gospel track as a concession to religious sensibilities - both the artists' and his own.

There is also a look at the gospel music that Sun Records did record. Sadly, some of it - perhaps some of the best of is - has been lost. There is no longer any trace of the sides Phillips recorded in June 1950 with The Gospel Travelers, although we do know that Modern Records rejected the samples Phillips sent them. Similarly, nothing remains of the five sides featuring Cicero Lewis and The Gospel Tones that Sam Phillips recorded in December 1951.

Presumably, there were no takes for that music as well. Of the tracks were are able to present here, it is important to remember that the vast majority of them were never originally released. Nevertheless, in many ways these recordings remains the forgotten root of roots music.

THE WOMAN OF SUN RECORDS - Sam Phillips has always had a complicated relationship with women. Certainly, his personal life would not be fodder for a family-rated TV movie of the week. During his - and Sun's - golden age, Sam was a ladies man. A charmer. Some would say a womanizer. That same charisma played an undeniable role in the studio, even with his male artists. He usually worked with the underdog - undereducated and poor-stricken whites and blacks, alike. They trusted him, often revered him. His power over them drew levels of creativity that many of them never knew within themselves, and rarely achieved elsewhere if their careers continued.

Women, too, were an underclass in the 1950s South. Sam's charisme, not to mention some powerful biological forces, led to some predictable outcomes in and out of the studio. In an early discussion, Phillips commented that in deciding whether to record women he had to "play with them on the side" in order to determine "if I could approach them in a way that would give distinction to what they did". Phillips indicated that he had used the same approach to decide which male artists he could work with in the studio. Forget the sexual connotation of his words. Its pretty clear that Phillips' meaning was nothing as crude as saying "I had to sleep with every woman I recorded". For him, "playing with them on the side" was likely an experience of the mind. Power. Control. Mind games. Disregard the implications of these words in the Politically Correct 21st Century. Sam Phillips was talking, purely and simply, about whatever it took to get the best work on tape.

In fact, Phillips went on to say that he never got to the point of "playing with them on the side" to the extent that he originally anticipated in making decisions about which women to record. Thus Sam Phillips fell back on Plan B. "I decided if I could find some unbelievable harmonies, maybe that would be a way to go".

To be sure, no one knew better than Sam Phillips that woman were a saleable commodity. Remember, it was Phillips who started the nation's first All Girl radio station in Memphis. This was commercial savvy, not the act of a proto-feminist. Phillips knew a business opportunity when he saw one and did not miss the chance to develop and sell WHER, when the time was right.

How did all of this translate into the way Sam Phillips recorded women? It remains anybody's guess. When he was still actively involved in the day-to-day decisions at Sun, Phillips recorded and released sides by an ageless old-style blues shouter (Big Memphis Marainey), a 13 year old hillbilly singer (Maggie Sue Wiumberly), a teenager white singer with a deep love of gutsy blues (Barbara Pittman), and two Mississippi sister-in-law (The Miller Sisters) whose unerring sweet country harmonies can still evoke chills. If there's a pattern here, it escapes us.

THE 706 UNION INSTRUMENTAL YEARS - The Sun label of Memphis was renowned for its blues and rockabilly, but instrumentals have not featured prominently in its annals. There was of course Bill Justis who hit the big time with "Raunchy", Brad Suggs who had a few instrumental singles, and Ace Cannon was around, but his payday came on Hi Records in Memphis.

Over the years of dipping into the Sun vaults, the odd instrumental has emerged here and there. Some from a blues background, some from a rockabilly background, others plain pop. As many of these assorted non vocal tracks, as time will allow, have been collected on this site.

One of the three Ampex 350 C Tape Recorders, Sun studio

AMPEX 350 C TAPE RECORDER - The Ampex Model 350 C magnetic tape recorder is a two-speed audio recorder designed for use with standard ¼ inch tape. The Model 350 is available in console, two-case portable, and rack-mount styles, all with either full or half track heads.

Independent record and playback systems allow the tape to be monitored while recording. A phone jack is provided to monitor either the record input signal before or during recording, or the output signal from the playback head while recording or during playback. An A-B switch is incorporated in order that direct comparison can be made between the original program and the recorded program. The same switch transfers a 4 inch VU meter for level comparison and monitoring. TheVU meter is also used to read bias and erase current.

It was on this machine (serial number 54L-220) that Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis end many more was first taped. Marion Keisker used the Ampex 350 C (made in Redwood City, California) to tape the last third of "My Happiness" and all of "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". The control panel connected to the tape recorders was made by RCA.

RCA Monaural Mixing Console 76-D and Presto 6N Lathe

THE CONTROL ROOM - had a equipped with a portable, five-input Presto mixing console and amateur Crestwood and Bell tape recorders. These were soon supplanted by a portable Presto PT900 machine; yet, unsure about the quality and durability of tape, Phillips recorded most of his earliest commercial efforts to 16-inch acetate discs, cutting them at 78rpm with a Presto 6N lathe that was hooked up to a Presto turntable. Still, it was another setup that subsequently helped endow both Phillips and Sun Records with legendary status.

The RCA 76-D Radio Console that replaced the Presto embellished the recordings with a warmth that emanated from inputs and outputs coupled through transformers, while three of Ampex 350 tape machines helped create the famous Sun sound, by bouncing the signal from a console model to the rackmounted version with a split-second delay between the two, Phillips achieved the slapback effect that generations of successors would strive to imitate. The RCA 76-D console (serial number 1011) was previously used in a Florida radio station. Sam Phillips used the monaural console to the end of 1959 at the old Sun studio at 706 Union Avenue.