As the 1960s wore on and both Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Rich departed for the greener climate at Mercury, Sam Phillips gradually lost interest in Sun Records. Much of the day-by-day activity of the label devolved to general manager Bill Fitzgerald and Sam's older son Knox. By the mid-1960s Knox was approaching the business of making records with much the same enthusiasm that his father had shown fifteen years earlier.

''I started off shipping out promo copies. Even though we hadn't had a hit of any size since ''What'd I Say'' we still sampled 3500-4000 disc jockeys, distributors etc. We had a hand cranked stencil machine with all their addresses and one of my first jobs at the new studio was to ship out these samples records. At night they would often cut sessions and I used to keep the log on the tape boxes and so on''.

''Then, while I was at Southwestern (Vocational and Technical College), I started experimenting with the equipment and I just set out to find some artists who would experiment with me. I didn't have a tremendous amount of technical knowledge and most of it was self-taught. I just wanted something really strange because I had been raised on Jerry Lee Lewis sessions and drunk Charlie Rich sessions. I started experimenting with Randy and The Radiants and then ,later, with the Jesters, Jimmy Day and the Nights, Bob Simon and so on''.

''We had a four track machine and then we installed a three track machine because Scotty Moore wanted to be compatible with the studios in Nashville which were all working to three track, in those days. There were also two single track monaural machine in tandem with the multi-track and Sam would always regard what he got on the single track as the mix''.

''The console was arranged like a 'V'. It was very futuristic. I never had much to do with the equipment in Nashville. I know that it was sold along with the studio but we later got some of it back and used it in the Trace Studio that Sam opened with Ray Harris in Tupelo''.

''The basic reason I believe was that Sam wasn't going to gamble the money promoting records any more. He had seen some of his friends go broke, such as the people who ran Vee-Jay, and he became just a little too conservative when the Memphis music industry really took off in the mid-1960s. That's a pity because the independent distribution network was still fairly strong. We would sample each record everywhere and we would test market most of them in a specific area. Bill Fitzgerald would hire independent guys in these markets to promote records – and we still had some records that sold strongly on a regional level. The problem was that there wasn't a commitment of spirit''.

''There wasn't a moment when we said, ÓK, that's the last record we put out on Sun'. I just wanted to get some money behind something and then the Holiday Inn deal came along and that was the tacit end of Sun Records. I thought that if I produced something for Holiday Inn that there would at least become cash behind it''.

''I personally pushed the idea of selling the Sun Records catalogue. I know that Shelby had approached Sam back when he was working for Mercury. I remember that it went so far that Irving Green (Mercury president) came down but nothing ever happened. Sam didn't see it as a major priority. I know that Columbia talked to him, probably because they wanted the Johnny Cash masters, and Jerry Wexler came down from Atlantic. We also talked at some length to Chess. I knew Marshall Chess because he was my generation. I told Sam he should go with Chess. Marshall came down to see us with Eddie Braddock but, once again, it didn't get finalized''.

''I know that Sam had higher offers for Sun Records than Shelby's offer but he knew that Shelby would work the catalogue and would keep the Sun logo alive. I was all in favour of it at first because Shelby was hot in those days. I placed quite a few masters with Shelby immediately after we signed the deal. We produced some great records and those were great times. We had big hits with the Gentrys and that Cliff Jackson record should have been a monster. There were signs that it was going to break and then it just unaccountably died. That could have been a very profitable deal for Shelby and I both but it fell apart unfortunately''.

Knox Phillips interviewed by Colin Escott, December 10, 1987

While flying over Brentwood, Tennessee, they encountered a violent thunderstorm. A subsequent investigation showed that the small airplane had become caught in the storm and Reeves suffered spatial disorientation. The singer's widow, Mary Reeves (1929–1999), probably unwittingly started the rumor that he was flying the airplane upside down and assumed he was increasing altitude to clear the storm. However, according to Larry Jordan, author of the 2011 biography, ''Jim Reeves: His Untold Story'', this scenario is refuted by eyewitnesses known to crash investigators who saw the plane overhead immediately before the mishap, and confirmed that Reeves was not upside down. Jordan writes extensively about forensic evidence (including from the long-elusive tower tape and accident report), which suggests that instead of making a right turn to avoid the storm (as he had been advised by the Approach Controller to do), Reeves turned left in an attempt to follow Franklin Road to the airport. In so doing, he flew further into the rain. While preoccupied with trying to re-establish his ground references, Reeves let his airspeed get too low and stalled the aircraft. Relying on his instincts more than his training, evidence suggests he applied full power and pulled back on the yoke before leveling his wings—a fatal, but not uncommon, mistake that induced a stall/spin from which he was too low to recover. Jordan writes that according to the tower tape, Reeves ran into the heavy rain at 4:51 p.m. and crashed only a minute later, at 4:52 p.m.

When the wreckage was found some 42 hours later, it was discovered the airplane's engine and nose were buried in the ground due to the impact of the crash. The crash site was in a wooded area north-northeast of Brentwood approximately at the junction of Baxter Lane and Franklin Pike Circle, just east of Interstate 65, and southwest of Nashville International Airport where Reeves planned to land. Coincidentally, both Reeves and Randy Hughes, the pilot of Patsy Cline's ill-fated airplane, were trained by the same instructor.

On the morning of August 2, 1964, after an intense search by several parties (which included several personal friends of Reeves including Ernest Tubb and Marty Robbins) the bodies of the singer and Dean Manuel were found in the wreckage of the aircraft and, at 1:00 p.m. local time, radio stations across the United States began to announce Reeves' death formally. Thousands of people traveled to pay their last respects at his funeral two days later. The coffin, draped in flowers from fans, was driven through the streets of Nashville and then to Reeves' final resting place near Carthage, Texas.

JULY 31, 1964 FRIDAY

The Osmond Brothers are told during the ''Friday Night Frolics'' they will join the Grand Ole Opry the following weekend. The night is also the final time the ''Frolics'' a Friday night version of the Opry, are held at Nashville's National Life Building.

AUGUST 1, 1964 SATURDAY

Roy Orbison recorded ''Oh, Pretty Woman'' in Fred Foster's Nashville recording studio.

While searching for the wreckage of Jim Reeves\ plane crash in Brentwood, Tennessee, rescue worker Carol Crimmons suffers a heart attack.

Warner Bros. released ''The Very Best Of The Everly Brothers''.

AUGUST 2, 1964 SUNDAY

Two days after the plane crash that claimed their lives, the bodies of Jim Reeves and keyboard player Dean Manuel, plus the mangled plane they were flying in, are finally discovered beneath some trees in Brentwood, Tennessee.

AUGUST 3, 1964 MONDAY

The country Music Foundation registers its charter in the state of Tennessee, paving the way for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''I Don't Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)''. 

Filming concludes for the Elvis Presley movie ''Girl Happy'' in Los Angeles.

Danny Myrick is born in Mississippi. After a role as lead singer for the 1990s band Western Flyer, he earns hits as a co-writer of Craig Morgan's ''International Harvester'', Tim McGraw's ''Truck Yeah'' and Jason Aldean's ''She's Country''.

AUGUST 5, 1964 WEDNESDAY

CBS Evening News shows film of Marines lighting the thatched roofs of the village of Cam Ne, Vietnam with Zippo lighters including critical commentary on the treatment of the villagers.

AUGUST 6, 1964 THURSDAY

Twins Peggy and Patsy Lynn are born to Loretta Lynn. They become a duo, The Lynns, as adults, scoring several awards nominations.

AUGUST 8, 1964 SATURDAY

Dottie West and The Osborne Brothers join the Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The Osbornes deliver ''Ruby (Are You Mad)''.

AUGUST 9, 1964 SUNDAY

Peter, Paul and Mary perform in New York at the funeral for Andrew Goodman, one of the three civil rights workers brutally murdered the previous month in Mississippi. Peter Yarrow will earn a country hit as the writer of ''Torn Between Two Lovers''.

AUGUST 10, 1964 MONDAY

Columbia Records released the album ''Another Side Of Bob Dylan''. Johnny Cash remakes one of the albums' songs ''It Ain't Me, babe'', later in the month, the first instance of a Dylan song becoming a country hit.

Mick Jagger is found guilty of speeding and driving without insurance in Liverpool, England. In 1969, he co-writes ''Honky Tonk Women'', ranked among country's 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation's ''Heartaches By The Number''.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution (officially, Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) passed by United States Congress. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia. By the following year over 200,000 US Troops are involved in the Vietnam war and sustained American bombing raids of North Vietnam, dubbed Operation Rolling Thunder, begin lasting for the next 3 years.

AUGUST 11, 1964 TUESDAY

The Music City News, established by Faron Young, celebrates its first anniversary with a pair of figure eight races at the Nashville Speedway. The winners, Willie Nelson and Roy Drusky.

AUGUST 14, 1964 FRIDAY

Singer and songwriter Johnny Burnette's unlit fishing boat was struck by an unaware cabin cruiser on Clear Lake, California. The impact threw him off the boat and he drowned. When he received the news, Dorsey Burnette called Paul Burlison, who flew out to comfort him and attend Johnny's funeral. The two men were to keep in touch until Dorsey's death of a heart attack in 1979. Johnny Burnette is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, near his brother, Dorsey and their parents in Ascension, Lot 8276, Space 4. Johnny Burnette with his Rock And Roll Trio in the mid-1950s, he helped define the rockabilly.

Roy Rogers has a nine-hour surgery to repair vertebrae in his back damaged by years of riding his horse, Trigger.

AUGUST 17, 1964 MONDAY

Debbie Lee Rogers, the adopted Korean daughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, dies in a Sunday School bus accident in San Clemente, California.

Marty Robbins recorded ''One Of These Days''.

AUGUST 19, 1964 WEDNESDAY

Dean Martin's ''Everybody Loves Somebody'' goes gold. The single is produced by future country executive Jimmy Bowen and features Glen Campbell on guitar.

The Beatles kick off an American tour at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Opening is The Bill Black Combo, but Bill Black is no longer part of the group, but it does feature guitarist Reggie Young, destined to play on hits by Elvis Presley and George Strait.

Pop singer Bobby Vinton, co-writer of the Marty Robbins country hit ''Adios Amigo'' has a son, Robbie Vinton.

Payments to Presley for each film amounted to between $225,000 to $1,000,000 up front, often half the budget for production, with a 50% share of the profits. These movies were being shot in sometimes as little as three weeks, with the complete scoring and recording of the soundtrack albums taking no more than two weeks. It fell to Freddy Bienstock, the assistant of Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, to ensure that the soundtrack songs fit into the profit equation with the publishing controlled by Elvis Presley Music or Gladys Music, the Hill and Range Publishing companies owned by Presley and Parker. As a result, successful writers such as Doc Pomus and Mort Schuman, Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott, and Don Robertson lost interest in adhering to the needs of the grind. It was interlocking self-promotion, causing one MGM employee to remark that the movies "didn't need titles. They could be numbered. They would still sell".

Blackwell and Scott in fact submitted a candidate for the title track, "I'm a Roustabout" recorded on March 3, only to find it substituted by a song from a different team of writers. This recording was eventually released by RCA on the 2003 compilation ''2nd To None''. 

Presley and his coterie of top session musicians gamely plowed through all of this, and eleven songs were recorded for the twenty-minute soundtrack LP. Four songs from this album appeared on the 1995 soundtrack compilation, ''The Essential 60s Masters II'', "Roustabout", "Little Egypt'', "Poison Ivy League", and "There's a Brand New Day on the Horizon".

Rick Nelson is heard performing ''Mean Old World'' on ABC-TV's ''The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet''.

NOVEMBER 2, 1964 MONDAY