SUN RECORDS
Alabama-born former radio DJ and engineer Sam Phillips saved up his money and opened the small ‘Memphis Recording Service’ on 706 Union Avenue, Memphis in 1950. His motto was “We Record Anything — Anywhere — Anytime” and would put anyone on record for four dollars which bought you two songs on one double-sided acetate. Phillips had a love for rhythm and blues music which stemmed from his childhood as a sharecropper’s son on an Alabama plantation, being so fascinated by the songs and rhythms sang by the African American cotton pickers. His musical tastes therefore meant that the studio focused mostly on African American musicians. To begin with Phillips scouted and recorded local blues artists for record labels Chess, based in Chicago and Modern, based in Los Angeles. Phillips’ first really big recording success was with ‘Rocket ‘88’ by Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats (Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm) in 1951. Thanks to Ike Turner’s Delta blues connections, Phillips also cut records for artists such as Howlin’ Wolf and B.B King. The success of Rocket ’88 allowed him to launch his own label Sun Records in 1952 when worsening relationships with Modern, after giving Rocket ’88 to Chess to release, and the migration of the blues scene to Chicago led to Phillips needing to find a new sound to record. As according to his motto, Phillips continued to record anyone and listen to whoever came in to audition. Phillips really worked with his artists, he had a gift of putting them at ease and bringing out their best performances. One of these recording sessions, with a still-unknown Elvis resulted in an energetic, reimagined version of ‘That’s Alright, Mama’ by blues musician Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup, discovering both a future star and a new ‘rockabilly’ genre about to take the US by storm! The recognisable Sun Records sound we know today was born.
Sun Records is credited with inventing the ‘rockabilly’ genre. The more intense, rhythm driven sound of introducing drums, (originally banned from the iconic country venue the Grand Ole Opry’s stage) and sometimes electric instruments to country music. The name suggests rockabilly is a very white genre due to the etymological reference of derogatory term for rural white people as ‘hillbillies’. Phillips disliked this name for the genre and believed ‘rock & roll’ was a better term as it was more inclusive of both black and white. He also felt rockabilly suggested that perhaps something was being stolen from the black community and put into a white form. Despite Phillips’ claims of striving for an all-inclusive scene, many people do believe that these first white rock & roll/rockabilly artists did indeed profit from cultural appropriation and continue to do so.
The highly influential ‘slap back echo’ was created by Phillips’ unique, simple studio set-up. This consisted of an RCA 76-D mixing console, a Presto 6N lathe and turntable to cut master disks, and two Ampex 350 tape recorders to create the inimitable Sun slap-back echo delay effect. This now iconic sound is present on so many famous records such as ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ — Carl Perkins, ‘Walk the Line’ and ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ — Johnny Cash, ‘Great Balls of Fire’ — Jerry Lee Lewis.
In October 1957, Sam Phillips established a secondary label called ‘Phillips International’. This label had successful releases by Charlie Rich, Carl Mann and Bill Justis. This subsidiary label lead to the opening of new studios.
In 1961 the studio relocated to a larger Memphis site and additional Nashville location. These new sites featured an upgrade to stereo recording machines as opposed to the monoaural recording equipment in the original studio. Both of these studios were popular and gained substantial revenue for the Phillips corporation by recording music for other labels in addition to Sun Records and Phillips International. Although seemingly a positive developmental expansion, this move also signalled the wind-down for Sun Records. Phillips could never recapture the sound or feel of the original studio and his interest in making music began to wane over the next few years as he became more interested in investing in various other industries such as radio and hotels. Sam Phillips was an early investor in the Holiday Inn chain which obviously proved lucrative for him.
1951 release ‘Rocket ‘88’ by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm) is widely regarded as the first rock & roll song in history. Introducing the first example of distortion due to the guitarist’s vacuum tube amp being damaged on the drive to Sun Studio. Phillips tried to hold the broken cone in place by stuffing the amp with newspaper which created a distorted ‘rock’ guitar sound. Although not released on Sun Records, Rocket ’88 was instrumental in the label’s creation as it contributed to the ‘Sun Records sound’ and its success helped Phillips launch the label the very next year.
In an unusual move, in 1952 a group of five Tennessee State Penitentiary inmates who called themselves the ‘Prisonaires’ recorded ‘Just Walkin in the Rain’ at Sun Records. They had been discovered by Radio producer Joe Calloway and aired on his radio station. This caught the attention of Phillips who then arranged for them to be transported by armed guard to the Studio. The popularity of the record raised the Sun Records’ profile and lead to the group being given day passes to tour Tennessee.
1953 release ‘Bearcat’ by Rufus Thomas was an answer to (and melody rip-off of) Big Mama Thornton’s ‘Hound Dog’. Bearcat was very popular and became Sun Records’ first hit record. Despite the copyright infringement case that ensued, this record helped the development of Sun Records because it drew a lot of attention and provided Phillips with distribution deals.
1954 release of ‘That’s Alright Mama’, an Arthur Crudup cover was unknown singer Elvis’ debut record. This new up-tempo arrangement of the blues song with the addition of Phillips’ ‘slap back’ technique seemingly birthed so-called ‘rockabilly’ and cemented Sun Records’ place in rock & roll history as the pioneering sound of the genre.
Sun Records began life in a segregated America, racial tensions were high and the Civil Rights Act was over a decade away. There was a deep divide between the white and black population. The migration of African Americans to the northern states was in full flow in order to escape the lack of opportunities, Jim Crow laws and lingering threat of lynching in the south. It was an uncertain, dangerous time of inequality where white supremacy was rife and African Americans had to rely upon a handbook called the ‘Green Book’ in order to navigate their country relatively safely.
America needed to be brought together, cultures needed to coexist peacefully, steps needed to be taken by open-minded, forward-thinking people. Sam Phillips was certainly striving for equality, both race and gender. This is clear in his founding of Memphis radio station WHER, where nearly every single job, on and off-air, was done by women. Phillips had a love for the rhythm and blues music of traditionally black origin and was saddened by the lack of airplay for black artists. He knew there was a gap in the market for a new sound, inspired by his beloved rhythm and blues and merging it with country music. Sun Records had one of the first non-segregated recording studios. Recording black and white artists. Hoping to break down the barriers between black and white music, melding blues with country, and creating the genre that we now refer to as rock & roll. Despite his aim of wanting to create a new genre for both black and white artists, unfortunately due to the era, this blend of musical ideas definitely served more white acts than black acts, recognised in the genre term ‘rockabilly’, and could be argued as outright cultural appropriation.
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Betts, S.L. and Betts, S.L. (2018). Sun Records Studio: 18 Musical Milestones. [online] Rolling Stone. Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sun-records-studio-18-musical-milestones-196715/.
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