HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SAM PHILLIPS! Born Samuel Cornelius Phillips on January 5, 1923 on a farm near Florence, Alabama. He was a businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s. He was a producer, label owner, and talent scout throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He was the founder of both Sun Studio and Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Through Sun, Phillips discovered such recording talent as Howlin Wolf, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. The height of his success culminated in his launching of Elvis Presleys career in 1954. He is also associated with several other noteworthy rhythm and blues and rock and roll stars of the period. Phillips sold Sun in 1969. He was an early investor in the Holiday Inn chain of hotels. He also advocated racial equality and helped break down racial music industry barriers. As a child he picked cotton in the fields with his parents alongside black laborers. The experience of the workers singing in the fields left a big impression on the young Phillips. Traveling through Memphis with his family in 1939 on the way to see a preacher in Dallas, he slipped off to look at Beale Street, at the time the heart of the citys music scene. I just fell totally in love, he later recalled. In the 1940s, Phillips worked as a DJ and radio engineer for Muscle Shoals radio station WLAY (AM). According to Phillips, this radio stations open format (of broadcasting music from both white and black musicians) would later inspire his work in Memphis. On January 3, 1950, Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. The Memphis Recording Service let amateurs perform, which drew performers such as B.B. King, Junior Parker, and Howlin Wolf. Phillips then would sell their performances to larger record labels. In addition to musical performances, Phillips recorded events such as weddings and funerals, selling the recordings. Phillips combined different styles of music. He was interested in the blues and said: The blues, it got people- black and white- to think about life, how difficult, yet also how good it can be. They would sing about it; they would pray about it; they would preach about it. This is how they relieved the burden of what existed day in and day out. Phillips recorded what some—notably music historian Peter Guralnick—consider the first rock and roll record: Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, a band led by 19-year-old Ike Turner, who also wrote the song. The recording was released on the Chess/Checker record label in Chicago, in 1951. From 1950 to 1954 Phillips recorded the music of James Cotton, Rufus Thomas, Rosco Gordon, Little Milton, Bobby Blue Bland, and others. Others such as B.B. King and Howlin Wolf made their first recordings at his studio. In fact, Phillips deemed Howlin Wolf his greatest discovery and he deemed Elvis Presley his second greatest discovery. Sun Records produced more Rock and Roll records than any other record label of its time during its 16 year run, producing 226 singles. As we all know Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison had their famous recording session recorded by Sam Phillips at Sun Studios...but thats a whole nother page of reading so lets stop here today. In 1986 Sam Phillips was part of the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He was the first ever non-performer inducted. In 1987, he was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. He received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1991. In 1998, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, and in October 2001 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Phillips died of respiratory failure at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on July 30, 2003, only one day before the original Sun Studio was designated a National Historic Landmark. Heres what many consider to be the first Rock and Roll recorded single, Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats.....Enjoy!
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 17:23:50 +0000
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