Backstage Spotlight™
August 2003 Sam Phillips
Backstage Spotlight™ profiles one of the unsung
superheroes of the music industry, the people who work behind the scenes. This month the
Spotlight is on legendary producer and Sun Records founder Sam Phillips.
Sam Phillips was a Renaissance man.
Born just as genteel society was turning into the Roaring ‘20’s on January 05,
1923, Samuel Cornelius Phillips would capture this new, free, risk-taking spirit and
incorporate it into his career as a producer…and create an American pop culture
phenomenon.
Starting as an engineer and then moving on to announcing at radio stations in his native
Alabama and Nashville, Phillips came to Memphis in 1945. There he worked as a talent scout
for Chess Records and Modern Records. In 1950, he formed his first label. It ultimately
failed, but he did produce what would later be credited as the first rock and roll
recording: Jackie Brenston and Ike Turner’s hit, "Rocket 88." Undaunted, in
1952 Phillips went on to form Sun Records, located at 706 Union Drive in Memphis.
Having produced the debut records of B.B. King and Howlin’ Wolf, and getting his
first hit with Rufus Thomas’s "Bear Cat," Sam Phillips had developed a
passion for rhythm and blues. The motto at Sun Records was "We record Anything,
Anywhere, Anytime," and he meant it. This colorblind philosophy was an unusual and
controversial stance in the then segregated South. Phillips knew, however, that America
wasn’t ready to accept black artists in the mainstream—recordings by black
artists were still called "Race Records" then--so he set out to find a white
singer who could deliver what would become Sun’s signature blend of rhythm and blues,
country, and gospel.
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