Backstage Spotlight™
August 2003 Sam Phillips - Page 2
Sam Phillips’ lucky
break came in 1953 when Elvis Aron Presley came into Phillips’s Memphis Recording
Service, paid $4.00, and recorded two songs for his mother Gladys’ birthday. Phillips
was not present, but Marion Kesker was, and she insisted that he listen to the recordings.
Elvis Presley was exactly what Sam Phillips had been looking for and was signed to Sun
records in July 1954.
Elvis’s first single is a prime example of the signature sound Sam Phillips had in
mind when he created Sun Records. Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup’s
"That’s All Right Mama," with its strong rhythm and blues influence, is
backed on the B-side with the country and western "Blue Moon of Kentucky,"
written by Bill Monroe. This blend would later be known as rock and roll but at the time
was played on country and western stations for lack of a better format. Later, that would
contribute to drums becoming commonplace in country music; before then, drums were rarely
used on country and western records, and in fact were banned from the Grand Ole Opry stage
until the early 1950’s.
In 1955, needing capital to expand Sun Records, Phillips sold Elvis’s contract to RCA
for $35,000.00. Elvis went on to become a megastar and Phillips went on to discover, sign,
and produce Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty and
Charlie Rich. Sun Records’ first hit was Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes"
in 1956. On December 4 of that year, he produced the first rock and roll supergroup,
"The Million Dollar Quartet," when Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash,
and Elvis started an impromptu jam session and Phillips recorded it.
In 1962, having become a wealthy man from the Holiday Inn franchise and other investments,
Sam Phillips got out of the recording business. He sold Sun Records to the Singleton
brothers in 1969—it’s now a tourist attraction—and went on to operate radio
stations in Memphis and Alabama.
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