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Sun Studio
Sun Studio is a recording studio opened by rock-and-roll pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. It was originally called Memphis Recording Service, sharing the same building with the Sun Records label business. The Sun label that was housed within the studio played a large role in Elvis Presley's early career. Reputedly the first rock and roll single, Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats' " Rocket 88" was recorded there in 1951 with song composer Ike Turner on keyboards, leading the studio to claim status as the birthplace of rock & roll. Blues and R&B artists like Howlin' Wolf, Junior Parker, Little Milton, B.B. King, James Cotton, Rufus Thomas, and Rosco Gordon recorded there in the early 1950s. Rock and roll, country, and rockabilly artists, including Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Feathers, Ray Harris, Warren Smith, Charlie Rich, and Jerry Lee Lewis, recorded there throughout the mid-to-la ...
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Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tennessee, second-most populous city in Tennessee, the fifth-most populous in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the List of United States cities by population, 28th-most populous in the nation. Memphis is the largest city proper on the Mississippi River and anchors the Memphis metropolitan area that includes parts of Arkansas and Mississippi, the Metropolitan statistical area, 45th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. with 1.34 million residents. European exploration of the area began with Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1541. Located on the high Chickasaw Bluffs, the site offered natural protection from Mississippi River flooding and became a contested location in the colonial era. Modern Memphis was founded in 181 ...
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Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. He was known for his deep, calm, bass-baritone voice, the distinctive sound of his backing band, the Tennessee Three, that was characterized by its train-like chugging guitar rhythms, a rebelliousness coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor, and his free prison concerts. Cash wore a trademark all-black stage wardrobe, which earned him the Honorific nicknames in popular music, nickname "Man in Black (song), Man in Black". Born to poor cotton farmers in Kingsland, Arkansas, Cash grew up on gospel music and played on a local radio station in high school. He served four years in the United States Air Force, Air Force, much of it in West Germany. After his return to the United States, he rose to fame during the mid-1950s in the ...
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Raunchy (song)
"Raunchy" is an instrumental by American rock and roll artist Bill Justis, co-written with Sidney Manker and produced by Sam Phillips. The tune, from the album ''Cloud 9'', was released as a single on the record label Phillips International Records, a sub-label of Sun Records, on September 23, 1957. History "Raunchy" is one of the first rock songs to use the "twangy" lead guitar effect, which was later developed by others and became common for several years following its first appearance. In 1958, a then fifteen-year-old George Harrison performed it for John Lennon and Paul McCartney on the top deck of a bus in Liverpool, and was so note-perfect that Lennon decided, despite earlier reservations about Harrison's age, to let him into his band the Quarrymen, which later became the Beatles. Other versions Justis recorded another rendition of the tune in 1962, in stereo and with considerably different guitar, for his album ''Bill Justis Plays 12 More Big Instrumental Hits''. He recor ...
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Grammy Hall Of Fame
The Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame to honor musical recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts. It is compiled by The Recording Academy in the United States, and was established in 1973. Recordings (singles and albums) in all genres are eligible for selection, and must be over 25 years old to be considered. Additions to the list are chosen annually by a committee of recording arts professionals. Alphabetical listing by title: * List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (A–D) * List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (E–I) * List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (J–P) * List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (Q–Z) See also *Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is a special Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referr ...
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Bill Justis
William Everett Justis Jr. (October 14, 1926 – July 16, 1982) was an American pioneer rock and roll musician, composer, and arrangement, musical arranger, best known for his 1957 Grammy Hall of Fame song, "Raunchy (instrumental), Raunchy". As a songwriter, he was also often credited as Bill Everette. Biography Justis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, but grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and studied music at Christian Brothers High School (Memphis, Tennessee), Christian Brothers College (high school department) and Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. A trumpet and saxophone player, while in university he performed with local jazz and dance bands. He returned home to Memphis in 1951 and was eventually taken on by Sam Phillips at Sun Records where he recorded music for himself as well as arranged the music for Sun artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and Charlie Rich, the latter of which he is credited with discovering. Released in Septembe ...
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Kemmons Wilson
Charles Kemmons Wilson (January 5, 1913 – February 12, 2003) was an American hotelier. He is best known for founding the hotel chain Holiday Inn in the 1950s. Personal life He was born in Osceola, Arkansas, the only child of Kemmons and Ruby "Doll" Wilson. His father was an insurance salesman who died when Kemmons was nine months old. Shortly thereafter, his mother, Doll, moved the two to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was raised solely by his mother. Wilson was married to Dorothy Lee. They had five children: Spence, Robert, Kemmons Jr, Betty, and Carole. Wilson died in Memphis on February 12, 2003, at the age of 90, and is interred there in Forest Hill Cemetery. Career Wilson initially came up with the idea after a family road trip to Washington, D.C., during which he was disappointed by the quality of the roadside hotels of that era. The name Holiday Inn was given to the original hotel by his architect Eddie Bluestein as a joke, in reference to the 1942 movie of the same ...
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Holiday Inn Records
Holiday Inn Records was an American record label founded by Wayne Foster in 1961. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for Foster and Kemmons Wilson, as an independent business venture. Foster ran the label between 1961 and 1963. Sam Phillips of Sun later ran the label on behalf of Wilson. History In 1961, D. Wayne Foster discovered a musical group named the Roller Coasters. Foster brought the group to the Owen Bradley's Studio in Nashville, Tennessee to record. The group recorded two songs, "Rim Shot, Part 1" and "Rim Shot, Part 2". Foster created Holiday Inn Records to distribute the single. Holiday Inn Records recorded a number of acts that Foster discovered, and in most cases was involved in the recording sessions, assisted by Neal Matthews Jr. of the Jordanaires. Notable artists signed in the first year include Jimmy Foster, Frank Starr, Kenny Lund, Rusty Curry, Buck Griffin, Stan Daniel, and Tookie Collom. By 1963, Foster was devoting only a small amount of tim ...
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Phillips Recording
Phillips Recording Service is the short name widely used to refer to the Sam C. Phillips Recording Studio established in 1960 by Sun Records and Memphis Recording Service founder Sam Phillips at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee to replace the older, smaller Memphis Recording Service studio. Memphis studio In July 1958, feeling that his Memphis Recording Service/Sun Studio was becoming outdated and too small to accommodate the needs of the record labels and publishing companies of the growing Sam Phillips Recording Organization, Sam Phillips bought a property at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, just a few blocks from Sun Studio. The building, which had previously housed a Midas Muffler shop and a bakery, was gutted to build two recording studios on the ground floor, A&R and promotion offices on the second floor, and offices for accounting, publishing, and Phillips himself on the third floor. The new studio, Sam Phillips Recording Service, opened in 1960, with Sc ...
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Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, and early recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. "Crazy Arms" sold 300,000 copies in the Southern United States, but his 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" shot Lewis to worldwide fame. He followed this with the major hits "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless (Jerry Lee Lewis song), Breathless", and "High School Confidential (Jerry Lee Lewis song), High School Confidential". His rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to Myra Lewis Williams, Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old cousin. His popularity quickly eroded following the scandal, and with few exceptions, such as a cover of Ray Charles's "What'd I Say", he di ...
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Charlie Rich
Charles Allan Rich (December 14, 1932July 25, 1995) was an American country singer. His eclectic style of music also blended influences from rockabilly, jazz, blues, soul, and gospel. In the later part of his life, Rich acquired the nickname the Silver Fox. He is perhaps best remembered for a pair of 1973 hits, " Behind Closed Doors" and " The Most Beautiful Girl", which topped the U.S. country singles charts as well as the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop singles charts and earned him two Grammy Awards. Rich was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2023, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked Rich at number 120 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. Early life Rich was born in Colt, Arkansas, to rural cotton farmers. He graduated from Consolidated High School in Forrest City, where he played saxophone in the band. He was strongly influenced by his parents, who were members of the Landmark Missionary Baptist Church; his mother, Helen Rich, played piano in churc ...
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Warren Smith (singer)
Warren Smith (February 7, 1932 – January 30, 1980) was an American rockabilly and country music singer and guitarist. Biography Smith was born in Humphreys County, Mississippi, to Ioda and Willie Warren Smith, who divorced when he was young. He was raised by his maternal grandparents in Louise, Mississippi, where they had a small farm and dry goods store. Smith took up the guitar to while away his evenings while in the United States Air Force stationed in San Antonio, Texas. By the time of his discharge from the service, he had decided to make a career of music. He moved to West Memphis, Arkansas, and auditioned, successfully, to play the Cotton Club, a local nightclub. The steel guitarist Stan Kesler, who was playing there with the Snearly Ranch Boys, immediately spotted Smith's potential and took him to Sun Records to audition for Sam Phillips, with the Snearly Ranch Boys providing backup. Phillips liked what he heard and decided that "Rock 'n' Roll Ruby", a song credited ...
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Ray Harris
Ray Harris (September 7, 1927 – November 13, 2003)'. ''The Independent''. November 27, 2003. was an American rockabilly musician and songwriter. He formed a band with Wayne Powers, and wrote the songs "Come On, Little Mama" and "Greenback Dollar, Watch and Chain". He eventually recorded these at Sun Records with Sam Phillips. He also produced artists at Hi Records. Like others such as Sonny Burgess, Hayden Thompson, Billy Lee Riley and Warren Smith, chart success largely eluded him. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi Tupelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1860, the population was 37,923 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, 7th-most populous ..., Harris died in November 2003 in Mooreville, Mississippi, at the age of 76. References External linksRockabilly Hall of Fame Profile American rockabilly musicians American singer-songwriters Sun Records ar ...
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