Sun Records is an American

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

founded by producer

Sam Phillips Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

in February 1952. Sun was the first label to record

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

Charlie Rich Charles Allan Rich (December 14, 1932July 25, 1995) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. His eclectic style of music was often difficult to classify, encompassing the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country music, country, sou ...

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as ...

Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made ...

Carl Perkins Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...

, and

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

. Prior to that, Sun had concentrated mainly on

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

musicians because Phillips loved

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

and wanted to bring it to a white audience. On January 28, 2021, Sun Records was acquired by Primary Wave for $30 million.

History

Sam Phillips opened his

Memphis Recording Service 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 ...

studio on January 3, 1950 at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis. It was founded with the financial aid of Jim Bulliet, one of many record executives for whom Phillips had scouted artists before 1952. In March 1951, Phillips produced "

Rocket 88 "Rocket 88" (originally stylized as Rocket "88") is a song that was first recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, in March 1951. The recording was credited to " Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats", who were actually Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm. T ...

" by

Jackie Brenston Jackie Brenston (August 24, 1928 or 1930Most published sources and the U.S. Social Security Death Index give 1930 as his year of birth. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and reportedly his gravestone give 1928. – December 15, 1979) ...

and his Delta Cats, who were actually

Ike Turner Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and ...

and his

Kings of Rhythm The Kings of Rhythm are an American music group formed in the late 1940s in Clarksdale, Mississippi and led by Ike Turner through to his death in 2007. Turner would retain the name of the band throughout his career, although the group has underg ...

. Because of Turner's Delta blues connections, he was contracted by Phillips as a talent scout and he was effectively an in-house producer. Turner brought fellow musicians

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland Robert Calvin Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was descr ...

Little Milton James Milton Campbell Jr. (September 7, 1934 – August 4, 2005), better known as Little Milton, was an American blues singer and guitarist, best known for his number-one R&B single " We're Gonna Make It". His other hits include " Baby, I Love ...

Billy "The Kid" Emerson William Robert Emerson (born December 21, 1925), known during his recording career as Billy "The Kid" Emerson and more recently as Rev. William R. Emerson,''Juke Blues'' magazine, # 58, 2005, pp.11-21, Interviews with Emerson is an American preac ...

and

Roscoe Gordon Rosco N. Gordon III (April 10, 1928 – July 11, 2002), sometimes billed as Roscoe Gordon, was an American blues singer, pianist, and songwriter. He is best known for his hit songs "Booted," (1952), " No More Doggin'" (1952), and " Just a Litt ...

to record for Phillips. The success of "Rocket 88" helped fund the creation of Sun Records which Phillips founded in February 1952. Before creating Sun, Phillips licensed recording to

Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll ...

for release. But by 1952, his relationship with the Chess brothers was strained and he had disputes with the

Bihari brothers The Bihari brothers, Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe, were American businessmen of Hungarian Jewish origins. They were the founders of Modern Records in Los Angeles and its subsidiaries, such as Meteor Records, based in Memphis. The Bihari brothers w ...

Modern Records Modern Records (Modern Music Records before 1947) was an American record company and label formed in 1945 in Los Angeles by the Bihari brothers. Modern's artists included Etta James, Joe Houston, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner and John Lee ...

. Initially, Phillips didn't want to create a record label. He said, "I was forced into it by those labels either coming to Memphis to record or taking my artists elsewhere." The original Sun Records logo was designed by John Gale Parker Jr., a resident of Memphis and high school classmate of Phillips. Sun Records shared the same building as Sun Studio (formerly Memphis Recording Service). There, Phillips discovered and first recorded such influential musicians such as Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. Presley's recording contract was eventually sold to

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

for $40,000 (US$ in dollars) in 1955 to relieve Sun's financial difficulties. Sun record producer and engineer

Jack Clement Jack Henderson Clement (April 5, 1931 – August 8, 2013) was an American singer, songwriter, and record and film producer. Biography Early life Raised and educated in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, Clement was performing at an early age, ...

discovered and recorded Jerry Lee Lewis while Phillips was away on a trip to Florida in 1956. Some of the other artists who recorded for Sun were Rufus Thomas (who recorded solo and with his daughter

Carla Thomas Carla Venita Thomas (born December 21, 1942) is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. Thomas is best known for her 1960s recordings for Atlantic and Stax including the hits "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" (1 ...

), Tex Weiss,

Bill Justis William Everett Justis Jr. (October 14, 1926 – July 16, 1982) was an American pioneer rock and roll musician, composer, and musical arranger, best known for his 1957 Grammy Hall of Fame song, " Raunchy". As a songwriter, he was also often credi ...

, Conway Twitty (who at that time recorded under his real name, Harold Jenkins),

Barbara Pittman Barbara Pittman (April 6, 1938 – October 29, 2005) was an American singer, one of the few female singers to record at Sun Studio. As a young teenager, she recorded some demos of songs for others. Pittman's most popular recordings include "I Nee ...

and the Miller Sisters. In the

Lovin' Spoonful Loving may refer to: * Love, a range of human emotions * Loving (surname) * '' Loving v. Virginia'', a 1967 landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case Film and television * ''Loving'' (1970 film), an American film * ''Loving'' ( ...

song "Nashville Cats",

John Sebastian John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist who founded the rock band The Lovin' Spoonful. He made an impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969 In 1969,

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

label producer

Shelby Singleton Shelby Sumpter Singleton, Jr. (December 16, 1931 – October 7, 2009) was an American record producer and record label owner. Early life He was born Shelby Sumpter Singleton, Jr. in Waskom, Texas. His parents were Shelby Sumpter Singleton, Sr. and ...

purchased the Sun label from Phillips. Singleton merged his operations into Sun International Corporation, which re-released and re-packaged compilations of Sun's early artists in the early 1970s. It later introduced

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

tribute singer

Jimmy "Orion" Ellis James Hodges Ellis (born James Hughes Bell, February 26, 1945 – December 12, 1998), who used the stage name Orion at times in his career, was an American singer. His voice was similar to Elvis Presley's, a fact which he and his record company ...

in 1979, with Orion taking on the persona of

. The company remains in business as Sun Entertainment Corporation, and currently licenses its brand and classic hit recordings (many of which have appeared in CD boxed sets and other compilations) to independent reissue labels. Sun Entertainment also includes SSS International Records,

Plantation Records Plantation Records was a country music record label of the 1960s and 1970s helmed by Shelby Singleton. The label is best known for Jeannie C. Riley's 1968 hit "Harper Valley PTA", which topped both the country and ''Billboard'' Hot 100 charts. ...

, Amazon Records,

Red Bird Records Red Bird Records was a record label founded by American pop music songwriters Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, and George Goldner in 1964. Though often thought of as a "girl-group" label, female-led acts made up only 40% of the artist roster on Red ...

, Blue Cat Records among other labels the company acquired over the years. Its website sells collectible items and compact discs bearing the original 1950s Sun logo. Sun Records is located in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

, Tennessee. It has been mainly a reissue label since the 1970s but signed country musician

Julie Roberts Julie Roberts (born February 1, 1979) is an American country music singer. Signed to Mercury Nashville in 2003, Roberts made her debut with the single "Break Down Here" in February 2004, a Top 20 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & ...

to a recording contract in 2013. The music of many Sun Records musicians helped lay part of the foundation of late 20th-century

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

and influenced many younger musicians, including the

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

. In 2001,

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

appeared on a tribute

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

titled ''Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records''. The 2008 tribute ''

Million Dollar Quartet "Million Dollar Quartet" is a recording of an impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash made on December 4, 1956, at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. An article about the session ...

'' is based on the famous photograph of Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis grouped round Elvis Presley at the piano, the night when the four joined in an impromptu jam at Sun Records' one-room sound studio, the "

" of 4 December 1956. A TV series about the label ran for eight episodes on CMT from February to April, 2017. In August 2022, Sun Records issued a 70th Anniversary Compilation album. The album features contributions from ten of the industry's top music supervisors and includes tracks from artists from the Sun catalogue including

James Cotton James Henry Cotton (July 1, 1935 – March 16, 2017) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career. ...

, Linda Martell,

The Dixie Cups The Dixie Cups (formerly known as The Meltones) are an American pop music girl group of the 1960s. They are best known for a string of hits including their 1964 million-selling record "Chapel of Love", " People Say", and "Iko Iko". Career ...

, The Imperial Wonders, Rufus Thomas Jr., and Barbara Pittman. In November 2022,

Peter Guralnick Peter Guralnick (born December 15, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American music critic, author, and screenwriter. He specializes in the history of early rock and roll and has written on Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, and Sam Cooke. Caree ...

and

Colin Escott Colin Escott (born August 31, 1949) is a British music historian and author specializing in early U.S. rock and roll and country music. His works include a biography of Hank Williams, histories of Sun Records and The Grand Ole Opry, liner notes ...

released ''The Birth of Rock ‘N’ Roll: The Illustrated Story of Sun Records and the 70 Recordings that Changed the World'', a history of Sun Records illustrated by 70 records.

References

External links

*
Sun Studio official site

Chronology, session files, discography (1950–1959)
{{Authority control Culture of Memphis, Tennessee History of Memphis, Tennessee Companies based in Memphis, Tennessee Record labels based in Nashville, Tennessee Record labels established in 1952 American country music record labels American independent record labels Rhythm and blues record labels Blues record labels Record labels based in Tennessee Historic Rock and Roll Landmarks

History

See also

References

External links