"The Sam Also Rises"

Author:  Jeff Little 

Samuel Cornelius Phillips. It may sound like the name of a man who sells snake oil from the trunk of a car or the person who invented Kaopectate. But he was, in fact, one of the most important people in the early days of a musical form that would later come to be known as Rock 'n' Roll.

Better known as Sam Phillips, he founded the Sun Records label in 1950 at the age of twenty-seven, and the small operation at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee would soon become more than just a start-up business. In a very few years it would produce sounds that would forever change music.

In 1950, Phillips recorded Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (a group led by musical genius and well-known wife beater Ike Turner) doing a tune called "Rocket 88" (penned by the then 19-year-old Turner). The song was released in 1951 on the Chess/Checker label out of Chicago and would later become considered by most musicologists to be the world's first Rock 'n' Roll record. But that was just the beginning for Phillips.

From 1950 through 1954, Phillips recorded black rhythm and blues artists such as Howlin' Wolf, Bobby Blue Bland, and B.B. King while all the while looking for a white singer (a more marketable commodity at the time) with a special sound. In 1954, his search turned something up.

"That's All Right" was cut as a 78RPM disc and was played two days later on legendary WGBH radio in Memphis by Sam's friend, legendary radio host Dewey Phillips (no relation). It featured guitarist Scotty Moore, double bass player Bill Black, and an unknown vocalist named Elvis Presley. Sam had found his sound.

Elvis had a hit. Sam had a hit. Dewey played the hit…and played it, and played it until "That's All Right" became more than just a local favorite. It soon garnered national attention and brought more and more talent to Sun Records and the recording studio then known as "Memphis Recording Service".

With a background in radio, a popular record to spearhead his efforts, and a flair for helping meld white rhythm and black blues into a rockabilly rainbow, Sam soon had some of the planet's finest emerging artists circling around Sun. Before he was done, Phillips' small record label would boast a list of legends that would become the envy of every major recording company in the business.

One of the major players of the day was RCA Records which would eventually purchase Elvis' contract from the then cash-needy Sun in late 1955 for a laughable $35,000. Claiming that he wanted Presley to have all the benefits a larger label could provide, Sam defended this questionable business deal for the rest of his life. And even if he had slipped-up with Elvis, Phillips' talent well was far from dry.

Jerry Lee Lewis would join the Sun Records gang in 1956, adding to an impressive group which already included the likes of Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash (a roster that soon had Phillips out of the financial woods). Money woes at bay, Sun Records went on to produce some of the most memorable recordings of all time.

Sam Phillips died of respiratory failure on July 30, 2003 at the age of 80, but his legacy lives on. He was truly one of the people who helped teach us all to rock(abilly).