#311 - Various Artists - The Sun Records Collection (1994)

MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:

BACKGROUND – THE SUN RECORDS COLLECTION

Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis in 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Prior to that, Sun had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because Phillips loved rhythm and blues and wanted to bring it to a white audience. Phillips started off with just a recording studio, and in 1951 he produced "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. Brenston was the saxophonist in 19 year old Ike Turner's band the "Kings of Rhythm", and the Delta Cats were the rest of the band. 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, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Milton, Billy "The Kid" Emerson and Roscoe Gordon to record for Phillips. That success led to creating the label.

Before creating Sun, Phillips licensed recording to Chess Records for release. But by 1952, his relationship with the Chess brothers was strained. Initially, Phillips didn't want to create a record label, but said "I was forced into it by those labels either coming to Memphis to record or taking my artists elsewhere."

Phillips was also an owner and operator of radio stations in Memphis, Alabama and Florida, and was one of the early investors in a Holiday Inn chain. In 1986, Phillips was part of the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He was the first non-performer inducted. He also received a lifetime achievement award from The Grammys in 1991, and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Country Music HOF in 2012. He passed away due to respiratory failure in 2003, one day before the Sun Studios were recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

You can still visit the studios where all of these legendary musicians were recorded and take a tour, or even schedule a recording session from 7PM-Midnight for $1000.

The Sun Records Collection is a 1994 compilation of some of the best music the label Sun Records released over the years (put out by Rhino Records).

The music of many Sun Records musicians helped lay part of the foundation of late 20th-century rock and roll and influenced many younger musicians, including the Beatles. In 2001, Paul McCartney appeared on a tribute compilation album titled Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records. The 2008 tribute Million Dollar Quartet 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 "Million Dollar Quartet" of 4 December 1956.