Dear listeners,
On this day, exactly 75 years ago, a crucial event in American musical history took place: the producer Sam Phillips opened his studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis. He initially called it the Memphis Recording Studio, but after he started his own label it took the name by which it’s still known today, Sun Studio.
A murderer’s row of musical legends recorded debut singles at Sun — among them Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Howlin’ Wolf — and several of the tracks that critics have claimed as the first rock ’n’ roll songs were laid down within its walls. But plenty of amateurs cut their songs onto wax at 706 Union, too; Sun Studio’s initial motto was “We Record Anything, Anywhere, Anytime.”
In honor of Sun Studio’s 75th anniversary, I put together a playlist highlighting some of the most enduring singles recorded there. To best illustrate the specific and gloriously gritty “Sun Sound” that helped define the aesthetic of early rock ’n’ roll, I limited my selections to songs recorded during studio’s first decade of operations, before Phillips temporarily moved to a larger building in 1959.
But just know that this playlist represents only one sliver of the studio’s history. It reopened in its original location in 1987, and since then it’s done double duty as both a popular tourist attraction and a functioning studio that has hosted sessions from the likes of U2, John Mellencamp and plenty of other artists. (Last August, Danny Freedman reported a great Times piece that captured Sun Studio’s busy dual life: “By Day, Sun Studio Draws Tourists. By Night, Musicians Lay Down Tracks.”)
To celebrate this rock ’n’ roll holiday, grab the keys to your Rocket 88, slip on your blue suede shoes and press play.
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds,
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats: “Rocket 88”
It’s probably a futile task to try to determine the first ever rock ’n’ roll song, but many music scholars point to this revved up, fuzzed out piece of jump blues that extols the prowess of a classic Oldsmobile. What is clear is that “Rocket 88” was one of the first hits laid down at what would later become Sun Studio. Recorded in March 1951 and released that same month, “Rocket 88” features vocals from the saxophonist Jackie Brenston and contributions from Ike Turner (the song’s uncredited writer) and his backing band the Kings of Rhythm. Turner said later in his life that he thought the record was R&B instead of rock, but he noted its enormous influence: “I think ‘Rocket 88’ is the cause of rock ’n’ roll existing.”
2. Howlin’ Wolf: “How Many More Years”
In the summer of 1951, the blues legend Chester Burnett recorded his debut single as Howlin’ Wolf, “Moanin’ at Midnight.” It found an audience, but the rough-hewed B-side “How Many More Years” became an even bigger hit. (Turner himself brought Burnett to Memphis to record at Sun, and he plays piano on both sides of the single.) The producer and musician T Bone Burnett — no relation to Chester — later identified Phillips’s style of recording Howlin’ Wolf as a major evolution: “That’s when he started bringing the bass and drums up loud,” he once said. “Back in those days the bass and drums were background instruments; it was all about the horns and the piano, the melody instruments, and Sam brought the rhythm section right up front, and that became rock ’n’ roll.”
3. Johnny London: “Drivin’ Slow”
Two years after the studio opened, Phillips launched his own label, Sun Records, out of the same building. Though Sun would come to be best known for distributing rock and rockabilly singles, its first release was this casually cool jazz number by the 16-year-old alto saxophone player Johnny London.
4. Elvis Presley: “That’s All Right”
An 18-year-old Elvis Presley first showed up at Sun Studio on July 18, 1953, to record two demos; legend has it that he wanted to give his mother a record of him singing as a birthday present. Phillips soon realized Presley’s potential, and brought him in for subsequent sessions. This sultry and soulful rendition of Arthur Crudup’s 1946 blues ditty “That’s All Right, Mama” was Presley’s debut single — and an instant sensation.
5. Johnny Cash: “I Walk the Line”
In 1954, inspired by Presley’s success, an appliance salesman and aspiring musician named Johnny Cash auditioned for Phillips at Sun Studio. The following year, Sun Records released Cash’s debut single, “Cry Cry Cry,” which became a minor hit. In 1956, though, he had a bona fide smash with this tune, his first No. 1 on the country charts. Perhaps you’ve heard it before?
6. Carl Perkins: “Blue Suede Shoes”
In late 1955, Presley departed Sun for a more lucrative contract with RCA Victor — which meant that Phillips’s label could really use a hit. Luckily, the first Sun single to sell a million copies was released in January 1956: Carl Perkins’s suave, self-penned rockabilly classic “Blue Suede Shoes.” Presley’s own version would become an even bigger and more indelible hit, but in deference to his former label and his friend Perkins, he delayed its release until that August so it would not compete with Perkins’s version on the charts.
7. Jerry Lee Lewis: “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
After signing with the label in late 1956, Jerry Lee Lewis quickly became both a prolific session pianist at the studio — he played on Perkins’s hit “Matchbox,” among many other singles — and a fledgling Sun solo artist. His breakout hit was this fiery 1957 rockabilly number, a rework of a song first recorded two years prior by Big Maybelle. Another unforgettable Sun single by Lewis, “Great Balls of Fire,” was released later in 1957.
8. Roy Orbison featuring the Teen Kings: “Ooby Dooby”
Roy Orbison is yet another musical icon who made some of his earliest recordings at Sun, even if his career didn’t quite take off until he signed to Monument Records in 1959. Recorded with his backing band the Teen Kings in 1956, the light, jumpy “Ooby Dooby” finds a young Orbison emulating Presley, a few years before perfecting his signature style of brooding, dreamy balladeering.
9. Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash: “Down by the Riverside”
One of the most important dates in Sun Studio history is Dec. 4, 1956 — the day the so-called “Million Dollar Quartet” of Presley, Perkins, Cash and Lewis convened for an impromptu jam session. (Maybe you’ve seen the famous photograph, or the jukebox musical based on the performance.) Thankfully, tape was rolling — it happened in a recording studio, after all — so we can bear witness to the loose, spontaneous brilliance that happened when these four Sun legends jammed together.
The Amplifier Playlist
“Listen to the Dawn of Rock ’n’ Roll, Captured at Sun Studio” track list
Track 1: Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats, “Rocket 88”
Track 2: Howlin’ Wolf, “How Many More Years”
Track 3: Johnny London, “Drivin’ Slow”
Track 4: Elvis Presley, “That’s All Right”
Track 5: Johnny Cash, “I Walk the Line”
Track 6: Carl Perkins, “Blue Suede Shoes”
Track 7: Jerry Lee Lewis, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
Track 8: Roy Orbison featuring the Teen Kings, “Ooby Dooby”
Track 9: Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, “Down by the Riverside”
The post Listen to the Dawn of Rock ’n’ Roll, Captured at Sun Studio appeared first on New York Times.
