#1 Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee
January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003
Sam Phillips records Elvis at Sun Studio in Johnny Cash biopic “Walk The Line” (2005). Incredibly basic facilities and recording gear.
Phillips famously produced:
- Elvis Presley
- Johnny Cash
- B.B. King
- Roy Orbison
- Howlin’ Wolf
- Ike Turner
- Jerry Lee Lewis
Sam Phillips was arguably the inventor of rock ‘n’ roll, producing the genre-defining “Rocket ’88” by Jackie Brenston in 1951, and then the first songs by Elvis Presley.
Phillips founded his legendary Sun Studio in Memphis in 1950 to make records for his own label, Sun Records. He launched Elvis Presley by producing ‘That’s All Right, Mama’ and ‘Blue Moon Of Kentucky’ in 1954, but sold his recording contract to RCA two years later for a meagre $35,000.
Phillips was always seeking what he called the perfect/imperfect cut – he was most concerned with capturing the feeling of the performance, which he felt was far more important than any technical considerations. He apparently told Elvis that the worst thing he could do was to go for technical ‘perfection’. This was probably just as well, as Phillips himself was entirely self-taught as a studio technician, and much of the distinctive sound that he developed at Sun was due to his not really being aware of ‘the rules’ of recording at the time.
Sam Phillips auditions Johnny Cash in the recording room at Sun Studio in “Walk The Line”. Bottom: “If you had one song to sing before you died, you’re telling me that’s the song you’d sing?”
The Sun Studio Sound
Phillips used some fairly innovative techniques for the time to develop the trademark Sun sound with it’s distinctive ‘slapback’ echo effect, which was in fact achieved by running the tape through a second recorder head. This means it was effectively a rudimentary analogue delay, rather than the reverb that many still mistake the sound for even today.
This ‘slapback’ echo became a trademark of the Sun Studio sound, creating a raw and atmospheric sound that was quite revolutionary in the popular music scene of the time. When Elvis later moved to larger label RCA, the engineers were unable to recreate the distinctive Sun sound for the recording of “Heartbreak Hotel”. In an attempt to duplicate Phillips results, RCA used a large empty hallway at the studio to create an echo, but it never really matched the sound that Phillips had achieved.
Phillips’ legacy demonstrates what a producer with a vision can achieve, not just in spite of but also partly because of his lack of conventional knowledge behind the mixing desk. Without Phillips’ trailblazing productions, and his entrepreneurial spirit, Elvis and the rest might have faded into obscurity, and popular music as we know it might have taken a dramatically different path.
LISTEN:
Elvis Presley “Mystery Train” | Jackie Brenston “Rocket 88” | Johnny Cash talking about how Sam Phillips wouldn’t let him sing Gospel…
“Mystery Train” was in fact co-written by Junior Parker and Sam Phillips. It really shows off the atmospheric ‘chugging’ echoes of the Sun Studio sound.
WATCH:
Phillips himself tells it better than I can:
Johnny Cash performing “I Walk The Line” 2005:
The unique chord progression in this song was initially inspired by an accidental backwards playback on Cash’s tape recorder while he was in the Air Force. Later, he wrote the lyrics in a backstage dressing room in Gladewater, Texas in 1955. He gave the song it’s title after a discussion with fellow performer Carl Perkins. Cash originally intended the song as a slow ballad, but producer Phillips preferred a faster arrangement, which Cash grew to like as the uptempo recording met with success.
