RAMBLIN: Sam Phillips: Bringing the Sun to rock 'n' roll

Jan. 8—Seeing that Sun Records owner and rock 'n' roll pioneer Sam Phillips would have been 100 on Jan. 5 reminded me of an experience I once had regarding the vaunted record label.

I remember standing in my front yard when I was a kid and feeling startled to see a black and yellow disc come spinning out of the sky.

As it spun down to the grass, I ran over to where it landed. When I reached down to pick it up, I could see it measured around 7 inches in diameter — which made sense, since that's the size of a 45 RPM vinyl record.

When I held it it my hands, I could hardly believe what I saw. Sure, it was a record — but not just any record. It was an original single record of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line."

Wow! Sam Phillips had recorded and released Cash's original version of "I Walk the Line" on his Memphis-based Sun Records, with its distinctive yellow record label, on May 1, 1956.

By the time I saw it come spinning out of the sky, an original 45 RPM Sun Records recording had already become a rarity, much less a big crossover country and rock 'n' roll hit such as "I Walk the Line" — and now one of the rare records had landed almost at my feet! What's going on? Is this a gift from above?

Then I turned around to see the source of the record launch. Across the street, a couple of kids even younger than me had a whole stack of 45 RPM records and were spinning them like Frisbees across the street in my direction, with the two small boys laughing in glee the whole time.

I gathered up other records they spun my way, hardly believing the largesse I now held in my hands. More Sun Records came flying from the sky. Elvis Presley! Jerry Lee Lewis! Other records also came whirling from across the street on other labels too — but my attention had already locked onto that distinctive Sun Records logo.

The tykes didn't send all of the records my way. They hurled some towards the kids in a neighboring yard too — who also were gathering up the unexpected treasures.

I wondered if the kids' mom had suddenly tired of her record collection and given the 45s to her boys so they could have some Frisbee-like fun? If so, I had some little-played records in drawer at home that could mimic the Frisbee effect just as well as the rarities they were hurling my way — and even a few cat-eye marbles I would be happy to trade.

Alas, it was not to be. Eventually the mom — who had apparently been napping when her boys discovered that a hurled 45 RPM record perfectly mimics a Frisbee — awoke, aghast at what her boys had done to her record collection. She asked for her records back and of course we all sadly returned them — and that was the one and only time I ever saw records come hurling out of the sky.

What brought on this recollection is the news that Thursday, Jan. 5, would have marked the 100th birthday of Sam Phillips, the legendary (at least to many rock 'n' roll music buffs) Sun Records owner who first signed and recorded a wondrous array of musical talent to Sun Records.

Those artists included the aforementioned Cash, Elvis and Jerry Lee, along with Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich and Billy Lee Riley, to mention a few.

In addition to Sun Records, Phillips also owned the Memphis Recording Service and Sun Studios — all of which were contained in the nondescript building at 706 Union Ave. in Memphis, which he used as his base of operations.

In addition to those artists on his awe-inspiring Sun Records roster, Phillips also recorded blues artists through his Memphis Recording Service, which he would lease to larger record labels, including the Chess and Checker record labels in Chicago.

Along with the artists who would help lay the groundwork for rock 'n' roll and rockabilly music, Phillips recorded some of the greatest blues artists ever — including the first recordings for B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Junior Parker, who recorded the original version of "Mystery Train."

Phillips is also credited for recording what many consider the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket '88' " — which is credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats.

The song, about an Oldsmobile with a V-8 engine known as the fastest car on the road at the time, is credited to Brenston who did the vocals. However, Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats were another name used for the group that recorded the song: Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm, years before Ike met Anna Mae Bullock, who would marry him and transform herself into Tina Turner.

Brenston, a saxophone player with Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm, and the rest of the band recorded "Rocket '88' " at the Memphis Recording Service, with Phillips producing, in 1951, three years before an 18-year-old truck driver named Elvis Presley walked through the doors and asked to record a song for his mother's birthday.

That was a reasonable request at the time, since the Memphis Recording Service offered anyone the chance to make their own personal record in the Sun Studios at the cost of $1.99 — nice of Phillips to keep the cost under $2.

Elvis recorded a couple of ballads in a high voice, "My Happiness" and "That's Where Your Heartaches Begin." Marion Keisker, Phillips' secretary at the time, later said she felt so impressed that she kept Presley's phone number in her desk and would continually lobby Phillips to make a Sun Records recording with the young truck driver.

Phillips finally decided that might be a good idea eventually summoned Elvis to the Sun Records studio, along with electric guitarist Scotty Moore and stand-up bassist Bill Black.

As the story goes, they tried a number of songs in the studio, none of which Phillips wanted to release on his label. As he later said, both Elvis and Roy Orbison could "tear up" a ballad — but if a ballad had been Elvis' first release, who would remember him today?

During a break, the trio of Elvis, Scotty and Bill Black started fooling around, and broke into a souped-up version of blues singer "Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right (Mama)." When Phillips heard it, he knew he'd found the sound he'd been seeking.

They recorded the song, along with a souped-up version of Bill Monroe's bluegrass song "Blue Moon of Kentucky on the B-side. Although "Blue Moon of Kentucky" initially received the most attention, once Sam Phillips convinced a Memphis dee-jay to put "That's All Right (Mama)" into heavy rotation, it became a breakout hit, first in Memphis and then across the south.

Elvis would record a number of other breakout hits for Sun Records before Phillips sold his recording contract to RCA Records for $35,000. Don't lament Phillips for losing a future fortune through the transaction, though. In addition to owning a string of radio stations, Phillips also proved an adept businessman in other fields, such as becoming one of the first investors in Holiday Inn.

Regarding those Sun Records that were flung my way by my young neighbors brings to mind another story about Cash and Perkins.

Once the two were embarked on a tour of the West Coast, which included a number of show in the Golden State, along with performances in Washington and Oregon. Before they left Tennessee, another country music artist handed them a box of records and asked Cash and Perkins to distribute his records on the West Coast while they were on the road.

This was in the days when all the country musicians would pile into cars and station wagons for their tours, before many of them would later come to have buses of their own.

Somewhere along the way while driving along the Pacific Coast, Cash, Perkins and other musicians pulled over for a short break along a stretch of highway overlooking the ocean. By then, they were tried of having to lug the other guy's records along with them.

Suddenly, they made the same discovery as my young neighbors did — a vinyl record hurled the right way can almost perfectly emulate a tossed Frisbee. Soon, they had a lot of fun spinning that entire box of records, one-by-one, into the waves of the nearby Pacific Ocean.

When they later returned to Tennessee, they ran into their fellow artist and he asked them if they had distributed his records on their West Coast tour like he'd asked.

Yes, they truthfully informed him, they had indeed distributed his records along the West Coast — so he gratefully thanked them and left a happy man.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.