Sam Phillips, rock pioneer, dies at 80

Launched Sun, Elvis, Jerry Lee

By Michael Lollar
lollar@gomemphis.com
July 30, 2003

Sam Phillips, the man who turned Memphis into the birthplace of rock and roll as architect of Elvis Presley's earliest recordings, died Wednesday evening after an illness of several months.

A cause of death was not immediately available and funeral arrangements were pending early today for the founder of Sun Records.

"We're just trying to celebrate his life at this point. When he did it, it was considered a national disgrace,'' said son Knox Phillips of his father's legendary recordings of black and rock and roll musicians. "Now it's considered a national treasure. I don't think any other Memphian had any more effect on the world than Sam.''

Knox Phillips said his father fell ill Wednesday while watching a Chicago Cubs baseball game and was taken to St. Francis Hospital.

Phillips was 80, but even in his later years he remained a youthful presence whose company was sought by major musical acts visiting the city.

His later years also saw critical plaudits and honors for an unorthodox and controversial style that defined not only the rock and roll sound but rock and roll as a business.

His former wife, Becky Phillips, described him as inquisitive by nature.

"Sam wanted to learn anything about everything and to use his knowledge to make a difference," she said in a written statement. "As he grew older, he had a sincere desire to help resolve the prejudice the world reflected."

Phillips was what one of Elvis's Memphis Mafia members called "the Thomas Edison of rock and roll." Even before Elvis, he recorded Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston with the driving beat that came to be the hallmark of rock. It is now considered the first rock song, but it was eclipsed by Elvis and the pantheon of rockers, including Jerry Lee Lewis, that Phillips later introduced to the world.

Ironically, the rhythm and blues record ings that were the bedrock of Phillips's recording business influenced Presley and the entertainers that followed him to the corner of Union and Marshall.

When he recorded Elvis's version of That's All Right in 1954, Phillips started a chain reaction that turned Elvis into the world's most enduring superstar. An outrage to the '50s fans of Frank Sinatra and Doris Day, the raunchy music helped create the generation gap and went platinum all over again with the release of Elv1s's 30 No. 1 Hits last year.

Author Peter Guralnick, whose books include a definitive two-part biography of Presley, said Wednesday night Phillips was one of the world's great communicators with a "democratic vision."

"Against all the odds and societal strictures, he set up a studio that initially recorded nothing but blues and rhythm and blues," Guralnick said. "People who had no voice, he gave them a chance to be heard. The music he gave changed the world."

Becky Phillips said her husband ran the studio by a simple but revolutionary rule at a time when racial segregation was not just custom, but the law.

The doors were "open unconditionally - period. A person could be black, white, down on his luck, big or little," she said. "A person's color was determined by what was in his heart and soul . . . He wasn't afraid of telling the truth about talent. If you didn't have it, he never hesitated to tell you."

Before Elvis ever walked into Sun Studio, Phillips had recorded Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas and Little Junior Parker among others. After selling Elvis's contract to RCA for about $40,000 in 1954, Phillips went on to make stars of Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Charlie Rich.

Originally of Florence, Ala., Phillips moved to Memphis in 1945 after working as a recording engineer in Nashville. He worked for WREC Radio, helping engineer broadcasts of big bands live from The Peabody .

On the side, he opened Memphis Recording Service, recording black artists and selling the cuts to record companies for distribution. Phillips started Sun in 1952.

Sun's role in blues music and introducing black bluesmen to the world would have put Sun on the map even without Elvis, says Jack Soden, CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises. But with Elvis and the rest of Sun's rockabilly cast, Phillips "is a massive part of the history of music. He got it before anybody," says Soden.