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Sam C. Phillips (1923 - 2003)
Samuel
Cornelius Phillips was born Jan. 5, 1923 in Florence, Alabama. He
is better known to world as Sam Phillips - The Father of Rock 'n' Roll.
The youngest of 8 children, he was raised on a 300-acre tenant
farm near the Tennessee River. It was his father's determination
to succeed after the stock market crash of 1929 that inspired him to
develop a strong sense of character. He attended Coffee High
School in Florence, where he was the band captain. He said that he
wasn't a good musician but he was a good conductor. He was able to
recognize the talent in others and he could coax the best out of them.
In 1941 he was forced to leave high school to go to
work. Due to his father's death, Sam had to support his mother and
his deaf-mute aunt, Emma.
It was in order to communicate with Aunt Emma that Sam learned sign
language.
At first he worked at a grocery store and then at a funeral parlor where
he learned people skills.
He had wanted to study law, but the finances weren't
there.
In his youth he was musically influenced by an old black sharecropper
named Silas Payne.
He developed an interest in music and Sam often said that "music moves
the soul." He also loved the radio and how it allowed him "to
travel in his mind."
He got into the radio business and studied audio engineering at Alabama
Polytechnical Institute in Auburn.
Traveling through Memphis in 1939, Sam wanted
to stop and see Beale Street. He said he immediately fell in love
with Beale's life and vitality.
On every street corner was someone playing and singing.
He married Rebecca "Becky" Burns from
Sheffield, Alabama in 1942, and hey had two sons, Knox and Jerry.
He worked for radio stations in Alabama and in Nashville, TN before
moving to Memphis and going to work for WREC in June of 1945.
There, working under the radio name "Pardner," he hosted a daily show.
He also hosted the "Saturday Afternoon Tea Dance" from the Skyway Room
of the Peabody Hotel where he played jazz, blues and pop records for the
broadcasts, which aired nationally over the CBS network.
By January 1950, 27-year-old Sam leased an auto
upholstery shop and opened Memphis Recording Service. His business
card read "We Record Any Thing Any Where Any Time." After
recording many weddings, funerals and other events, he quit the radio
station and decided to devote himself full-time to making a go of the
recording studio. There he often recorded local blues singers for
other record labels.
In March of 1951, Sam recorded Jackie Brenston's
"Rocket 88" for the Chess label. Many consider this the first rock
'n' roll record. Ike Turner helped him find more talent and soon
he also recorded Chester "Howlin' Wolf" Burnett as well as Rufus Thomas
and many others. Samstarted the Sun label in 1953 and recorded The
Prisonaires, a group of inmates from the Tennessee State Penitentiary in
Nashville. It was an article about this unusual recording session
that drew the attention of a young Elvis Presley, who soon showed up at
Memphis Recording Service to record his voice for the first time.
In 1955, Sam started WHER, an "all girl" radio
station (which will be covered in more detail in a future "Fact of the
Week.")
It was also that year that he sold his contract with Elvis to RCA.
He used those funds to invest in other artists, in radio stations and
in very lucrative stock in a locally based company - Holiday Inn.
Among the many artists Sam recorded are Roy Orbison,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. In fact, by 1957
the audition tapes were arriving by the mail sackful. In 1958 he
formed a new label, Phillips International. His first hit on that
label was "Raunchy" by Bill Justis. He also recorded "Lonely
Weekend" with Charlie Rich. Later, large labels lured some of his
artists away, causing Sam to feel betrayed by the corporate world.
He founded a short-lived association ARMADA in 1959 to champion the
cause of independent labels. He still relied on recording music by
"the feel" rather than by big business.
In September 1960, he opened a new studio on Madison
Avenue in Memphis, which he let his sons mainly run. He sold the
Sun label to Shelby Singleton in 1969 and kept busy with his radio
stations, his investments in a zinc mine and his airplane.
Sam Phillips was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame as a non-performer in 1986.
In 1997 he was honored by Ole
Miss (The University of Mississippi) with the honorary degree of
Professor of Southern Studies, thus becoming Dr. Phillips.
On Wednesday, July 30, 2003, 80-year-old Sam Phillips
died in Memphis of respiratory failure. It was just two days short
of a planned ceremony in Washington, D.C. that was held n August 1,
2003. At that ceremony Interior Secretary Gale Norton officially
designated Sam's beloved Sun Studio (a.k.a. Memphis Recording
Service) a National Historic Landmark. It is the first
recording studio to be granted this status.
Sam Phillips and Sun Studio will forever be
synonymous with the birth of rock 'n' roll.
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