1951–1958

Rock 'n' Roll (Memphis)

Between 1951 and 1958, a small storefront studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis became the crucible where rhythm and blues, country, and gospel collided into rock 'n' roll. Sam Phillips opened his Memphis Recording Service to anyone who walked in, first cutting Black R&B sides like Jackie Brenston's 1951 'Rocket 88' before he found the young white singers who could carry that charge to a national audience. From Elvis Presley's 1954 'That's All Right' through Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis, the Sun roster fused these streams into rockabilly, the sound that detonated American popular music. The cited sources place the genre's emergence in the United States across exactly these years.

The record

People & groups9

  • Sam Phillips2 sources

    1923 · Memphis

    A former radio engineer from Alabama, Sam Phillips founded his Memphis studio and the Sun label to record the Black music he heard all around him, then chased a sound that could carry it further.

  • Bill Black1 source

    1926 · Memphis

    Bill Black played the slapped upright bass that anchored Elvis Presley's first Sun recordings, a percussive thump central to the rockabilly feel.

  • Jackie Brenston2 sources

    1930 · Memphis

    A saxophonist in Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, Jackie Brenston sang lead on 'Rocket 88', released in 1951 under the name Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats.

  • Ike Turner2 sources

    1931 · Memphis

    A Mississippi bandleader and piano player, Ike Turner led the Kings of Rhythm, the group that drove from Clarksdale to Memphis to cut 'Rocket 88' at Phillips's studio in 1951.

  • Scotty Moore1 source

    1931 · Memphis

    The guitarist on Elvis Presley's earliest Sun sessions, Scotty Moore shaped the spare, ringing electric lines that gave rockabilly its drive.

  • Carl Perkins2 sources

    1932 · Memphis

    A sharecropper's son from Tennessee, Carl Perkins wrote and recorded 'Blue Suede Shoes' for Sun in 1955, one of the first records to cross over onto the country, pop, and R&B charts at once — topping the country chart and reaching the upper tier of the pop and R&B charts.

  • Johnny Cash2 sources

    1932 · Memphis

    Johnny Cash auditioned for Sam Phillips in Memphis and, with the spare backing of the Tennessee Two, cut 'Cry!

  • Elvis Presley2 sources

    1935 · Memphis

    A truck driver from Tupelo who had moved to Memphis, Elvis Presley walked into Sam Phillips's studio and, in July 1954, cut 'That's All Right' with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black.

  • Jerry Lee Lewis2 sources

    1935 · Memphis

    A Louisiana piano prodigy nicknamed 'The Killer', Jerry Lee Lewis arrived at Sun in 1956 and made the piano the lead instrument of rock 'n' roll.

Works & releases11

  • "That's All Right"1 source

    1946 · Memphis

    Written and first recorded by Mississippi bluesman Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, 'That's All Right' was a blues number when Elvis Presley reworked it at Sun in 1954.

  • "Rocket 88"1 source

    1951 · Memphis

    Written by Jackie Brenston and based on an earlier jump blues, 'Rocket 88' celebrates a powerful new Oldsmobile in a roaring R&B shuffle.

  • "Mystery Train"1 source

    1953 · Memphis

    Written by Junior Parker and first recorded for Sun in 1953, 'Mystery Train' was a Memphis blues before Elvis Presley remade it in 1955.

  • "That's All Right" / "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (Sun 209)1 source

    1954-07-19 · Memphis

    Released on Sun on 19 July 1954, this debut single paired Elvis Presley's reworking of Arthur Crudup's blues with an up-tempo take on Bill Monroe's bluegrass waltz 'Blue Moon of Kentucky'.

  • "Blue Suede Shoes"1 source

    1955 · Memphis

    Written and performed by Carl Perkins, 'Blue Suede Shoes' is one of the foundational rockabilly songs, built on a swaggering blues progression and a sharp guitar break.

  • "Folsom Prison Blues"1 source

    1955 · Memphis

    Written by Johnny Cash and recorded with the Tennessee Two for Sun in 1955, 'Folsom Prison Blues' tells a stark first-person tale from inside a prison.

  • "Blue Suede Shoes" / "Honey, Don't!" (1956 single)1 source

    1956 · Memphis

    Released on Sun in early 1956, Carl Perkins's single paired 'Blue Suede Shoes' with his own 'Honey, Don't!' and became the label's first nationwide million-seller.

  • "I Walk the Line"1 source

    1956 · Memphis

    Written by Johnny Cash and recorded for Sun in 1956, 'I Walk the Line' is built on a shifting key and a low hummed pitch that Cash used to find his note.

  • "Great Balls of Fire"1 source

    1957 · Memphis

    Written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer and recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis for Sun in 1957, 'Great Balls of Fire' is a furious showcase for his hammering piano.

  • "Great Balls of Fire" / "You Win Again" (Sun 281)1 source

    1957 · Memphis

    Released on Sun in 1957 as catalogue number 281, Jerry Lee Lewis's single coupled the explosive 'Great Balls of Fire' with a reading of Hank Williams's 'You Win Again'.

  • The Million Dollar Quartet (album)1 source

    1981 · Memphis

    Although the impromptu session was taped on 4 December 1956, the recordings of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash jamming together were not issued as an album until decades later.

Events5

Venues1

  • Sun Studio (Memphis Recording Service)2 sources

    1950-01-03 · Memphis

    Sam Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue on 3 January 1950, a single cramped room with a homemade slapback echo.

Cross-movement connections

Connections · 4

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