Sun Records | |
---|---|
Parent company | Sun Entertainment Corp. |
Founded | 1952 |
Founder | Sam Phillips |
Genre | Rock, country, blues |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Location | (historic) Memphis, Tennessee (current) Nashville, Tennessee |
Official website | sunrecords |
Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee in 1952. Sun was the first company to record Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash.
Sun Records discovered and first recorded such influential musicians as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. Presley's recording contract was eventually sold to RCA Victor Records for $35,000 in 1955 to relieve Sun's financial difficulties. Before those records, Sun had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because Phillips loved rhythm and blues and wanted to bring it to a white audience. Sun record producer and engineer Jack Clement discovered and recorded Jerry Lee Lewis while Phillips was away on a trip to Florida. The original Sun Records logo was designed by John Gale Parker, Jr., a resident of Memphis and high school classmate of Phillips.
Sun was founded with the financial aid of Jim Bulliet, one of many record executives for whom Phillips had scouted artists before 1952.
Some of the recording artists at Sun were Roscoe Gordon, Rufus Thomas (who recorded solo and with his daughter Carla Thomas), Little Milton, Tex Weiss, Charlie Rich, Howlin Wolf, Bill Justis, and Conway Twitty (who at that time recorded under his real name, Harold Jenkins). In the Lovin' Spoonful song "Nashville Cats", John Sebastian used poetic license when he referred to Sun as the "Yellow Sun Records from Nashville".