Sam Phillips first called Sun Studio "Memphis Recording Service." All kinds people would come in (or they would come to you) and make recordings; weddings, commercials, messages for people overseas... and of course the throngs of Memphis musicians. Two of the earliest were Howlin' Wolf & BB King, who had already been playing in and around Memphis - but only in the black community. Everyone else was still listening to Perry Como.
People came in a lot to make quick recordings during their lunch breaks, as did one shy 18-year old Memphis kid - - you know who I'm talking about. He recorded a couple of songs for his mom's birthday and then just left. But the very wise "secretary" at Sun (she was actually Sam Phillips' business partner but no one ever really knew that. I have forgotten her name already, sadly, just like everyone else) knew there was something special there and got Elvis to come back in and record more songs. Sam Phillips never even met Elvis for a full year later.
When Sam heard Elvis, he liked it, but said it was too slow and no one wanted the sweet little love songs or the gospel-tinged southern dirges anymore. That wily secretary made it all happen by running across the original recording of That's Alright Mama by the woman (forgot her name too, sorry!) who wrote it and thought it would be a good match for that Elvis kid. And from there, after a helpful Memphis DJ, Dewey Phillips played the single for 3 hours straight.... well, you know the rest.
But I bet you didn't know that Elvis only recorded 5 songs at Sun and then Phillips sold his contract to RCA for 30,000 bucks or something like that.
If you can get your hands on it, I very highly recommend hearing the Elvis recording of Blue Moon, which was one of the early things he did before Sam ever met him. It is absolutely amazing. And hot.
... to be continued in next post.
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