SUN RECORDS

SUN RECORDS, JERRY LEE LEWIS & THE MUSIC THAT CHANGED THE WORLD:

Sun Records is world famous today as the label that produced the best white rock ‘n’ roll & rockabilly of the 1950s. But, at the time, the label didn’t have that kind of fame. And, all the artists who recorded for Sun would experience greater success once they had left Sun. And, perhaps all of Sun’s artists - apart from the very consistent Jerry Lee Lewis - left their best work behind them once they left Sun, too.
Sam Phillips founded Sun in the early 1950s. The label at first catered mainly for black R&B. Most of these singers were leased to Sun by other labels like Chess - but Sam was happy to have such leases as Howlin’ Wolf from the bigger labels.
The early blues & R&B at Sun proved essential to the rockers that followed (Jerry Lee recorded Junior Parker’s "Feeling good"; both Jerry Lee & Elvis Presley recorded Parker’s "Mystery train"; Elvis recorded Rufus Thomas’ "Tiger man"; the more obscure Hayden Thompson recorded Junior Parker’s "Love my baby") & most of this fast R&B music hinted towards what we now choose to term rock ‘n’ roll.
Jackie Brenston’s "Rocket 88" is considered by many as the first real rock ‘n’ roll record & indeed the vocal sounds very like Chuck Berry, while Ike Turner’s piano playing hints at Jerry Lee Lewis. Such records set the stage for all that was to come.
At Sun, traditionalist bluesmen (like Sleepy John Estes, Howlin’ Wolf, Dr. Ross, etc.) & the new innovative breed of R&B pioneers (like Junior Parker, B.B King, Rufus Thomas, Ike Turner, Jackie Brenston, etc.) recorded side by side. A mixture of both these styles with country music is what made rock ‘n’ roll music.
Older hillbilly singers like Malcolm Yelvington (who followed in the footsteps of Moon Mullican & Hank Williams as a country-blues musician) felt right at home in the rockabilly era (he had been doing this type of stuff for years) & was happy to record such R&B standards as Stick Mc Ghee’s "Drinkin’ wine spodee-odee". Harmonica Frank harked back to even older country & hillbilly traditions, while Charlie Feathers - a much younger man - carried on the older country traditions in an extremely convincing style.
1954 saw Elvis Presley’s professional recording debut at Sun. His style once again was Hillbilly blues, but with a much younger, less world-weary feel. Many feel Presley did his best work at Sun including myself & "That’s alright", "Blue moon of Kentucky", "I don’t care if the sun don’t shine", "Milk cow blues boogie", "Mystery train" & "Let’s play house" are some of the greatest examples of non-Jerry Lee Lewis country-blues hybrids.
Carl Perkins followed shortly afterwards & produced more great Rockabilly music (perhaps the greatest & most definitive pure rockabilly music around) & examples include "Gone gone gone", "Put your cat clothes on", his version of "Matchbox blues", his big hit "Blue suede shoes" & "Dixie Fried".
Both Perkins & Presley were quickly out of the Sun scene (Presley was bought up by RCA, became one of the most successful entertainers ever, but never experienced the freedom he had at Sun again; Perkins’ meteoric rise to fame came to a halt in 1956 when he was involved in a bad car accident).
Jerry Lee Lewis, certainly the most different & individualistic artist to record at Sun, recorded his first records for the Louisiana Hayride in 1954. His choices were Hank Snow’s "I don’t hurt anymore" & Joni James’ "If I ever needed you I need you now". In Lewis’ hands, both became fiery blues ballads.
Lewis first recorded for Sun in 1956 & displayed a versatility that no other artist at Sun had. Songs like "End of the road", "Crazy arms", "Old pal of yesterday", "All night long", "Old time Religion", "I love you so much it hurts", "Tomorrow night", "Deep Elem blues", "Drinkin’ wine spodee odee" & "Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on" displayed his versatility & masterful versions of styles as diverse as blues, country, rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, gospel & oldtime pop. You could write forever about the Killer but a listen to this music is all you need to know how truly great he was & is.
Jerry Lee had the biggest hits at Sun with more great titles like "Great balls of fire" & "Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on" & was well on the way to becoming King of rock ‘n’ roll with further unstoppable rockers like "Breathless" & "Highschool confidential".
Sam Phillips believed that if he had found a white man who could sing black he’d be a millionaire. He had found this in Elvis Presley but even moreso in Jerry Lee. Lewis was & is a true blues singer - listen to "Big legged woman" & "Hello hello baby" on Sun. These records set the Lewis blues style forever & such great post-Sun Jerry Lee performances as "No headstone on my grave", "Milk cow blues", "Blue like midnight", etc. repeated the same magic. Years of hearing every single blues singer that appeared at Haney’s Big House in Ferriday really paid off.
For all his greatness, however, Sam Phillips had many faults. His neglect of Carl Perkins after his accident is certainly one. Also, he released the bare minimum on Jerry Lee & the body of work contained on box sets like "Classic Jerry Lee Lewis" show us that this extremely consistent material should have been released while Lewis was at Sun.
Johnny Cash was the most successful pure country artist at Sun & it was at Sun he recorded classics like "Folsom prison blues", "I walk the line", etc. When Cash left Sun in the late ‘50s, that was the begging of the end for the label. Soon, real rock ‘n’ roll was being banned & there was no place for bluesy singers like Jerry Lee.
Other artists to record at Sun included Roy Orbison - an unusual rockabilly star in many ways. He had a local hit with "Ooby dooby" & wrote hits for Jerry Lee, The Elverley Brothers & Warren Smith. He left Sun early & found fame as a bluesy balladeer in the ‘60s (even though he often said he left Sun because he didn’t care for recording blues & R&B, both styles were always very much part of his style & records "Candy man", his version of Jerry Lee Lewis’ "Mean woman blues" & the like proved he was a great bluesman, when he wanted).
Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley & Sonny Burgess are among the lesser-known Sun artists. They had local hits like Orbison but, unlike Roy, they never achieved greater fame later on.
Charlie Rich, after Jerry Lee, was perhaps the most different artist to record at Sun. His style incorporated Jerry Lee’s, Ray Charles’ & the jazz of his youth & he wrote hits like "I’ll make it all up to you", "Break up" & "It hurt me so" for Jerry Lee. The first & third of these were the type of R&B ballads Rich specialized in. Rich found country success in the ‘70s - long after he left Sun - but his Sun work endures as his best (highlights include the Jerry Lee-intended demo "No headstone on my garve", another demo "There won’t be anymore", "Easy money" & "My baby done left me". These are the greatest examples of white blues recorded at Sun outside of Jerry Lee.
Sun basically wound down in the ‘60s & the departure of Jerry Lee Lewis in 1963 virtually ended any hopes for any kind of hit - big or small - at Sun. Sun was far from being the dominant label of the rock era - but it was the label that produced the greatest music of that time.

Patrick Wall,
July 3,1998.

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