Phillips, Sam (1923–2003)

U.S. record producer

Sam Phillips was one of the leaders of twentiethcentury cultural change in the United States. Phillips was the founder of Memphis Recording Service in 1950. That service produced Sun Records, which included the first records of some of the legendary figures in rock-and-roll history. Among the recording artists discovered by Sam Phillips were Howlin’ Wolf, B. B. King, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl [Page 1193]Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, and, most notably perhaps, Elvis Presley. For many years people interested in the history of rock and roll and the rise of Elvis Presley called Phillips to talk about Presley. In recent years people realized the tremendous influence of Phillips in developing not only Presley but also many other artists. Then the calls were about Phillips, not Presley.

Samuel Cornelius Phillips was born in Florence, Alabama. He was the youngest of eight children. His father's farm failed during the Depression, and Sam picked cotton and worked in a grocery store and funeral parlor to help the family survive. From his earliest years Sam loved music, the music he heard in nearby black churches and the music he heard in the cotton fields. Much of it was the music of the poor. “There were two types of downtrodden people back then … black field hands and white sharecroppers” (Guralnick 2000). As a child Sam listened to their blues, their gospel, and their country music. As he grew older, his interest in music grew deeper. He played the sousaphone, trombone, and drums in high school and led a seventy-two-piece marching band. During those years he developed an interest in sharing the music he felt so privileged to hear. The result was radio. “I was in love with sound, and in love with radio” (Guralnick 2000). While still in high school he worked as a disc jockey in a small 250-watt station in nearby Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Shortly after high school, in 1942, he married Rebecca Burns. They had two sons. To support his family, Phillips struck out to work for radio stations in Nashville and other southern towns until, at age twenty-three, at the end of World War II, he moved to Memphis. There he became an announcer on radio station WREC, where he worked for more than six years.

His interest in broadcasting music shifted toward an interest in producing music. He felt that the undiscovered music of his early years should be recorded and shared. He also developed the distinctive vision that marked his entire career. That vision was to have people of different races hear and appreciate each other's music. In particular Phillips wanted the majority white culture to hear and integrate the music of African-Americans, the music of his youth, heard years before in black churches and cotton fields. “It was a secret assault on a racist system—the realization of a true sense of democracy, something very much against the mores of the time and place they lived” (Guralnick, cited in Halbfinger 2003, A10). In 1949, with a performer at WREC, Buck Turner, Phillips leased a small storefront at 706 Union Avenue and installed recording equipment. In 1950, at the age of twenty-seven, Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service there. Its motto was “We record anything—anywhere—anytime.” Because the new studio was clearly a financial risk, Phillips held on to his job at WREC. The stress of the two jobs took a toll on Phillips. He suffered a nervous breakdown and was treated with electroshock therapy. Shortly thereafter he bet his future on the recording service and left WREC. He put all his considerable drive into producing music.

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