I’m Uncle Marty, this is Chapter 552 of The 3D RadioActivity. Sun Records is an independent label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Tennessee. Initially, he had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because he loved RnB and wanted to bring it to a white audience. In 51, Sam produced “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, who were actually Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm. Because of Ike’s Delta blues connections, he was contracted as a talent scout and effectively was an in-house producer who brought Howlin’ Wolf, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Little Milton, Billy “The Kid” Emerson and Roscoe Gordon to Memphis. Sun became the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and many others. While this episode is the first in a series that looks into some of the notable studios and companies like Chess, Stax, and Vee-Jay, these babies won’t require special eyewear to focus on The Sun.
We have managed to set a program record by squeezing 23 tunes into an hour or so, most well under 2 and a half minutes and averaging from the time in the 50’s before cars had four headlights. There’s lots of great music to look at in the Sun Studio Catalog, so we will continue to play more of these classic cuts that made history. Got any suggestions? Then tell me by sending email, or with a message on our Facebook page which has links to the archives of all the earlier episodes and graphics in the photo section. Look for us on Denver’s MileHiRadio, Theacidflashback.com , TuneIn and InternetFM dot com, because the best FM radio is now on the Internet.
Until we meet again, Keep Rockin’ On!
…Uncle Marty
“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”
…Marilyn Monroe