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3. Johnny London: “Drivin’ Slow”
Two years after the studio opened, Phillips launched his own label, Sun Records, out of the same building. Though Sun would come to be best known for distributing rock and rockabilly singles, its first release was this casually cool jazz number by the 16-year-old alto saxophone player Johnny London.
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4. Elvis Presley: “That’s All Right”
An 18-year-old Elvis Presley first showed up at Sun Studio on July 18, 1953, to record two demos; legend has it that he wanted to give his mother a record of him singing as a birthday present. Phillips soon realized Presley’s potential, and brought him in for subsequent sessions. This sultry and soulful rendition of Arthur Crudup’s 1946 blues ditty “That’s All Right, Mama” was Presley’s debut single — and an instant sensation.
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5. Johnny Cash: “I Walk the Line”
In 1954, inspired by Presley’s success, an appliance salesman and aspiring musician named Johnny Cash auditioned for Phillips at Sun Studio. The following year, Sun Records released Cash’s debut single, “Cry Cry Cry,” which became a minor hit. In 1956, though, he had a bona fide smash with this tune, his first No. 1 on the country charts. Perhaps you’ve heard it before?
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6. Carl Perkins: “Blue Suede Shoes”
In late 1955, Presley departed Sun for a more lucrative contract with RCA Victor — which meant that Phillips’s label could really use a hit. Luckily, the first Sun single to sell a million copies was released in January 1956: Carl Perkins’s suave, self-penned rockabilly classic “Blue Suede Shoes.” Presley’s own version would become an even bigger and more indelible hit, but in deference to his former label and his friend Perkins, he delayed its release until that August so it would not compete with Perkins’s version on the charts.
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7. Jerry Lee Lewis: “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
After signing with the label in late 1956, Jerry Lee Lewis quickly became both a prolific session pianist at the studio — he played on Perkins’s hit “Matchbox,” among many other singles — and a fledgling Sun solo artist. His breakout hit was this fiery 1957 rockabilly number, a rework of a song first recorded two years prior by Big Maybelle. Another unforgettable Sun single by Lewis, “Great Balls of Fire,” was released later in 1957.
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8. Roy Orbison featuring the Teen Kings: “Ooby Dooby”
Roy Orbison is yet another musical icon who made some of his earliest recordings at Sun, even if his career didn’t quite take off until he signed to Monument Records in 1959. Recorded with his backing band the Teen Kings in 1956, the light, jumpy “Ooby Dooby” finds a young Orbison emulating Presley, a few years before perfecting his signature style of brooding, dreamy balladeering.
