Perhaps one needs to be a pretty hard-core Elvis obsessive to get the beauty of this connection, which leapt out at me immediately in the moment my brother took my car keys, (with the Sun Studio key-ring bought at Sun Studios in Memphis), to go move my car, holding the two Keys to our rooms at the Holiday Inn in Boston.
I was like, “WAIT. HUGE ELVIS CONNECTION RIGHT THERE IN YOUR HANDS. STOP LET ME TAKE A PICTURE.”
Elvis is everywhere… and Sam Phillips gets around pretty good, too.
Bingo!
I mean, what are the odds that this son of sharecroppers from Alabama would “get in early” on both Elvis and Holiday Inn? Man was no dummy.
I just think it’s so funny how it all played out: Sam Phillips started Sun Records. “Discovered” Elvis. Put out a bunch of songs by Elvis (not that many, all told) – watched as EP got bigger and bigger until EP was finally too big for Sam to handle. EP needed strenuous career-management, national access, careful negotiations by practiced business professionals – Sam was a one-man outfit on Union Ave in Memphis. He had other artists he wanted to record, like Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash and Howlin’ Wolf – Sun Records became jUST Elvis and Sam didn’t really have any interest in that. So he sold Elvis’ contract to RCA for $10,000 – a lot of people are like, “OMG he should have sold it for so much more!!” – forgetting (or perhaps they didn’t know it in the first place) that $10,000 was the highest price ever paid for an artist … EVER. It was an historic amount – making national front-page news – and there were those at RCA who thought it was nuts. If Elvis turned out to be a flash in the pan, or just a fad, then they were just throwing a huge amount of money in 1955 down the toilet.
But, well, we all know how THAT worked out for RCA.
Sam Phillips gave up Sun Records – although it’s still a recording studio to this day – and then was an early investor in Holiday Inn. Another major symbol of Americana, if you think about it.
Sam Phillips, who essentially gave us Elvis, did NOT make his millions from Elvis. He made his millions from The Holiday Inn.
I love this story.
If it happens twice it ain’t luck. You have to really admire a guy who does well by doing good.
// If it happens twice it ain’t luck. //
That’s exactly right.
There’s this long, great speech Dylan gave when he was awarded the MusiCares Person of the Year last week and he mentions both Elvis and Sam Phillips,
“Ahmet Ertegun didn’t think much of my songs, but Sam Phillips did. Ahmet founded Atlantic Records. He produced some great records: Ray Charles, Ray Brown, just to name a few.
There were some great records in there, no question about it. But Sam Phillips, he recorded Elvis and Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Radical guys that shook the very essence of humanity. Revolution in style and scope. Heavy shape and color. Radical to the bone. Songs that cut you to the bone. Renegades in all degrees, doing songs that would never decay, and still resound to this day. Oh, yeah, I’d rather have Sam Phillips’ blessing any day. ”
The transcript is here : http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-grammys-2015-transcript-of-bob-dylans-musicares-person-of-year-speech-20150207-story.html#page=1
Yes, I saw that! Loved the shout-out to Sam. Dylan said once that one of the main highlights of his career was Elvis covering one of his songs. It’s one of my favorite Elvis recordings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_HzZrOGlRk
So … great perspective there from Dylan on the stature of Sun/Elvis, considering how many highlights there have been in Dylan’s career.