Sam Phillips Sam Phillips Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer who played an important role in the development of rock and roll during the 1950s. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Howlin' Wolf. He launched Presley's career in 1954. Phillips sold Sun in 1969 to Shelby Singleton. He was an early investor in the Holiday Inn chain of hotels. He owned and operated radio stations in Memphis; Florence, Alabama; and Lake
Phillips' Sound Recording Services in the first-floor boarding rooms above the studio, who were sometimes asked by Phillips to record monologues and poems. These included the actors John Thaw, Richard Briers, and the ventriloquist Ray Alan. For the first couple of years, Phillips made music compilation discs for local businesses such as the local ice rink or cinema, men singing songs for loved ones, children playing an instrument, or even a neighbour’s dog howling along to piano accompaniment. As the record shop and studio took over the business, he had a brass plate made which he put on the wall just outside the front