Phillips Recording got his start, and a studio in Tupelo, Mississippi for demos. The Nashville and Tupelo studios were short-lived. Sun Records' many artists recorded there until 1969, when the label was sold to Mercury Records producer Shelby Singleton of Nashville. Phillips Recording continued operating, and hosted recordings by a newer generation of rock-and-roll groups like the Cramps, starting in 1979, drawn in part by the mystique of Sam Phillips. Numerous Memphis veteran sessions musicians of several genres, from soul to country, rock and others, have worked there over the years, and the studio still records various musical styles. Sam Phillips' son
Recording studio enhanced the sound of the recording. In this period large, acoustically "live" halls were favored, rather than the acoustically "dead" booths and studio rooms that became common after the 1960s. Because of the limits of the recording technology, which did not allow for multitrack recording techniques, studios of the mid-20th century were designed around the concept of grouping musicians (e.g., the rhythm section or a horn section) and singers (e.g., a group of backup singers), rather than separating them, and placing the performers and the microphones strategically to capture the complex acoustic and harmonic interplay that emerged during the performance.