Good Rockin' Tonight
Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'N' Roll
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Memphis, Tennessee. The early 1950s. The Mississippi rolls by, and there's a train in the night. Down on Beale Street there's hard-edged blues, on the outskirts of town they're pickin' hillbilly boogie.
At Sam Phillips' Sun Records studio on Union Avenue, there's something different going on. "Shake it, baby, shake it!" "Go, cat, go!" "We're gonna rock..."
This is where rock 'n' roll was born-the record company that launched Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins. The label that brought the world, "Blue Suede Shoes," "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," "Breathless," "I Walk the Line," "Mystery Train," "Baby, Let's Play House,' "Good Rockin' Tonight." Good Rockin Tonight is the history, in words and over 240 photographs, of Sam Phillips' legendary storefront studio, from the early days with primal blues artists like Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King to the long nights in the studio with Elvis and Jerry Lee. As colorful and energetic as the music itself, it's a one-of-a-kind book for anyone who wants to know where it all started.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The authors, freelance writers, build a credible case for their assertion that the Sun studio was the birthplace of rock 'n' roll. Sun's founder, Sam Phillips, was the first to record artists who blended country music with rhythm and blues (R & B), creating the ``rockabilly'' sound that set the direction rock 'n' roll has taken to the present day. Sun, a Memphis, Tenn.-based label formed in 1952, never attained the level of success of the major record companies. But Phillips, a former disc jockey who broke into the record industry by recording R & B artists such as Howlin' Wolf and Joe Louis Hill, remains a seminal, almost legendary figure in modern music history, having discovered Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and a host of lesser-known performers who have influenced recording artists of the past 40 years. Well-written and well-researched, the book is a worthy addition to the growing literature of rock 'n' roll. Photos.
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