Crocodile rocker Elton John is going all rockabilly for the latest tribute album, a salute to Sun Records, the former home of Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Produced by Atlantic Records founder
Ahmet Ertegun, the album will see major stars messin' it up on covers of the label's biggest hits.
John will be joined by a lineup that includes Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, the Who, Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Aerosmith, and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant for the soundtrack to an episode of PBS's American Masters. The two-hour tribute, due to air in December 2001, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the label originally founded by Presley producer Sam Phillips.
Alabama disc jockey Sam Phillips originally set up the Memphis Recording Service in January 1950 and Sun Records label in 1952. His studio was the only one in town and attracted blues players like B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf. While Phillips was a musical archivist as important as Alan Lomax a decade earlier, it wasn't until rock 'n' roll came along that his label was catapulted into legend.
On July 5, 1954, a young singer named Elvis Presley began messing around at the studio with his musicians Scotty Moore and Bill Black on an Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup song called "That's All Right, Mama." Phillips encouraged them to keep with it. Presley's first single went on to become a regional sensation and launched the star.
Phillips sold Elvis' contract in 1955 to RCA, but Sun Studios became a mecca for aspirant rockabilly musicians like Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. When the craze died, Sun Studios became a mecca for rock n roll fans. Phillips sold the Sun catalog in 1969.
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