One of the highlights of my trip to Memphis has been my visit to Sun Studio, founded by record promoter Sam Phillips. It's smaller than the more famous Stax Records and a less slick operation, but it's really brought to life by the quality of the guiding. Visitors are escorted round in small groups, and it's a really memorable experience.
Standing right in the small studio where countless big names recorded, we listen to the first radio broadcast of an Elvis Presley song, 'That's alright Mama'.
Then our guide shows us the first microphone Elvis ever recorded with - yes, you can pose for photos with it - and tells us about the 'Million Dollar Quartet'. One day, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash all happened to be in the studio at the same time, and they started to jam. Sam Phillips recorded the results, but couldn't actually release them for many years because each of the stars were tied to binding contracts.
Sun Studio is really atmospheric - it hardly seems to have changed since those four famous faces were recording there. I like to think they got their Pepsi from this machine.
Standing right in the small studio where countless big names recorded, we listen to the first radio broadcast of an Elvis Presley song, 'That's alright Mama'.Then our guide shows us the first microphone Elvis ever recorded with - yes, you can pose for photos with it - and tells us about the 'Million Dollar Quartet'. One day, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash all happened to be in the studio at the same time, and they started to jam. Sam Phillips recorded the results, but couldn't actually release them for many years because each of the stars were tied to binding contracts.
Sun Studio is really atmospheric - it hardly seems to have changed since those four famous faces were recording there. I like to think they got their Pepsi from this machine.
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