Before soul there was rock ‘n’ roll, and before rock ‘n’ roll there was blues and gospel and the early sounds of field workers’ call and response “hollers” drifting north from the Delta. There was W.C. Handy and Jerry Lee Lewis, “Mississippi” John Hurt and Bessie Smith, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Memphis, Tennessee is, as Tom Petty once said during a performance, “the musical center of the universe.”
1954 - That's All Right
Nineteen and unknown, Elvis finally gets a session at Sam Phillips' Sun Records in July. With Bill Black on bass and Scotty Moore on guitar, the trio lay down a new sound that is too bluesy to be country, and too dangerous to be pop. It is the first rock 'n' roll platter and would come to define an era and forever change popular music.
1955 - Blue Suede Planet
Recorded in the same tiny Memphis studio as "That's All Right," Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" becomes the first single in history to top all three charts. Selling more than a million copies in its first month, the single crowns Carl Perkins as rock 'n' roll's first international superstar.
1955 - The Man in Black
Deeply rooted in country and gospel, Johnny Cash takes his brand of songwriting to Sam Phillips. Uninterested, Sam tells him, "Johnny, go sin a little bit, then come back and sing me some songs." Johnny comes back with, "Cry, Cry, Cry," a world-weary country crossover hit that incorporated R&B guitar playing.
1956 - Ooby Dooby
An unknown Roy Orbison joins Memphis' Sun Records roster with his release of the smash hit "Ooby Dooby." The shy Texan's sweet, melodious voice was sharply juxtaposed to his rollicking guitar. The sound changed pop vocal stylings.
1957 - Nice and Rough Club
Nutbush native Anna Mae Blalock hears Sun artists The Kings of Rhythm in a St. Louis. She pesters the bandleader for a chance to join the group as a singer. Five years later the two -- now the Ike and Tina Turner Revue -- were on their way to superstardom with their first hit on both the R&B and Pop charts: "A Fool in Love."
1957 - A "Killer" is Set Loose
A young piano player from Louisiana named Jerry Lee Lewis records "Whole Lotta Shakin'" at Sun Records, and follows the effort almost immediately by "Great Balls of Fire" and "Breathless." Every mother's nightmare, Jerry is the first to add a vibrant and real sexual danger to rock 'n' roll. The mark has proven indelible.
1964 - Across the Pond
The Beatles land in America, inaugurating the British Invasion of American rock 'n' roll music. They are sporting a decided Memphis influence, having just come off a tour of Germany and England in which their set is made up of more than 70-percent Sun material, primarily Carl Perkins numbers.
1964 - England's Newest Hit Makers
The Rolling Stones release their first full-length album and the Stax influence is undeniable. The record even contains a cover of the Rufus Thomas hit, "Walking the Dog."
1965 - 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky
In 1965, Jimi Hendrix, a young guitar player from Seattle, forms The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The young prodigy taught himself guitar by listening to the records of Delta and Memphis guitarists, most notably the crying solo-driven melodies of B.B. King. Hendrix's virtuosity and passion would cement the electric guitar solo as one of the defining elements of rock 'n' roll music.
1967 - Taking A Letter
Bell Records commissions Chips Moman's American recording studio in Memphis to record a new song called "The Letter." The studio brings in a band fronted by a young white pop singer named Alex Chilton to record the piece as the "Box Tops." The song went all the way to Billboard's number one, sold more than 4 million copies, and received two Grammy nominations. Chilton would perfect the pure pop sound five years later in the influential Memphis band "Big Star."
1967 - Taking It Higher
The Doors burst onto the international scene with an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The wildly popular psychedelic rock band admits a heavy influence by Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis and other stars of 1950s rock 'n' roll.
1968 - Being Good Isn't Always Easy
United Kingdom pop superstar Dusty Springfield arrives in Memphis, looking for solace from the psychedelic storm in the roots music she had always cherished. Atlantic's Jerry Wexler had arranged for her to record "Dusty In Always Easy Memphis" at Chips Moman's American Music studio. Regarded by many as her finest album, the single "Son Of A Preacher Man" becomes a major hit in the late sixties, and again in the mid-nineties when it was included on the soundtrack to the hit movie Pulp Fiction.
1972 - Big Star
A third wave of influential Memphis music is born when Alex Chilton (formerly of the Box Tops) and his new band Big Star released "Number One Record" in 1972. It was not a commercial hit, but the pop masterpiece has remained a critical influence on decades of 'alternative' post-punk rockers. The artists citing a Big Star influence include REM, Sister Hazel, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, Wilco, and the Posies. The effect would later lead Rolling Stone magazine to observe, "It's safe to say that there would have been no modern pop movement without Big Star."
1980 - On A Mission from God
In a decided revolt against seventies pop, a touring band fronted by Saturday Night Live stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd make the cult classic movie, The Blues Brothers. Starring Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and other Stax house musicians and featuring a reverence for Stax artists and hits, the movie fuels a new era of celebrity for the label.
1981 - The Lady's Back
Tina Turner emerges from almost two decades of relative obscurity to join the Rolling Stones on tour. Recovering the R&B energy and "raunch" of her early rock hits, she goes on to become one of the biggest selling rock acts of the 1980s.
1982 - I'm Goin' to Graceland
Graceland opens its famous music laden gates and quickly becomes a world-class destination. Still drawing more than 700,000 fans a year, Graceland has become the nation's most visited home in America after the White House. Its enduring popularity -- especially with visiting rock stars -- is a testament to Memphis' musical heritage.
1983 - A New Day
After a decade of urban decay, Beale Street is added to the national register of historic places. The redeveloped Beale Street quickly becomes a hotbed of southern talent as it had a century before. Blues and rock 'n' roll clubs such as B.B. King's, fill the street, drawing from the area's rich talent. Today, Beale Street is Tennessee's most famous street and a popular tourist destination.
1985 - Thirty-year Reunion
Sun Studio is reopened when Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis returned to the site to record the Class of '55: Rock & Roll Homecoming album. Sun operates as both a museum to Memphis' place in music, and as a functioning recording studio.
1986 - Pioneers Get Their Due
The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame names its first class of inductees. Memphis' Sun pioneers Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Sam Phillips command three slots on the elite list. The next year's class would draw three more from the Sun roster: B.B. King, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison.
1988 - U2 Shows Their Roots
In a decade many describe as being proliferated by light and corporate pop candy, a gritty Irish band called U2 emerged with a counter sound and message. Their 1988 concert tour movie "Rattle and Hum" moves from Sun Studio to Graceland to performances with B.B. King -- linking Memphis indelibly to the new authenticity that would be the hallmark of the 1990s rock 'n' roll.
1996 - Play It Steve
UK's revered rock magazine Mojo names Steve Cropper the number two "Greatest Guitar Player of All Time." (Number One was Jimi Hendrix.) It is rare and long-overdue recognition for the modest Memphis guitarist whose bands the Mar-Keys and Booker T. and the MGs gave Stax some of its biggest hits, including "Last Night" and "Green Onions." As the key studio guitar player for Stax, he has been credited as the "muscle" behind many of the label's star performers. Cropper is equally underrated for his phenomenal songwriting and arranging abilities, which are evident in Eddie Floyd's "Knock On Wood," Don Conway's "Sookie Sookie," Wilson Picket's "In the Midnight Hour," and Otis Redding's "Mr. Pitiful."
2000 - Eric Clapton Shows His Roots
It only takes a few strains on rock superstar Eric Clapton's influential guitar style to hear the influence of another master. B.B. King's single string, dog-bite guitar playing has been credited as the most important contribution to rock guitar in the past 50 years, and Eric Clapton's 2000 "Riding with the King" undeniably confirms it.
2001 - A New Generation of Axe-Grinders
Inspired by Memphis minimalists "The Compulsive Gamblers," Jack and Meg White of "The White Stripes" come to Memphis to record their third album, "White Blood Cells," at Easly studios. Produced by Memphis legend Doug Easly, this is the double platinum album that catapulted them into the international arena with its deeply rooted Memphis ethic.
2002 - Justifying a New Direction
In 2002, 21-year-old Memphis native Justin Timberlake released his first solo album. A decided departure from the teen pop sound he perfected with his *NSYNC band mates, the album is distinctly R&B. Upon the album's release, Timberlake tells interviewers that the sound emanates from the church choirs and Beale Street musicians of his early memories. The transformation prompts some to compare him to Elvis Presley, the first good-looking white kid with a dangerous R&B sound to bust out of Memphis.
