The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Illustrated Story of Sun Records & the 70 Records That Changed the World, released in celebration of the iconic record label’s 70th anniversary, promises to be one coffee table book that will not gather dust on the coffee table. The book was co-written by Peter Guralnick and Colin Escott, both Grammy winners who have made their mark in music writing. Guralnick is known for Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love his two-volume biography of Elvis, as well as Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock and Roll. Nashville resident Escott wrote Hank Williams: The Biography and Good Rockin’ Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll. He also cowrote the Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet.
This latest collaborative effort is a treasure for fans and historians of early rock and roll music and serves as a companion volume for the authors’ other works. Sun Records made available a treasure trove of photographs from Sam Phillips’ earliest days in Memphis through today. The history itself is presented in two parts, written by Escott: Part I covers Phillips from 1952 to 1969; Part II covers Shelby Singleton’s entry into the Sun Records history to 2022.
Between those two sections, Guralnick curated an illustrated list of 70 songs that mark his attempt to “chart the progession of Sun and the evolution of Sam Phillips’s creative thinking” over a decade in which, according to Jerry Wexler, “he produced a millennium’s worth of music.”
Guralnick did not purport to present a “best of” or “greatest hits” collection. Instead, he selected 70 records—A and B sides—that tell the story of Phillips as he learned the business by trusting his ear and his instinct. Of course, the “Million Dollar Quarter” is represented in the story—Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, who wrote the foreword to the book, as are Charlie Rich (“Lonely Weekends”), Roy Orbison, (“Ooby Dolby”), B.B. King (“She’s Dynamite”) and Howlin’ Wolf (“Moanin’ at Midnight”). But Guralnick also features such acts as The Prisonaires, a five-man group formed in Nashville’s Tennessee State Prison. Phillips convinced Governor Clement to allow him to bring the group to his studio in Memphis with an armed guard in 1953, where they recorded “Just Walkin’ in the Rain.” The seventy selections feature such White and Black musicians as Little Junior’s Blue Flames (“Feelin’ Good”), Big Memphis Ma Rainey (“Call Me Anything, but Call Me”), Rufus Thomas, Jr. (who years later released “The Funky Chicken”), Barbara Pittman (“I Need a Man”), Hardrock Gunter (“Gonna Dance All Night”), and Sonny Burgess (“Read Headed Woman”).
The narrative covers more than the successes; in fact, it is a tribute to the persistence in the face of disappointments and even failures at times.
For readers who found themselves stopping while reading Guralnick and Escott’s other books to listen to listen to the many recordings mention, this book contains an exclusive QR code to an official playlist created by Sun Records of the songs included in the volume.
While the music remains the focus of the project, the authors reveal so much about Phillips, Singleton, and the other individuals who played a major role in the birth of a genre of music that would not be the same without the magic of Sun Records.
Guralnick will appear in conversation with the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Michael Gray at Parnassus Books November 30 at 6:30 pm.