The first record that Sun mastermind Sam Phillips ever released was the good-timing "Boogie in the Park" by one-man-band Joe Hill Louis. The first record released on the Sun label itself was 16-year-old alto saxman Johnny London's intoxicating instrumental "Drivin 'Slow." Initially, Sun was a blues label, turning out gems like Junior Parker's "Feelin 'Good," an utterly primitive sound by Junior's standards but an original one by Sam's. Willie Nix's "Baker Shop Boogie" is a stomping double-entendre, while James Cotton's "Cotton Crop Blues" epitomizes Sun's country-meets-city sensibility.

Once Elvis hit, Sun concentrated on rockabilly like Sonny Burgess 'manic "We Wanna Boogie," while Warren Smith, despite his hard-country voice, snuck into the Hot 100 once with Roy Orbison's rocking "So Long I'm Gone." Surprisingly, Sun's straight-up country artists didn't fare so well, though Charlie Feathers '"I've Been Deceived" surely should have hit. Through it all, Sam retained a taste for feel-good one-man-bands both black (Dr. Ross) and white (Harmonica Frank). After scoring at the end of the decade with a pop-rockabilly remake of Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa," Carl Mann charted a second (and last) time by following with Cole's "Pretend."

And though Sun faded rather quietly and ignominiously in the '60s, the… read more »