By Chris Heard BBC News Online entertainment staff

It was there, from his cramped console overlooking a modest soundproofed studio, that he steered some of the most seminal recordings in rock history.

Phillips (r) made musical history with Elvis and his band

For fans of Elvis and the myth of rock 'n' roll, Sun Studio retains its magical allure to this day, undiminished by the passing of half a century.

Set alone on a nondescript corner, a couple of miles from the jumping blues bars of Beale Street, it is an unimposing yet affecting building, filling the visitor with anticipation of what lies inside.

Entering via a small cafe and souvenir shop, you continue through an office where Phillips' secretary Marion Keisker greeted the nervous 18-year-old Presley for the first time.

Walk through an interconnecting door and you arrive in the studio itself: a simple, low-ceilinged room just a few feet square, artificially lit and clad in perforated padded tiling.

Pianos, guitars and microphones straddle the floor while images of rock 'n' roll's early heroes peer down from the walls.

Some of Presley's most lasting work was recorded under Phillips

At the far wall stands Phillips' recording desk, enclosed behind a glass window, primitive in its analogue simplicity compared with the digital wizardry of the modern studio.

Sun has become a place of pilgrimage, a sacred shrine to the home of rock 'n' roll in a city known as the birthplace of the blues.

It is at its most evocative in the midday heat of a Memphis summer's day, dusty and baked, just a few blocks down from the cooling Mississippi river.

Artists as big as U2 have come to Sun looking to recreate the feeling that permeated those early, unself-conscious productions.

Before Phil Spector and George Martin there was Sam Phillips, a pioneering, founding father of rock 'n' roll who set the template for the producer as an artist in his own right.

Phillips was a businessman who loved the blues

Phillips was the blues-loving businessman whose singular vision and force of personality created the atmosphere in which talent could flourish.

Young southern hopefuls such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison were among the unknowns whose latent abilities were honed by Phillips' ear for a tune.

But of course it was the break he gave to a shy teenage truck driver called Elvis Presley that was to change the music industry - and with it the western world - for good.

When Elvis stepped inside 706 Union Avenue 50 years ago with guitarist Scotty Moore and bass player Bill Black, a chemistry occurred that would influence the course of pop for years to come.

U2 are among fans of the Sun recording style

Presley's raw, unrestrained rhythm 'n' blues howl was unleashed in the mix with his group's stripped down hillbilly style to create an entirely new sound.

For many this was the moment when rock 'n roll was truly born.

Phillips captured it all - and Elvis's Sun recordings are still regarded by many of his fans as the purest expression of his artistry.

John Lennon and Bob Dylan are among those to have acknowledged their debt to Elvis and those groundbreaking sessions.

The small, understated space which gave life to one of music's most enduring legends will hopefully stand for many years to come as Sam Phillips' legacy.