Sam Phillips groomed Elvis Presley for success

Elvis had listened to several musicians who had been produced by Phillips: Rupert Thomas, BB King, Ike Turner, and Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston, regarded by many as the first rock and roll record.

But the record which eventually brought him to the studio was Little Junior Parker's Mystery Train, a song which became an Elvis classic later.

"He was a very unusual-sounding person so I had to make sure we didn't go down the beaten path", says Phillips.

'Fabulous music'

Recognising his potential talent, Phillips wanted to bring out the boy's influences, or as he calls it: "Black man's fabulous music done by a white man, but without mimicking it."

Bursting onto a vigorous pop and country music scene was not easy with singers like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Hank Williams around.

Whites in the Southern states were unwilling to accept that black people might be successful performers. Phillips wanted to change that.

He just wanted people to "make up their own minds" after hearing the music that he so loved.

In an environment in which segregation was the norm, Elvis was going to help black music and musicians find a wider audience.

Breakthrough

In 1954, Elvis's first recording That's All Right was produced. But Phillips found it an uphill struggle to get black-influenced music on the radio.

Even a local black radio DJ wouldn't give the record airplay fearing that he would lose his job.

But a few pioneers - such as Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips - did play.

Typically modest, Elvis saw the record's eventual success as a fluke, Phillips recalls.

After four more singles Phillips sold his contract as Elvis's manager to RCA records for $35,000 to alleviate his financial troubles.

Running a fledgling record label involved a substantial outlay, and Sun records had quickly accumulated debts.

I Forgot to Remember to Forget - Elvis's last single for Sun and first for RCA - went to number one in the country charts.

Close relationship

Phillips says he was extremely close to the singer - 12 years his junior - in the early days.

"He probably loved nobody as he did me, outside his mother and father.

We had an umbilical cord between us, but it was cut

Sam Phillips

"After talking to Elvis and his parents, we decided to do it if he would do it. But Elvis wasn't looking to move", he says.

While acknowledging that Elvis was inevitably going to move to a major record label, Phillips can't help insisting that his prot�g� would have been better off to stay with him.

"We had an umbilical cord between us, but it was cut", he says.

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