Sam Phillips

Rock 'n' roll was born in rural Alabama, 1923, in the form of Sam Phillips, the youngest son of a large family living in a remote colony called the Lovelace Community. His father had a gift for farming, which was brought to an end by the Depression. His mother picked guitar and showed the kind of forbearance that allowed her to name her son after the doctor who delivered him drunk and then had to be put to bed himself. And yet from these unprepossessing origins, in 1951 Phillips made what is widely considered to be the first rock 'n' roll record, Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston's 'Rocket 88'.

Just two years later a shy eighteen-year-old kid with sideburns, fresh out of high school, wandered into his recording studio to make a record 'for his mother', secretly hoping that it might somehow get him noticed. His name was Elvis Presley. Elvis's success, and the subsequent triumph of rock 'n' roll, was initially propelled to an almost astonishing degree by a limited number of releases by Carl 'Blue Suede Shoes' Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis - all from this tiny, one-man label.

An engaging mix of biography and anecdote, Peter Guralnick's book brilliantly recreates one shining moment in the history of popular culture. And Sam Phillips was the man who brought it all about.

“Author Peter Guralnick has no equals when it comes to researching the characters around Fifties and Sixties rock music, and this biography has been many years in the writing. ...(a) valuable and fascinating book.”

Author Peter Guralnick has no equals when it comes to researching the characters around Fifties and
Sixties rock music, and this biography has been many years in the writing. ...(a) valuable and fascinating book.

-- Ray Connolly DAILY MAIL - Book of the Week
In the hands of a storyteller as deft as Peter Guralnick it effortlessly engages the reader throughout. -- Lou Glandfield TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Guralnick's book is exhaustive but exhilarating. Writing about music is notoriously difficult ... Guralnick manages to do so with ease, so that every description of a recording gets you scurrying to YouTube, to check if he's right. He invariably is. It's a big book about a huge personality whose influence on popular music has been enormous. -- JOHN CLARKE THE INDEPENDENT
Guralnick brilliantly captures the period, its attitudes and its characters in a book that is essential reading for anyone interested in popular music. -- Edward Argyle DAILY EXPRESS

Getting to know Sam, Mr. Guralnick explains, opened up "a world in which I had clearly not grown up but to which I so desperately sought admittance, as historian, as writer, as fan." So began the quest that has produced the gold-standard Presley bio and now a complete portrait of his inspiration.
Mr. Guralnick has captured what was different, real and raw about a great artist. His Sam Phillips comes out perfectly imperfect.

-- PRESTON LAUTERBACH WALL STREET JOURNAL

Peter Guralnick is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including Lost Highway, Sweet Soul Music, Searching for Robert Johnson, and the novel Nighthawk Blues. His two-volume biography of Elvis, published as Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love, is widely regarded as definitive. His essays on Elvis Presley in the 1992 and 1993 boxed sets The Complete '50s Masters and The Essential '60s Masters were both nominated for Grammy Awards and he won a Grammy for his liner notes to Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club.

Peter Guralnick lives in Massachusetts.

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Rock 'n' roll was born in rural Alabama, 1923, in the form of Sam Phillips, the youngest son of a large family living in a remote colony called the Lovelace Community. His father had a gift for farming, which was brought to an end by the Depression. His mother picked guitar and showed the kind of forbearance that allowed her to name her son after the doctor who delivered him drunk and then had to be put to bed himself. And yet from these unprepossessing origins, in 1951 Phillips made what is widely considered to be the first rock 'n' roll record, Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston's 'Rocket 88'. Just two years later a shy eighteen-year-old kid with sideburns, fresh out of high school, wandered into his recording studio to make a record 'for his mother', secretly hoping that it might somehow get him noticed. His name was Elvis Presley. Elvis's success, and the subsequent triumph of rock 'n' roll, was initially propelled to an almost astonishing degree by a limited number of releases by Carl 'Blue Suede Shoes' Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis - all from this tiny, one-man label.An engaging mix of biography and anecdote, Peter Guralnick's book brilliantly recreates one shining moment in the history of popular culture. And Sam Phillips was the man who brought it all about.

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