He Invented a Sound Machine

Sam Phillips, the legendary record producer who discovered Elvis Presley, wouldn’t make a good courtroom witness. He speaks with an exaggerated, theatrical flair that is equal parts evangelist and carny, and which makes it easy to dismiss him as a blowhard when he talks about his mission in spreading the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, as he does in a new A&E; documentary.

But it would be a mistake to underestimate Phillips’ importance in the evolution of the young, rebellious sound that redefined popular music half a century ago.

Scores of people contributed to the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, but Phillips gets my vote as the MVP--and you may agree after seeing “Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a thoughtful and engaging documentary that debuts at 8 p.m. Sunday on A&E.;

The two-hour show explores Phillips’ crusade to bring Southern music--including blues, gospel and country--to the world, and it’s filled with interviews with and/or rare footage of many of the artists with whom he worked in the ‘50s at Sun Records in Memphis. Among them: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison.

Phillips was certainly in the right place at the right time, but he was in no way just lucky. As we see in the documentary, he had a cocky, rock ‘n’ roll attitude himself.

In scenes from a home movie from the late ‘50s, we see Phillips driving a Cadillac convertible and tipping his hat at the camera--not unlike scenes we’ve seen over the years of a young Presley in his own Cadillac convertible.

As a record man, Phillips aimed not to copy the hit sounds of the day, the way most pop executives (then and now) do. He followed his own vision, encouraging singers to be themselves in the studio. He wanted a raw, defiant and youthful sound, not a polished and polite one.

“I don’t think there would have been an Elvis without a Sam,” veteran Memphis musician Jim Dickinson declares early in the program. It’s an audacious comment, but it might well be true. Phillips didn’t give Presley his remarkable talent, but he was one of the few people who recognized it.

In fact, even Phillips had reservations at first about Presley, who was just 18 when he walked into Phillips’ studio in 1953 to make a record as a birthday gift for his mother. Phillips was intrigued by the voice, but he thought it might be too “beautiful” for the rough, bluesy style he preferred. It was a year before he invited Presley back to experiment on some recordings.

Phillips was born in Florence, Ala., in 1923 and fell in love as a child with the black gospel and blues of the region. He thought it was the most exciting sound he ever heard, and he wondered why the rest of the world wasn’t listening to it. When he later visited Memphis and discovered the wealth of blues talent on Beale Street, he began dreaming of bringing that music to the world himself.

While working as an announcer and engineer at a Memphis radio station in 1950, Phillips opened his own studio and began recording black musicians, including B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Bobby Bland and Ike Turner. He then sold the tapes to R&B; record labels in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Soon after one of those recordings, Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88,” also featuring Ike Turner, became a No. 1 R&B; single for Chess Records in 1951, Phillips started his own label, Sun Records. The label had a Top 10 R&B; hit in 1953 with Rufus Thomas’ “Bear Cat,” a novelty response to the Big Mama Thornton version of “Hound Dog.”

But in those segregated times, Phillips was aware that it would be hard to reach a wider pop audience because mainstream radio stations resisted hard-core R&B; recordings. Phillips felt the best way to break through that barrier was to find a white artist who could sing effectively in a soulful blues style.

He brought Presley into Sun Records in 1954 to try out some things with two local country musicians. During a rehearsal break, Presley began fooling around with an old blues number, Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right.”

There’s no footage of that historic moment, but Phillips knew instantly that he had found his man--and his sound. The record added a touch of country and a youthful sense of self-affirmation to Crudup’s song. Though the record was a smash in Memphis, Phillips had a hard time convincing disc jockeys around the country that they should play it.

“I was just sick,” Phillips told me in a 1981 interview. “I drove all over Louisiana and Texas, and the story was the same. I was more excited about Elvis than anybody in my life, and nobody in the world seemed to be interested in it.”

But Phillips kept making singles with Presley, including the classics “Baby, Let’s Play House” and “Mystery Train,” and they stirred such attention that RCA Records bought Presley’s contract in 1955. Sun was a struggling operation and Phillips needed the money to promote the other artists who started showing up at his door after Presley’s success.

The documentary--written and co-produced by Peter Guralnick for Peter Jones Productions--doesn’t spend as much time on Phillips’ Sun days as it should. The post-Sun years, which center on Phillips’ disillusionment with the record business, just aren’t as compelling. Morgan Neville directed and co-produced the show, which is narrated by actor Billy Bob Thornton.

Still, Phillips’ story is one of the essential ones in rock, and “The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll” tells that story with a convincing sense of scholarship and history.

One reason there hasn’t been a comprehensive documentary on Phillips until now is that he has tended to be extremely media-shy. Guralnick, who wrote a landmark, two-volume biography of Presley, spent more than a year persuading Phillips to participate in the project.

So would there have been an Elvis without a Sam?

“Well, there would have been an Elvis without a Sam, but whether there would have been an Elvis phenomenon is another question,” Guralnick said this week when asked about one of the key questions posed in the documentary. “Sam was the person who, purely on the basis of instinct, waited Elvis out in the studio while he sang all kinds of things which may have been pretty, but were nowhere close to the direction that people have come to recognize as Elvis Presley’s music.

“I don’t know how many people would have the patience to wait for something to happen . . . , something which they have no assurance would ever happen . . . , something which they have no definition for--and then seize upon it when that thing did happen.”

* Biography’s “Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll” can be seen Sunday at 8 p.m. on A&E.; The network has rated it TV-G (suitable for all ages).