Remembering the Class of ’55

On January 3, 1950, a radio engineer in Memphis, Tennessee, opened a modest music-recording establishment at 706 Union Avenue. The proprietor, Sam Phillips, had poured every spare penny and all his free time into the business, Sun Recording, which he hoped would let him realize a lifelong dream of preserving the regional music he loved — the blues, gospel, anything 'different' and alive.

First, though, he would have to make money to keep the doors open. Phillips found work recording weddings, funerals and all kinds of social events, alongside producing singles by up-and-coming acts such as Ike Turner, Howlin' Wolf, Little Milton, Roscoe Gordon and others. In 1952, he founded Sun Records, enabling him to market and sell these records himself. Phillips also offered a walk-in service — for a small fee, anyone could commit their voice and music onto vinyl.

In August 1953, one young man availed himself of this utility, stepping in off the street to record two songs as a birthday gift for his mother.

That man was Elvis Presley.

Phillips sensed something special about the kid and Presley returned in June 1954 to lay down the revolutionary track that would become his first official release, a cover of Arthur Crudup's "That's Alright" — a single that would propel rock 'n' roll music to the global stage.

In fact, within a few short years, the artists Phillips recorded would change the sound of popular music forever. Incredibly, not just Elvis Presley, but Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, all started their professional recording careers at Sun.

Fast forward three decades, and the now-famous Orbison, Lewis, Cash and Perkins, reconvened to celebrate the life and legacy of Sam Phillips and to pay tribute to their fifth fallen comrade, Presley. In 1985, they stepped once again into Sun Studio to record an album titled "Class of '55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming" — it was to be the first occasion on which these four giants ever shared a studio. But they all shared a debt of gratitude to Sam Phillips for changing their lives.

Born to a family of poor cotton growers in Kingsland, Arkansas, in 1932, Johnny Cash had harbored musical ambitions from an early age. At the age of 22, in 1954, he and his wife, Vivian, relocated to Memphis, where Cash worked as a door-to-door appliance peddler by day and practiced music at night.

That summer, inspired by hearing Elvis' "That's Alright," Cash approached Sam Phillips and successfully auditioned. In 1955, the singer released his debut single on Sun Records. He would go on to enjoy a long and highly successful career.

Carl Perkins was also born in 1932. His family were sharecroppers, and from the age of six Perkins worked alongside them for long hours in the cotton fields. He grew up listening to gospel music and the Grand Ole Opry radio show. By his mid-teens, Perkins was gigging in local bars. In 1953, he began sending out demo tapes to record companies, to no avail.

In 1954, he heard Presley's rattling version of "Blue Moon of Kentucky," which had been recorded and released by Sam Phillips. Carl turned to his wife, Valda, and said: "There's a man in Memphis who understands what we're doing. I need to go see him." Phillips released Perkins' debut single, "Movie Magg," in March 1955. Perkins had embarked on a career that would stretch across five decades and see him inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Roy Orbison, the son of an old-field driller, was born in 1936 in Vernon, Texas. He was gifted a guitar on his sixth birthday, and would later say that, from that moment on, "I was finished, you know, for anything else." By 1952, Orbison and his band were a regular feature on local television.

In 1955, inspired by Presley, he founded a new group, the Teen Kings. At a chance meeting, Johnny Cash recommended that Orbison approach Sam Phillips at Sun. Over the next two years, Phillips produced two dozen recordings by Orbison, including his classics, "Ooby Dooby" and "Claudette."

Jerry Lee Lewis belonged to the same generation. Born in 1935 into an impoverished farming family in Ferriday, Louisiana, he began playing piano at a very young age. Later expelled from the Southwest Bible Institute for playing boogie-woogie piano during a church assembly, the young Lewis quickly became a fixture on the local club circuit.

In the mid-1950s, in search of fame, Lewis traveled to Memphis, where he naturally gravitated to Sun. Sam Phillips was quick to spot his potential and Lewis' Sun singles over the next six years did much to define rock 'n roll, not least his monster hits, "Whole Lotta Shakin'" and "Great Balls of Fire."

It is little wonder then that the quartet's reunion at 706 Union Avenue in 1985 carried such an air of poignancy. They met in celebration and remembrance and recorded ten new tracks — a mix of classic standards and songs specially written for the occasion.

Presley, who had been such an inspiration to them all, had died in 1977. Phillips, however, was still very much alive, and he can be heard singing backing vocals on the resulting album. Other artists included Phillips' long-time audio engineer, Jack Clements; June Carter Cash, a member of the influential Carter Family folk group who married Johnny Cash; and the singer Marty Stuart.

TV and radio host Dick Clark documented the sessions on film, which aired as a special program in 1989. An additional album, "Interviews from the Class of '55 Recording Sessions," further captured the spirit of the occasion and won a 1986 Grammy Award.

Through the songs on "Class of '55," the quartet retold the now legendary story of Sun. Here are some lyrics from the album opener, "Birth of Rock and Roll," written by Carl Perkins:

Well the cat named Elvis be-bopped in to Sun right off the street
Sang 'Blue Moon' of ol' KY, but he did it with a brand new beat
Guess he sought him a sleeping world and out there by surprise
Jack 'em up, you rang them out and he' hung 'em out to dry
I was there when it happened, don't you all think I ought to know, lord, lord
Yeah, I was here when it happened, I watched Memphis give birth to rock and roll

Johnny Cash supplied the especially moving number, "We Remember the King":

And when shadows fall in the valley
To that precious memory we cling
Like a spark that ignites, and his flame still shines bright
As we remember the king

Throughout the entire set, the emotion was palpable. The record now stands as a fascinating and vital document — the remembrance and interpretation of rock and roll history by some of the key players who helped shaped it. The four artists themselves would have been the first to tell you that there are plenty of others without whom the new music could never have come about, not least Wynonie Harris, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. But "Class of '55" captures a remarkable period when five great talents crossed paths at a pivotal moment, in a tiny recording studio run by a man with a singular vision, and left their stamp on popular music for good.

Roy Orbison died of a heart attack just three years later, in 1988. Carl Perkins passed away 10 years after that. Johnny Cash died in 2003 and Jerry Lee Lewis, the "last man standing," in 2022. In the closing song from "Class of '55," "Big Train from Memphis," all four of them joined in singing the words:

Well I rode 'em in and back out again
and you know what they say about trains
But I'm tellin' you when that Memphis train came through
this old world was not the same

Sam Phillips' Memphis Train shook up the world of popular music like no other, and "Class of '55" pays homage in style.

Chris Wheatley is an author and music journalist in Oxford, England. He has written for London Jazz News, Longreads, Loudwire, Record Collector, Songlines and other websites and publications. He will tell you he has too many records, too many guitars and not enough cats. Read More