<P> Phillips met Presley through the mediation of his longtime collaborator at the Memphis Recording Service, Marion Keisker, who was already a well - known Memphis radio personality . On 18 July 1953, the eighteen - year - old Presley dropped into the studio to record an acetate for his mother's birthday; Keisker thought she heard some talent in the young truck driver's voice, and so she turned on the tape recorder . Later, she played it for Phillips, who gradually, with Keisker's encouragement, warmed to the idea of recording Elvis . </P> <P> Presley, who recorded his version of Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right" at Phillips's studio, became highly successful, first in Memphis, then throughout the southern United States . He auditioned for Phillips in 1954, but it was not until he sang "That's All Right (Mama)" that Phillips was impressed . He brought the song to Dewey Phillips, a disc jockey at WHBQ 560, to play on his Red, Hot & Blue program . For the first six months, the flip side, "Blue Moon of Kentucky", Presley's upbeat version of a Bill Monroe bluegrass song, was slightly more popular than "That's All Right (Mama)." While still not known outside the South, Presley's singles and regional success became a drawing card for Sun Records, as singing hopefuls soon arrived from all over the region . Singers such as Sonny Burgess ("My Bucket's Got a Hole in It"), Charlie Rich, Junior Parker, and Billy Lee Riley recorded for Sun with some success, and others, such as Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins, became stars . </P> <P> Phillips's pivotal role in the early days of rock and roll was exemplified by a celebrated jam session on December 4, 1956, with what became known as the Million Dollar Quartet . Jerry Lee Lewis was playing piano for a Carl Perkins recording session at Phillips's studio . When Elvis Presley walked in unexpectedly, Johnny Cash was called into the studio by Phillips, leading to an impromptu session featuring the four musicians . Phillips challenged the four to achieve gold record sales, offering a free Cadillac to the first, which Carl Perkins won . The contest is commemorated in a song by the Drive - By Truckers . </P> <P> By the mid-1960s, Phillips rarely recorded . He built a satellite studio and opened radio stations, but the studio declined, and he sold Sun Records to Shelby Singleton in 1969 . In 1977 Sam's sons, Knox and Jerry, were working with John Prine at the Phillips Recording Studio when Sam Phillips joined them to oversee recordings that were eventually included on the album Pink Cadillac . </P>

Sam philips with his sun record label was the chief architect of the genre known as