VA - Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'N' Roll [3-Vinyl] (2015)

Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll is a 45-track companion to Peter Guralnick’s biography of the same name, and a personal, idiosyncratic survey of one of the most important bodies of work in recording history. It features songs mostly spanning the years 1950-1961, hand-selected by Guralnick, who also wrote an exclusive track-by-track essay for the release.

‘Sam believed most of all in perfect imperfection,’ Guralnick writes, adding ‘every track on this collection celebrates, whether intentionally or not, the diversity and beauty and rawness, the grandness and intimacy and comic and tragic drama of the human experience’.

‘Sun Records and Sam Phillips himself created the most crucial, uplifting and powerful records ever made’. – Bob Dylan

The selections on the two-CDs were chosen by Guralnick and he clearly states at the beginning of the intro to the liner notes in the 46-page booklet enclosed in the tri-fold digipak that these are not necessarily the best recordings that Phillips produced or even the most historically important (though some are), but rather ones he ‘liked’. So, though Jerry Lee Lewis gets four tracks, including chart toppers like ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’, we get some of his country tracks and a ‘cover’ he did of an old Bing Crosby hit. Look over the track list and you’ll see early Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison hits, but also lesser known tracks by them. And there are a LOT of ‘blues’ recordings in this set, including a few by Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy and Walter and even Sleepy John Estes (who walked into Phillips studio one day in the 50s and asked to be recorded. And at least half the tracks here are ones you probably never heard. That’s good for variety but don’t expect an album of just Sun recordings. Phillips produced recordings but quite a few of the black blues singers tracks were sold to Chess. And, talking about ‘oddball’ items, while every other recording here was recorded in the 1950s, Disc One ends with ‘How Lucky Can one Man Get?’, by Nashville singer-songwriter John Prine, a track that Phillips recorded for a Prine LP in 1979 that was being produced by Phillips’ sons!

From the Yep Roc site:
Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll was curated by Peter Guralnick (Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley) and accompanies his landmark Sam Phillips biography of the same title. These tracks are a hand-picked selection of Sam Phillips productions that illustrate Phillips’ unique (sounds and sense) approach to recording and his cosmic genius. A celebration of the period (1950 – 1961) in which Sam played a revolutionary role in the music business, this collection includes big hits, near misses and never-was tracks that encompass blues, country, gospel, r&b, and the birth of rock & roll.