Sun Records: The Brief History of the Legendary Recording Label

by Colin Escott

Charts the ten-year history of the influential Memphis recording company, which introduced Johnny Cash, Bobby Bland, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley and many others

Paperback

Published January 1, 1980

About the author

Colin Escott is the foremost authority on Sun Records. He first wrote the company’s history in 1975 and has revised and expanded it several times since. He has published several other volumes on the early days of country music, including a biography of Hank Williams and The Grand Ole Opry: The Making of an American Icon. He won a Grammy for his work on Mercury Records’ The Complete Hank Williams, and in 2010 received a Tony nomination for Million Dollar Quartet, a Broadway musical about the legendary one-night jam session of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Reviews

[East Bay J · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a somewhat brief, almost casual overview, Sun Records works. There is a lot of information in these pages but it’s presented in a somewhat less than ambitious manner. Maybe it’s just that it’s so all over the place. The book is somewhat chronological but chapters on Johnny Cash or Jerry Lee Lewis seem thrown in at random. The list of Sun Records releases would have been improved if release dates had been included. The legacy and history of Sun Records could fill a volume four times this size. This is a good introduction to the idea of Sun Records but lacking somewhat in substance. Reads like a very long press release.