Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'N' Roll (2015) by Peter Guralnick

Author:Peter Guralnick [Guralnick, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Biography & Autobiography / Rich & Famous, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts, Biography & Autobiography / Composers & Musicians, Biography & Autobiography, Composers & Musicians, Rich & Famous
ISBN: 9780316211307
Google: rCn3BgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 2016-01-10T11:00:00+00:00

SAM WAS BUSY getting Jerry’s first album ready for release. He wasn’t going to put his three biggest hits on it (this was a common strategy at the time—the idea was that if you included hits on an album, it might diminish the sale of singles) but instead a wide assortment of Jerry’s music, from “Crazy Arms,” his first record, to a new, rollicking version of “Matchbox Blues” to “Goodnight, Irene.”

“Jerry Lee’s version of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ will probably strike you as something quite out of the ordinary,” wrote Sam, who conceded that “it probably seems a little unusual for a record manufacturer to write his own liner notes” but put it down to unabashed admiration for his artist. “Only a southerner who has attended camp meetings or other revival-type gatherings,” he pointed out in his encomium to both performer and performance, “can fully appreciate the quality of fervor and abandonment that Jerry Lee gives to this selection.” He planned to release the album at the end of June, soon after Jerry got back from a six-week English tour, and he was optimistic enough to order a hundred thousand slicks of the cover printed up.

The English tour was the first real sign of the entrepreneurial legerdemain of Oscar Davis, whom Sam had installed as Jerry’s manager the previous October in a kind of byzantine partnership that had Becky as Sam’s stand-in in the operation. Davis, whom Sam had always been fond of, was an impresario of the old school, with his jaunty boutonniere, elegant cigarette holder, and drawling Boston accent—he had in fact introduced Elvis’ manager, Tom Parker, to his prospective client while doing advance work for the Colonel during a period of temporary financial impecuniosity. This English tour from Oscar’s point of view was only the start of what he was certain would be his crowning achievement. They had at least thirty-seven dates booked and could reasonably anticipate grossing close to $100,000. From Sam’s point of view the tour would unquestionably sell, but, much more important, it would serve to cement Jerry Lee’s growing worldwide reputation. With Elvis in the army, Little Richard recently enrolled in Bible college, and no direct pipeline to Mamie Lewis’ opinions, news reports were increasingly prone to anoint Jerry Lee Lewis as the uncrowned “king of rock ’n’ roll.” Sam didn’t give a damn about titles—you could characterize him any way you liked, but you couldn’t categorize him. As Sam saw it, Jerry Lee Lewis had not even begun to realize his full artistic or commercial potential. There was no question that he stood on the brink of a limitless future.

His feelings about Johnny Cash and Bob Neal were hardly as sanguine. In fact, they just continued to simmer. He had severed his business relationship with Neal; he closed down Stars Inc., their mutual booking agency, as Neal prepared to move his site of operations from the office Sam had rented downtown to his suburban home. As far as Cash was

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