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Sun Records has been the name of multiple 20th century record labels, most famously Sun Records, a Memphis-based music label. [1]
Jazz saxophonist Frank Wright also started Sun Records (jazz) while living in Paris, France. [2]
The first "Sun Records" in Europe were single-sided disc records put out by The Crystalate Gramophone Record Manufacturing Company Ltd. of Tonbridge, Kent, England, from about 1905 to 1910. (The same company would later produce records under the name Imperial Records).
A nearly contemporaneous label was produced in the United States by the Leeds & Catlin company, about 1905–1907. The third "Sun Records" was produced by the Sun Record Company of Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the early 1920s. Many or all of the masters pressed were leased from the US-based Okeh Records. There were as many as eight other record companies that preceded and/or were contemporary with the Memphis label Sun Records run by Sam Phillips, the most famous of the companies by that name.
The other Sun Records that preceded the Memphis company by nearly forty years in one case, and six years in the other, or even those that were contemporary with it were never as significant to the history of 20th century music as Sam Phillips' little record company that operated out of his Memphis Recording Service. Since Sam had invested in the Holiday Inn Hotel chain earlier, he also recorded artist starting in 1963 on the label Holiday Inn Records for Kemmons Wilson.
Two Sun Records were offered on eBay.com in August and September 2006 and were pressed in Germany, probably around 1905–1912, for the Sun Record Company of Bombay, India, and referred to on the label as the Sun Disc Record to differentiate the discs from cylinder records also produced by the company. This Sun Record Company might have been the first to use that name. By 1919 another Sun Record Company came to life in Canada, but it, too, soon disappeared. The Canadian Sun Records were produced by the Sun Record Company of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a unit of Compo Company Ltd.) in the 1920s. Many or all of the masters pressed were leased from the U.S. based Okeh Records.Compo Company Limited - History - The Virtual Gramophone
Another Sun Record, founded in New York City in 1946, was intended as an outlet for Jewish musicians and singers, including the famous Yiddish singer, Herman Yablokoff, whose immensely popular Papirossen [Sun 1050] was the top selling record for the label. Billing itself as “The Brightest Thing on Records,” it was already fading into oblivion when the Memphis Recording Service issued its first Sun record in February 1952. But it did contribute one thing, albeit unintentionally, to the Sun Record Company of Memphis, that being the design of the label itself that was copied directly from the New York City-based Sun Record Company. Another label, an Arabic language Sun Record Company came into being at about the same time, but little is known about its history.
A legal battle was fought over the name “Sun” between the Memphis Recording Service of Memphis, which was issuing records on the Sun label, and the Sun Recording Company of Albuquerque, New Mexico, also issuing records on the Sun label. Louise Massey, the “Sweetheart of the West” who co-wrote My Adobe Hacienda and whose brother wrote the theme song for television’s Petticoat Junction, among others, was its top artist. The lawsuit was settled in favor of the Memphis-based label, but no one noticed that the name and similar label had been in existence in New York for more than six years. The New York-based Sun Recording Corporation was virtually extinct by then, so even if anyone had noticed, no legal action was taken. The Memphis-based Sun Record Company went on to become the label that brought rock and roll music to the world, enjoying early success with Sun 181, Bear Cat (The Answer to Hound Dog) by Rufus Thomas – which also led to Sam Phillips’ second major lawsuit and the record was re-issued with the phrase (The Answer to Hound Dog) deleted. Sun Records in Memphis was sold in 1969 and still operates as Sun Records under the parent company Sun Entertainment Corporation. But the use of the name Sun Record Company did not end there. One other Sun existed during a slightly later era: the Sun Record Company based in Manila. This company did not attempt to disguise its copying of the Memphis Sun labels and re-issued records released by other American labels, such as Imperial 5528, Poor Little Fool written by Eddie Cochran’s fiancée, Sharon Sheeley, which became a massive hit for Ricky Nelson in 1958.
Even though Sam Phillips has died, the sun has not yet set on Sun Records. Numerous licenses have been issued to Germany’s Bear Family Records, England’s Charly Records, and other companies to issue and re-issue the Memphis Sun Records, some with the familiar brown on yellow label. Other companies are re-issuing Louise Massey’s recordings from the Albuquerque-based Sun Record Company.
Samuel Cornelius "Sam" Phillips was an American record producer who played an important role in the development of rock and roll during the 1950s. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Howlin' Wolf. He launched Presley's career in 1954. Phillips sold Sun in 1969 to Shelby Singleton.
Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee in February 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Prior to that, Sun had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because Phillips loved rhythm and blues and wanted to bring it to a white audience.
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American record company and phonograph manufacturer headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.
Berliner Gramophone – its discs identified with an etched-in "E. Berliner's Gramophone" as the logo – was the first disc record label in the world. Its records were played on Emile Berliner's invention, the Gramophone, which competed with the wax cylinder–playing phonographs that were more common in the 1890s.
Okeh Records is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Otto K. E. Heinemann but later changed to "OKeh". Since 1926, Okeh has been a subsidiary of Columbia Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music. Okeh is a Jazz imprint distributed by Sony Masterworks, a specialty label of Columbia.
Zonophone was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey, by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company but was applied to records and machines sold by Seaman from 1899–1903. The name was acquired by Columbia Records, Victor Talking Machine Company, and finally the Gramophone Company/EMI Records. It has been used for a number of record publishing labels by these companies.
The Gramophone Company Limited , based in the United Kingdom and founded on behalf of Emil Berliner, was one of the early recording companies, the parent organisation for the His Master's Voice (HMV) label, and the European affiliate of the American Victor Talking Machine Company. Although the company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931 to form Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI), its name "The Gramophone Company Limited" continued in the UK into the 1970s.
Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Starr Records was a record label founded by the Starr Piano Company of Richmond, Indiana. Gennett Records was also owned by Starr Piano.
The Winner Records was a United Kingdom-based record label from 1912 onwards. Its records were manufactured by the Edison Bell Record Works, London. This company, founded by James Hough, had originated in the early 1890s as an importer of Edison and Columbia cylinder phonographs; from 1898 Hough had also made cylinder records, initially using a separate company, Edisonia. When Edison set up his own European operation in 1904, the import franchise was withdrawn, but the name Edison Bell remained in use. From 1909 the official name of Edison-Bell was J. E. Hough Ltd.
Judd Records was started by Jud Phillips, brother of Sun Records co-founder Sam Phillips. Early releases were mostly recorded in Nashville or Memphis, but carried an address of Memphis, New York City, and Florence. Judd Records was named for its founder but the name was misspelled in the artwork of the label having two "D's." From Judd 1016 on, the label was pressed and distributed by National Recording Corporation, and the label sported the NRC logo and/or the words "National Recording Corporation - Atlanta, GA". According to Jud Phillips' son, NRC acquired the Judd label originally on a handshake deal.
Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. The label's name and logo come from the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris.
Debut Records was an American jazz record company and label founded in 1952 by bassist Charles Mingus, his wife Celia, and drummer Max Roach.
Sun Studio is a recording studio opened by rock-and-roll pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. It was originally called Memphis Recording Service, sharing the same building with the Sun Records label business. Reputedly the first rock and roll single, Jackie Brenton and his Delta Cats' "Rocket 88" was recorded there in 1951 with song composer Ike Turner on keyboards, leading the studio to claim status as the birthplace of rock & roll. Blues and R&B artists like Howlin' Wolf, Junior Parker, Little Milton, B.B. King, James Cotton, Rufus Thomas, and Rosco Gordon recorded there in the early 1950s.
Ajax Records was a record company and label founded in 1921. Jazz and blues records were produced in New York City, with some in Montreal, and marketed via the Ajax Record Company of Chicago.
Elvis at Sun is a compact disc compilation of Elvis Presley's studio recordings at Sun Studio from 1954 to 1955, released in June 2004, BMG Heritage 61205. This set features master recordings made by Presley and his accompanists, Scotty Moore and Bill Black, occasionally augmented by other musicians, prior to his arrival on RCA Records in 1956.
Compo Company Ltd. was Canada's first independent record company.
Apex Records was a Canadian record label owned by the Compo Company which lasted as late as 1980.
Samuel Charles Lanin was an American jazz bandleader.
Joe Venuti, regarded by some as the Father of Jazz Violin, enjoyed a recording career under his own billing that stretched from 1926 to 1978. Besides momentary lapses in the years after 1935 and one big gap from 1961 to 1967, this activity is practically continuous. But in his last decade, Joe effectively surpassed his prodigious 1926 to 1960 output in the sheer number of late recordings he made, transforming it into a large and bewildering legacy. For most listeners, a decent collection drawn from the years 1926 to 1935 is sufficient, and the number of compilations derived from that period nearly equals the number of original 78 rpm record releases themselves.