If we’re to use the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” adage as an example for this story, Carl Perkins would be the “convicted, little, old skinny-arm” wheel, and a shiny new record deal courtesy of Sam Phillips was the grease. On one steamy summer day in Memphis, Tennessee, Perkins showed the Sun Records founder just how squeaky he could be.
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Whether Phillips acquiesced to Perkins’ pleas out of the kindness of his heart or the eager musician’s talent, the decision would change the sound of rock ‘n’ roll forever.
Carl Perkins Decides To Take a Trip to Memphis
After the bakery where Carl Perkins worked in the early 1950s reduced the part-time musician’s hours, Perkins’ wife, Valda Crider, encouraged him to start dedicating more of his time to playing music. What started as a weekend hustle became a nightly occurrence for Perkins, and it didn’t take long for his pioneering rockabilly blend of country and blues to develop a following. Meanwhile, Elvis Presley was elsewhere in Tennessee, performing the same kind of music as Perkins.
As is often the case with musical legends, the specifics of Perkins’ story vary depending on who you ask. But in a 1998 appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air, he confirmed the narrative that described his wife hearing Presley’s version of “Blue Moon of Kentucky” on the radio, calling Perkins, and telling him that he ought to go to Memphis and see if he can cut a record with Sun Records, the label where Presley was cutting all of his.
Perkins obliged. Getting a record deal with Sun Records would put him among the ranks of musical icons like Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. It would be an invaluable boost to his professional career. Perhaps even more importantly, Perkins mused to Fresh Air, “With encouragement from my wife, I thought, ‘I can’t let Val down. I got to get in there.’ And we did.”
But Phillips didn’t necessarily make this process easy.
What Made Sam Phillips Change His Mind
Carl Perkins’ story of driving to Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, to cold-call his way into a record deal is as quintessentially early rock ‘n’ roll as it gets. Perkins drove to the studio from Jackson, Tennessee, with his brother. After the secretary told the boys Phillips wasn’t in, they just decided to wait. As Perkins put it, “If I hadn’t have felt that was my only opportunity, I would have—I wouldn’t even turned around. I’d have put it in reverse and backed back to Jackson.”
Fortunately, he stayed. When Phillips finally arrived in a 1954 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, Perkins beat him to the door of the studio. Phillips told Perkins he was too busy to record him. Perkins insisted. The back and forth continued for a moment before Phillips finally acquiesced, although Perkins later said the Sun Records founder told him, “I don’t know why I listened to you. I had no intentions; I was wrapped up with what I was going to do to get records pressed of this boy, Elvis. But you look like your world would have ended.” Perkins agreed that it would’ve.
After Phillips let the boys into the recording booth, Perkins and his band started in on a song that his brother wrote. Phillips told them to try again. Another dud after that. As the band started putting away their instruments, Perkins told them not to. Phillips was in the control room listening through the hot mic, unbeknownst to Perkins. The musician’s eagerness and drive paid off, and after hearing one of Perkins’ country-forward numbers, Phillips told him to write a few more songs in the same style and come back to cut a record.
The rest is rock ‘n’ roll history.
Photo by David Redfern/Redferns/Getty Images
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