Memphis Recording Service — 706 Union Avenue (Sun Studio)

Sam Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue in January 1950, offering recording services to anyone who wanted to make a record. He began licensing recordings to Chess Records in Chicago — early sessions with Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Ike Turner, and others established his ear and his philosophy. When he founded Sun Records in 1952 and began releasing records himself, the studio produced Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich in a burst of creativity that lasted less than a decade and changed popular music permanently.

Phillips's insight — that there was a white Southern boy who could sing Black music with Black feeling, and that such a person would make the music accessible to a white audience — was both commercially astute and culturally complicated. Elvis was that person, and 'That's All Right' in July 1954 was the moment. The 'Million Dollar Quartet' session of December 1956, when Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis were all in the building at the same time, is preserved in a recording that captures the energy of the place at its peak.

Sun Studio at 706 Union Avenue still operates as a recording facility and museum. It is the most visited music landmark in Memphis and one of the most significant in the world. Guided tours run throughout the day, covering the original equipment, the room acoustics, and the extraordinary history of the building. Artists including U2, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr have recorded there in tribute to its legacy.