Why read Good Rockin' Tonight?

Book cover of Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll

Book description

Memphis, Tennessee. The early 1950s. The Mississippi rolls by, and there's a train in the night. Down on Beale Street there's hard-edged blues, on the outskirts of town they're pickin' hillbilly boogie.

At Sam Phillips' Sun Records studio on Union Avenue, there's something different going on. "Shake it, baby, shake…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Good Rockin' Tonight as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Ronald Kidd

Author

You can’t tell the story of rock ’n’ roll without diving into the life of the crazed, flamboyant musical entrepreneur Sam Phillips and his Memphis recording studio, Sun Records. There he discovered rock ’n’ roll pioneers Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison, and recorded blues artists such as Howlin’ Wolf, James Cotton, Rufus Thomas, and Rosco Gordon.

When you finish the book, though, I think you’ll agree that his greatest creation was Sam Phillips.

From Ronald's list on American roots music.