Sam Phillips didn't just discover Elvis Presley. He recognized raw talent in Black musicians when Nashville's studios wouldn't give them a microphone. Born on January 5, 1923, in Florence, Alabama, Phillips grew up listening to the gospel and blues music of the rural South. He worked as a radio engineer in Memphis before opening the Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue in 1950, followed by Sun Records in 1952. His studio was one of the few places in the American South where Black artists could record. Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Junior Parker, and Rufus Thomas all made early recordings there, and Phillips produced music that the major labels wouldn't touch. The sound was raw, immediate, with a slap-back echo effect that Phillips created by feeding the recording signal through a second tape machine. It became the signature Sun sound. Then in 1953, a truck driver named Elvis Presley walked in and paid four dollars to record a song for his mother. Phillips recognized something in the voice and spent months trying to find the right material. The result was "That's All Right," a cover of Arthur Crudup's blues song, recorded in July 1954. Within a year, Presley was the most talked-about performer in America. Phillips went on to launch Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison, each of whom recorded their breakthrough material at Sun. He sold Presley's contract to RCA for $35,000, a decision he was questioned about for the rest of his life. He used the money to keep the studio running and signed more artists. He died on July 30, 2003, in Memphis.