Sam Phillips and the Record Business.

In January 1950 a disc jockey named Sam Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service, the first professional recording studio in the city. It had a clearly defined purpose — to scout talent and produce black R&B record masters that could be distributed under a partnership agreement with such specialist labels as Chess and Dot. At the time, 95 percent of the record business was controlled by the major companies. The rest was open to small independents, like Phillips, who appealed to special markets.

Yellow Sun Records.

"My aim was to try and record the blues and other music I liked and to prove whether I was right or wrong about this music. I knew, or I felt I knew, that there was a bigger audience for blues than just the black man of the mid-South," Phillips remembered. He soon...