Gold Star Oldies USA,  Pop and Country News (On This Day)

Honoring The Fallen and Those Serving now 

Goldie Vinyl Weather Forecast for Today Los Angles California 

The history of  Sam Phillips before Memphis Recording Services

What Sam Phillips Did Before Memphis Recording Service

⭐ Early Radio Career (1940s)

Before he ever cut a record or opened a studio, Sam Phillips worked in radio broadcasting and engineering, which shaped his entire approach to sound and recording.

Key points from his pre‑studio years:

• He originally hoped to study law, but financial hardship during the Great Depression forced him into the workforce early.

• He entered radio in Alabama, taking his first disc‑jockey job in Muscle Shoals.

• By 1945, he had moved to Memphis and was working at WREC, one of the city’s major stations.

• At WREC, he gained experience as both an announcer and radio engineer, developing the technical skills and ear for sound that later defined Sun Records.

This period is crucial: Phillips learned microphone technique, signal flow, acoustics, and how to

work with live performers—skills he later used to capture the raw, emotional sound of early blues and rock ’n’ roll.

🎙️ Transition Toward Recording

While still at WREC, Phillips began to see the limitations of mainstream radio, which rarely showcased the Black blues and R&B artists he admired. This frustration pushed him toward creating a space where anyone with talent could be recorded.

By 1950, he left WREC and opened the Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue—initially recording artists for labels like Modern and Chess before founding Sun Records in 1952.

Before purchasing (and founding) the Memphis Recording Service, Sam Phillips was:

• A radio announcer

• A radio engineer

• A DJ in Muscle Shoals

• A staff member at WREC Memphis

• A young man deeply influenced by Southern blues and gospel

Those radio years were the foundation for everything he later built—Sun Records, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the birth of rock ’n’ roll.

Mamas and Papas Collectible Album is 60's years old 

Albums  in May Turned 60's years Old

May 4, 1966 / Release Date

LP / Format

Tamla / Label

Motown Sound
Pop Soul / Genre

Henry Cosby, William Stevenson, Clarence Paul, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier / Producer

Beth Beatty, Ernie Shelby, Clarence Paul, Luvel Broadnax, Stevie Wonder, 

Small Faces  May 11th  Happy Birthday First Album 

Gold Star Oldies Radio Steaming Directories 

Broadcast Bulletin (Daily Updates)

May 21, 1955 — Chuck Berry records his first single, "Maybellene." It zooms up the music charts, reaching #1 R&B and #5 pop, making Berry the first black rock artist to find national success performing his own music. (He is shocked to soon find, however, he shares composing credit with Alan Freed and another man as payola for promoting the record. In 1986, more than 30 years after he wrote "Maybellene," Berry is finally credited as the song's sole composer.)
                                                                         1964 — The Drifters record "Under The Boardwalk" the day after lead singer Rudy Lewis (right) ("Up On The Roof," "On Broadway," and others) is found dead. He is replaced by former member Johnny Moore.

May 22, 1955 — Police in Bridgeport, Connecticut cancel a dance featuring Fats Domino. Authorities say they discovered that "Rock and Roll dances might be featured" and justify their action by citing "a recent near riot at the New Haven Arena" where rock 'n' roll dances were held.

May 23, 1921 — The first successful African American musical, Shuffle Along, opens in New York featuring compositions by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle. It runs for 504 performances and is so popular it causes curtain time traffic jams around the theater. The show helps break down racial barriers; introduces Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, and Paul Robeson; and premieres the songs "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and "Love Will Find A Way."
                                                                1958 — Jerry Lee Lewis begins a British tour and reveals his marriage to his 13-year-old first cousin once removed, Myra Gail, at a news conference. His first few concerts are a disaster when he is jeered by the audience, so the promoter cuts the tour short. "The Killer" returns home a pariah and his career tanks.

May 25, 1951 — "Sixty Minute Man" (shown left) by The Dominoes becomes the first R&B hit to cross over Billboard's pop Top 20. It is regarded as one of the most important records to help shape rock 'n' roll.
                  1963 — Otis Redding hits the pop chart with his first single, "These Arms Of Mine," reaching #85 on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart and #20 R&B.

May 26, 1956 — Carl Perkins finally makes a national TV guest appearance on "The Perry Como Show" two months after an auto accident enroute to New York for the original date landed him in the hospital with serious injuries. Unfortunately, his hit "Blue Suede Shoes" has already peaked in popularity and his career momentum is lost.
                  1968 — Little Willie John (shown below), known for 1950s and '60s R&B hits like "Fever" and “Need Your Love So Bad," dies of a heart attack at age 30 while serving a manslaughter sentence at Washington State Penitentiary. He was imprisoned in 1966 on charges of fatally stabbing a man in a bar after a performance in Seattle.May 28, 1933 — "The Father of Country Music," Jimmie Rodgers, dies at age 35 after a long battle with tuberculosis. Rodgers is one of the biggest U.S. stars between 1927-1933, arguably doing more to popularize blues than any other performer of his time. He is enshrined in the Blues, Country Music, and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame.
                                                                              1958 — Buddy Holly's army draft notice arrives, but he is refused induction because of his poor eyesight and stomach ulcer.

Sources:
Eight Days a Week (Ron Smith)
On This Day in Black Music History (Jay Warner)
Chronology of American Popular Music, 1900-2000 (Frank Hoffman)

Birthdays Singers and Song Writers 

948 - Stevie Nicks

American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks, from Fleetwood Mac who scored the 1987 UK No.5 single 'Little Lies' and 1977 US No.1 single 'Dreams', taken from the world-wide No.1 album Rumours. She scored the solo, 1981 US No.1 & UK No.11 album Bella Donna, and the 1989 hit single 'Rooms On Fire'. Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 along with her then boyfriend, Lindsey Buckingham.

Early Beatles News       

1966 - The Beatles

The Beatles recorded 'Yellow Submarine' at Abbey Road studios in London. Recovering from a case of food poisoning, producer George Martin missed this recording, EMI engineer Geoff Emerick worked on the session. The track features John Lennon blowing bubbles in a bucket of water, shouting "Full speed ahead Mister Captain!"

1967 - The Beatles

The Beatles released Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in the UK. Recorded over a 129-day period beginning in December 1966, the album is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time and was the first Beatles album where the track listings were exactly the same for the UK and US versions. Sgt. Pepper's release was a defining moment in pop culture, heralding the album era and the 1967 Summer of Love, while its reception achieved full cultural legitimisation for popular music and recognition for the medium as a genuine art form. The first Beatles album to be released with the same track listing in both the UK and the US, it spent 27 weeks at No.1 on the UK chart and 15 weeks at No.1 on the Billboard chart in the United States.

1969 - John Lennon

John Lennon and Yoko Ono began an eight-day 'bed in', in room 1742 of The Hotel La Reine Elizabeth, Montreal, Canada, to promote world peace. They recorded 'Give Peace a Chance' in the hotel room (Petula Clark can be heard on the chorus). The song was credited to Lennon & McCartney, even though Paul had nothing to do with the record.

2007 - The Beatles

Contemporary musicians recorded their own versions of songs from the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album to mark 40 years since it was released. Acts including Oasis, Travis, The Fray, Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight, Bryan Adams and The Magic Numbers all worked with Geoff Emerick - the engineer in charge of the original 1967 sessions, using the original analogue 4-track equipment to demonstrates the techniques employed for the recording at Abbey Road studios in 1967.

Music History  UPDATE

t's May 25th, and those born on this day were dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in 1878

Legendary lyricist Hal David, and singer Kitty Kallen (“Little Things Mean a Lot”) in 1921

Music producer Norman Petty (Buddy Holly) in 1927

Donnie Elbert - singer (“Where Did Our Love Go”), songwriter (“Open The Door To Your Heart” – “Shame, Shame, Shame”) and country singer Tom T. Hall (“I Love”) songwriter – (“Harper Valley PTA”) in 1936

Michigan-born rockabilly singer Johnny Powers in 1938

Jessi Colter (“I'm Not Lisa”) in 1943

Mitch Margo of the Tokens in 1947

5 Stairsteps lead singer Clarence Burke (“Ooh Child”) in 1949

***People we lost on this day were "Happy Birthday" songwriter Patty Hill in 1946

Blues harmonica man Sonny Boy Williamson in 1965

Roy Brown (“Good Rockin' Tonight”) in 1981

Italian-born guitarist/songwriter/producer Domenic Troiano (Mandala / Bush / Guess Who / James Gang) in 2005

Desmond Dekker (“Israelites”) in 2006

Bill Haley bassist Marshall Lytle in 2013

Rusty Warren in 2021

Richard Sherman, Grammy and Academy Award-winning composer and lyricist, with his brother Robert (Mary Poppins; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; "It's a Small World (After All)") in 2024

Visual Archive