Where did rock and roll begin?  It's a topic that'll be hotly debated for years to come.  Some folks believe it emerged out of the Mississippi Delta.  Some believe it came out of Chicago's Chess Studios.  Still others believe it was born in the Sun Studios in Memphis.  I'm not sure, maybe in all three places...

...but in any event, here are a few pictures from the Sun Studios in Memphis which is still a working recording studio.  It's open for tours, so if you get to Memphis, you ought to visit it!

Down the street from a hotel building calling itself the "Heartbreak Hotel", stands the official historical marker designating the Sun Studios as a Tennessee landmark.

What the sign does not say is Elvis actually entered through the door to the left of the "Memphis Recording Service" neon sign when he first appeared there to record a song for his mother, "That's Alright, Mama".

Elvis' gold record hangs on the wall while across the room, the microphone he used at the Sun Studios stands right where he did while recording .

But before Elvis found his way in the door, Howlin' Wolf beat him to it! 

The Wolf's microphone rests beneath a photograph of him taken in the Sun Studio in the early 1950s.  The "hole-y" wall tiles seen behind the microphone are the same ones in place in the 1950's to absorb sound as bands recorded.

As I mentioned before, the Sun Studio is still a working recording studio.  Here you are sitting behind the drum kit used by Ringo Starr on one of his albums, looking towards Elvis' microphone, still in working order right where the King stood, with Howlin' Wolf's mike off to your right, ready for use.  Not surprisingly, four stars who inspired Ringo, namely Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis, appear in the photo on the far right wall.

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For more information, visit the Sun Studio web site at http://www.sunstudio.com/