SUN STUDIO MEMPHIS

Sun Studio is known worldwide as “The Birthplace of Rock’n’roll” and recognized as the discovery location of musical legends that included B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Sun Studio Building

Sun Label

Sun Studios is located .7 mile from the downtown Peabody hotel and is a 5 min drive or 20 min walk from downtown Beale Street.  No food is served onsite but they do offer, for sale, cold sodas and hot coffee.  

 

Recording everything from Blues and Gospel to Country and Rock’n'roll, the studio is open to the general public offering 45 minute guided tours every day from 10am to 6pm. The tour is $15 for adults, $13 for students and $10 for kids ages 5-11.  You will want to allow 1-1.5 hours for your tour.   

 

Your tour will start upstairs in the museum area.  Here you will see the priceless memorabilia from the musical legends that blended blues and country music. 

In upstairs museum

In upstairs museum

Your guide will relay inside stories of B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf and Ike Turner before Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, & Roy Orbison were drawn to the new Sun Sound.

 

As the tour moves downstairs you will enter the recording studio.  This is an active studio and should you be interested in making a recording, when daytime operations close down, nightly recording sessions start at $200 per hour. 

Original reception desk in recording studio

During your tour you will be allowed to stand in the very spot that Elvis first recorded.  Have your picture taken standing behind the very mic that Elvis used for recording. 

The Million Dollar Quartet

Piano played by Jerry Lee Lewis

friend Jon Garth Swim on drums

good friend Janice Loft taking the mic

 

You will listen to out takes from recording sessions and feel the energy of the music created.  

 

I especially enjoyed hearing the original recording of an impromptu jam session that features Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, now passionately referred to as the “Million Dollar Quartet”.   

 

Don't miss this opportunity when you are in Memphis. 

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SUN STUDIO

706 UNION AVENUE

MEMPHIS, TN 38103

(901) 521-0664