Keith Richards: ‘Sam Phillips was the true genius behind Elvis Presley’
Over half a century on from the moment he first walked into Sun Studios in Memphis, the legend of Elvis Presley still looms large over the rock and roll landscape. Never before, or since, has an individual rock star commanded global attention quite like Presley; he was, in many ways, the original rock and roll star. Inevitably, therefore, it didn’t take long for the hip-shaking singer to be branded a genius by fans and commentators alike. According to some of his fellow rockers, like Keith Richards, this genius reputation isn’t quite deserved.
It should go without saying that Elvis Presley was an utterly essential figure in establishing the rebellious sounds of rock and roll on the global stage, particularly in the United Kingdom, where it reached budding young musicians like Keith Richards. “He hit like a bombshell,” the Rolling Stones guitarist once said of the performer, recalling his impact on the dreary surroundings of post-war England. It is not much of a stretch, then, to suggest that without Elvis, there would be no Rolling Stones.
At the same time, Richards’ musical taste has always been pretty expansive and, since his early days, he has always leaned more towards the world of blues than mainstream rock. During the early 1960s, when he joined the ranks of The Rolling Stones, his listening habits were punctuated by the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, or another rock and roll progenitor, Chuck Berry. In contrast to these blues and R&B heroes, Elvis Presley was notably different. For starters, Presley didn’t write his own material.
“Genius” is a word which gets banded around a lot in musical discourse, but it is most often used to describe songwriters and composers, so Elvis Presley doesn’t quite fit the bill. His interpretations of these borrowed songs were certainly inventive, but can performing cover songs while gyrating your hips truly be considered genius? Not according to Keith Richards.
During a 2023 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Richards was asked to cite some of the geniuses of rock and roll, immediately rattling off names like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Buddy Holly. When Stern brought up Elvis, the guitarist initially agreed, before reconsidering, “Sam Phillips is the genius.”
One of rock’s defining producers, Phillips founded Sun Records back in 1952, which eventually led to the discovery of Elvis Presley some years later. Particularly during those early years, the rock star was expertly moulded by the producer into the global rock star that we all know and love. “Sam Phillips is the guy who made the records, Sun Records,” as Richards put it. “Elvis fantastically fell into place with an incredible band.”
“Bill Black on bass, Scotty Moore on guitar,” the guitarist remembered adoringly. It was that unparalleled backing band, along with the guidance and production quality of Sam Phillips, that made Elvis Presley a star, not any degree of genius on the performer’s part. Admittedly, it is easy to see why Richards holds this belief; his greatest musical loves all wrote and recorded their own original material, carving out bold new sounds and doing it off their own back. In contrast, Presley had a certain degree of manufacturing within his career.
Still, whether or not Elvis Presley truly was a genius, his influence over rock and roll certainly cannot be disputed. For an entire generation of youths, including Keith Richards, Presley opened up an entirely new world of possibilities, exposing them to the inventive sounds of rock and roll.
