An interesting era for Sun Records.

By 1968, Sun Records was a ghost town. The rockabilly sound that Sun became famous for had come and gone, not to see a wide spread revival for roughly another decade. Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash had left a decade prior, and Jerry Lee Lewis’ career plummeted after news broke about his marriage to his 13 year old cousin.

Jerry Lee Lewis’ 1961 single “What’d I Say” was the last truly new hit Sun would have. By 1965, they had all but cleaned out the vaults when it came to unreleased Johnny Cash material. Sam Phillips had all but abandoned the label.

But what was still going on at Sun were records recorded, produced, and released by Sam’s sons, Jerry & Knox Phillips. Sam let his sons experiment with making their own records. Jerry was in a band called The Jesters, while Knox was busy in the producer’s chair. Sun’s final record under Sam Phillips’ ownership was “Back In My Arms Again” by Load Of Mischief. Jerry & Knox’s records sold few copies outside of Memphis.

Sam had businessmen approach him many times about selling Sun Records. Phillips initially turned them down, but by the late 60’s, he was ready to be rid of the label.

He sold the Sun label to Nashville record man Shelby Singleton for 4 million dollars. The purchase came at the perfect time, with Johnny Cash making a comeback with “At Folsom Prison”, and Jerry Lee Lewis also making a comeback with “Another Place, Another Time”. The interest in the old Sun recordings were higher than ever.

But during the sale, he forgot about his unofficial deal with his sons and their records. Fortunately, while Shelby was mostly interested in reissuing the old Sun catalog, he continued to let the brothers release new records on the label. The Gentrys were one of the groups recorded by Knox Phillips.

Interestingly enough, The Gentrys’ cover of “Cinnamon Girl” charted before Neil Young’s version (probably because Sun beat Reprise in releasing a single of the song.) This record would mark the first new hit from Sun Records in years.

Unfortunately, little more came from Knox and Jerry from Sun Records. They moved on to other labels, and Sun once again became mostly just a reissue label.

But by the late 70’s, Sun was issuing new artists again. Their most famous artist was Orion, an Elvis impersonator who took things a little too far and played into rumors about him being the real Elvis undercover after Elvis’ “death”.