Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue
Union Avenue, Memphis
1954 · event
Elvis at Sun Studio
The Memphis session behind That’s All Right, and the radio response that carried the recording beyond the room.
A session at Memphis Recording Service became a decisive event in Elvis Presley’s early career. On 5 July 1954, Elvis, guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black recorded That’s All Right at the studio now known as Sun. This World stays with that documented room and the record’s early circulation, rather than treating the whole of Memphis as a single recording location.
Explore the places
Markers identify buildings or documented location references. They do not mark an exact recording room, stage position or camera angle.
A trio at Memphis Recording Service
Graceland’s account names the three musicians and identifies the performance as a fast treatment of Arthur Crudup’s song. The small ensemble matters to the location narrative: the breakthrough was made in a working recording room, not first staged as a vast public spectacle. Sun is the physical anchor for a change in musical scale that would come later. This chapter concerns the professional recording of 1954; it does not confuse it with the earlier personal demo mentioned in many Elvis biographies. [2]
The recording leaves the room
Dewey Phillips played the record on WHBQ on 8 July 1954, according to the same archival account. The studio and the broadcast were different stages of the song’s journey. The radio station’s name supports a broadcast relationship, but it does not by itself establish which building or room contained that transmission. No extra radio-station pin is added here. Today Sun’s operator offers guided visits connected to its recording history, giving the surviving studio a different function from the room’s original commercial sessions. [2] [3]
The story in real places
Reading the place today
Sun Studio’s official visitor information describes guided tours. Check the operator’s current booking arrangements before travelling. The recording-room connection is the reason to visit; no separate WHBQ building is identified by this research.
Sources
- Elvis FAQ — Graceland. Checked 2026-10-16.
- Special Events and Exhibits: 60 Years of Rock n Roll — Graceland. Checked 2026-10-16.
- About Sun Studio — Sun Studio. Checked 2026-10-17.