Sonny Burgess

Sonny Burgess is known as the wild man of rock and roll who brought a driving guitar style to early Sun recordings (the label that launched Elvis Presley). Among those recordings were “We Wanna Boogie” and “Feelin’ Good.” Sonny’s early days with Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records, were at the dawn of rock, when country was being mixed with the blues. These “rockabilly” songs became the foundation of the Sun sound. Before Elvis left Sun to sign with RCA Records and change music history forever, he toured around the south promoting his Sun recordings. Sonny was just starting out in those days and often opened for Elvis and another promising artist Sam signed to Sun, Jerry Lee Lewis. Sonny opened his own music retail store but closed it 20 years later, after his kids were grown, to go back out on the road.