But to be fair, when Jerry Lee became a star on Sun, Sam was holding $35,000 worth of promotion money he wasn't holding before he sold Elvis.jurasic1968 wrote:We must remember that Elvis hit his first number one in country charts in February 1956 with a Sun Record : "I forgot to remember to forget", 2 month before Heartbreak Hotel. In 1955, Elvis was number one in the Top of the future talents. So, to say Elvis would have remained in the 20.000 selling single league if he stayed one more year with Sun Records is absolutely nonsense. Again, I repeat myself: Jerry Lee Lewis became a big star with Sun records selling huge numbers of his singles, including his famous early hits.
Carl Perkin's first big hit also arrived when Sam had the $35,000 sitting in his account.
The success of Elvis was killing Sun Records: their cashflow was terminal.