Nashville, TN (January 5, 2025) — On January 5, what would have been Sam Phillips’ 103rd birthday, Sun Records is honoring its legendary founder by doing something almost unheard of in today’s economy: rolling prices backward instead of pushing them higher.
Beginning January 5 and running for one week exclusively at the Sun Records webstore, Sun Records will offer throwback pricing on select vinyl titles, rewinding costs closer to what fans paid in 1952, the year Phillips opened Sun Records and forever changed the sound of American music. At a time when nearly everything else feels more expensive, the label is giving fans a rare break from modern pricing by briefly returning to its roots.
The campaign will feature over 30 CD and vinyl releases from the Sun catalog, including iconic recordings from artists such as Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Roy Orbison, and more. It is a nod to the era when Phillips’ belief in raw talent, risk-taking, and new voices reshaped popular music and launched careers that still resonate more than seven decades later.
Phillips believed music should be for the people. Marking his birthday by returning prices to 1952 is a way of acknowledging his legacy and honoring the foundation he built and the audience that’s kept his music alive.
More than a sale, the weeklong campaign reflects Sun Records’ ongoing evolution as a label while returning to its roots, using Phillips’ birthday as a moment to reconnect audiences with where Sun began and why it mattered then and now.