Barbara Barnes Sims worked in promotion and publicity during Sun’s golden years, from 1957 to 1960. She published newsletters, liaised with distributors, and wrote liner notes for the first albums of Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Charlie Rich. In 1960 she began a 36-year career teaching English at Louisiana State University. She lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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When Barbara Sims was twenty-four, she went to work for Sun Records in Memphis. Headed by the fabled Sam Phillips, Sun housed the studio where such stars-to-be as Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison recorded some of their first hits. By the time she arrived in 1958, Elvis Presley was The One That Got Away. He had recorded such tunes as “That’s All Right” with Sun, but RCA bought out his contract for $40,000, giving Phillips enough cash to keep his struggling business going. From then on, said Sims, Sun was looking for “the next Elvis.” —excerpt from "Memphis Memories" (Country Roads Magazine, July 2014) [FULL ARTICLE]
