Paul McCartney, Aerosmith, Bob Dylan and LED ZEPPELIN‘s JIMMY PAGE and ROBERT PLANT are among the artists set to appear on an album celebrating 50 years of SUN RECORDS.
They will be joined by The Who, Van Morrison, Elton John and Rod Stewart, as well as the more contemporary Ben Folds Five, Third Eye Blind and others covering the songs of Sun greats such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.
The album, due during the label’s golden jubilee year of 2001, is still some way from completion. According to mtv.com, most of the artists involved are still recording their songs, and a final line-up will not be known for several months.
The record will be produced by Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records. A documentary charting the label’s history is also being assembled by Bruce Sinofsky. It is due to air on US television in December 2001.
In 1954, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins – the man who would write ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and be lauded as a great by The Beatles, among others – went into a Sun recording studio to record a session that some observers have pointed to as a blueprint for rock’n’roll.