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Memphis
Trip Planning & Itineraries
6:55 PM Sunday, Sep 7
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Named for the ancient Egyptian capital on the Nile, Memphis is best known for the rise and fall of two men who led vastly different movements. Elvis Presley rocketed to fame here in the mid-1950s. And it was here on April 4, 1968, that the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
Memphis culture draws heavily on claiming responsibility for giving birth to the blues in the early 20th-century. Favorite son WC Handy composed the first published blues tune just before WWI, making Memphis, and the jumpin' Beale Street, the home of the blues.
Memphis Tours & Attractions
Memphis Riverboats Sightseeing Cruise
From USD $17.99
Cruise on the Mississippi River and learn about Native Americans, explorers, river boatmen like Mark Twain & Mike Fink, the local Civil War river battles and the heritage of the Mississippi River bluffs.
Sam and Sun
In the early 1950s, music visionary Sam Phillips opened Sun Studio and began producing records by now-famous blues legends such as Howlin' Wolf and Rufus Thomas. This paved the way a few years later for white rockabilly artists. For Phillips to record both black and white musicians indiscriminately was a radical concept in the South at the time.
Just as daring was equally renowned local WHBQ disc jockey Dewey Phillips, who had the gall to play the records cut at Sun. Following Sun's lead, more studios began springing up around Memphis that peaked in the 1960s and 70s.
