Two Original Rock Music Record Promoters Share A Rare 1975 Photo-Op Moment

Here's a classic photograph deep from the image archive: Two trailblazing promoters hailing from Memphis and landing in the music biz during the early rock music era. Both party's long music industry backgrounds reads like an Encyclopedia Britannica. Pictured here (from circa 1975) as Phillip Rauls (L) and Phil Rush (R) actually knew each other in High School as Rauls was from Treadwell High and Rush from neighboring Bartlett High. Rauls broke into the business first in the mid-1960's as the road manager of the noted garage band The Gentrys and later hired by STAX Records as local promo manager. From there he went Hot Line Record Distributor as Mid-South promo mgr. Rauls later had successful career stints with Atlantic Records, 20th Century Fox Records and then in the mid-to-late 1980's to the mid-1990's as NW Regional mgr. with EMI Records. Phil Rush came onboard at Hot Line Distributor the early 1970's as promo mgr. when RCA Records noticed him and snatched-him up as their local RCA record rep. Rush later joined Capricorn Records in the mid-1970's where he had a successful run with the Macon GA based rock label. Both Rauls and Rush were well-respected record guys long before the promotion business bandwagon became a herd mentality.