by Jason Ankeny Best known to most listeners for the aptly-titled instrumental smash Raunchy, Bill Justis was also a longtime linchpin of the Nashville recording community, working as a producer, musical director and A&R man for labels including Sun and Mercury. Born October 14, 1927 in Birmingham, Alabama, he grew up in Memphis, studying music and English at Tulane University while playing trumpet in local jazz and dance bands. In 1957 the legendary Sam Phillips hired Justis to serve as the musical director for his Sun Records label—at 30, he was a good decade older than most of Suns artists and had little interest in rock-and-roll until he learned just how lucrative the music had become. With guitarist Sid Manker, Justis composed a wild, primitive instrumental they dubbed Backwoods; Phillips renamed the tune Raunchy, releasing it as a single in November 1957. Although Justis honking tenor sax assumed center stage, what made Raunchy so uniq...