--- title: The Prisonaires: Rare Photos of a Sun Records Singing Group in 1953 description: The Prisonaires overcame one of the greatest obstacles--incarceration--to record a hit record in the early 1950s. canonical: https://time.com/3660210/stars-behind-bars-life-with-the-prisonaires/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-03-20T19:31:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:20.399Z og:title: See Photos of the Prisonaires, a 1950s Doo-Wop Group Comprised Entirely of Prisoners og:description: The Prisonaires overcame one of the greatest obstacles--incarceration--to record a hit record in the early 1950s. og:url: https://time.com/3660210/stars-behind-bars-life-with-the-prisonaires/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc99c415c906f77b2/698778ec06f2c18bfb333499/150108-prisonaires-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2322 og:image:height: 1306 og:image:alt: The Prisonaires og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See Photos of the Prisonaires, a 1950s Doo-Wop Group Comprised Entirely of Prisoners twitter:description: The Prisonaires overcame one of the greatest obstacles--incarceration--to record a hit record in the early 1950s. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc99c415c906f77b2/698778ec06f2c18bfb333499/150108-prisonaires-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stars Behind Bars: LIFE With the Prisonaires by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Mar 20, 2013 7:31 PM UTC  Members of the incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires, Tennessee, 1953. Members of the incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires, Tennessee, 1953.Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Mar 20, 2013 7:31 PM UTC For much of the 20th century and well into the 21st, much of popular music — rock and roll, R&B, hip hop — has banked on the appeal of the rebel, the outsider and even the straight-up criminal to sell records and provide a kind of cartoonish “cred”to what is, at heart, a business and entertainment enterprise. (Death Row Records, anyone?) But arguably no single label in the history of music had as many true hell-raisers and genuine pioneers as Sam Phillips’ Sun Records. Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and, of course, Elvis Presley were all early Sun stars, and the music they made — as well as the personae they perfected — possessed the one quality that’s always vied with sex for the almighty dollar: danger. But another Sun act, signed to the label in the early 1950s, was comprised of five men who made Sun’s more famous bad boys look like proverbial choir boys. The doo-wop group the Prisonaires was not comprised of miscreants occasionally jailed overnight for misdemeanors. They were not musicians who performed in prisons. They did not play hell-raisers in the movies. The Prisonaires were _actual prisoners_, all of them doing hard time for serious offenses. Here, on the 50th anniversary of the closing of one of America’s most notorious prisons — Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary — and the anniversary of the date when Alan Freed held what’s widely considered the first-ever rock and roll concert in 1952, LIFE.com reflects on the nexus of crime and the creative impulse, while offering a series of unpublished pictures of the Prisonaires from 1953. The group was led by Johnny Bragg who, by the time LIFE’s Robert W. Kelley was photographing the quintet, had been an inmate at Tennessee State Penitentiary for a solid decade; he was convicted at the age of 17 on six charges of rape. The other Prisonaires included convicted murderers Ed Thurman and William Stewart, Marcell Sanders (involuntary manslaughter) and John Drue Jr. (locked up for for larceny). One of their very first singles, “Just Walkin’ in the Rain,” written by Bragg and fellow inmate Robert Riley, was a solid hit for Sun Records in 1953 — and three years later was an absolute smash for Johnnie Ray, his version eventually reaching #2 on the Billboard chart and #1 in England. The Prisonaires never became megastars, but even while incarcerated they definitely had fans, sold records and were often allowed out of Tennessee State (under guard, of course) to perform at VFW halls, in churches, on TV and, frequently, at the prison warden’s home, where they’d sing for the warden, James Edwards, his wife and their two kids, Joyce and Jim. [**Read more about the Prisonaires — and other legendary R&B and rock and roll acts — on the Sun Records site.**](http://www.sunrecords.com/artists/the-prisonaires)  Members of the incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires, Tennessee, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires performs for other inmates, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires performs for other inmates, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Riley, serving 10 to 16 years for housebreaking, sits in his cell composing music, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953\. Riley co-wrote the hit song, "Just Walkin' in the Rain." Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires, Tennessee, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Prisoners talk through heavy screens to friends and relatives, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Prisonaire William Stewart and night warden, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Prisoners talk through heavy screens to friends and relatives, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires rehearse in the prison auditorium, Tennessee, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires, Tennessee, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Prisonaires leave Tennessee State Penitentiary for a performance, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Prisonaires at Kane Street Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn., 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  "Prisonnaires" of Nashville Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Prisonaires at Kane Street Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn., 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Prisonaires at Kane Street Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn., 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Prisonaires at Kane Street Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn., 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Prisonaires' guard rests at Kane Street Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn., 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Prisonaires perform at Tennessee State Penitentiary warden James Edwards' home, Nashville, Tenn., 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Prisonaires perform at Tennessee State Penitentiary warden James Edwards' home, Nashville, Tenn., 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Prisonaires under the watchful eyes of guards, Nashville, Tenn., 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Prisonaire Marcell Sanders, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Prisonaire Johnny Bragg, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Prisonaire and convicted murderer Ed Thurman inspects cloth in prison textile school, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires, Tennessee, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Prisoners at the Tennessee State Penitentiary auditorium, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires prepare to perform, Tennessee, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the incarcerated musical group the Prisonaires with sheet music of their first hit song, Tennessee, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Writing music, Tennessee State Penitentiary, 1953. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3660210/stars-behind-bars-life-with-the-prisonaires/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3660210/stars-behind-bars-life-with-the-prisonaires/"},"headline":"Stars Behind Bars: LIFE With the Prisonaires","datePublished":"2013-03-20T19:31:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:20.399Z","description":"The Prisonaires were not miscreants occasionally jailed for misdemeanors. 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