PHANTOM AT 100: FROM ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TO RAP – PHANTOM’S BOLD CENTURY IN MUSIC – AutoMart Canada

• Rolls-Royce celebrates the enduring links between Phantom and the
  world of music
• Spanning every era of modern music, from jazz and rock to rap and R&B
• Embraced by artists from Marlene Dietrich to Sir Elton John, John
  Lennon and 50 Cent
• Explores Phantom as a canvas for personal expression and an icon
  of icons
• Click
  
  here
  to view Phantom at Tinside Lido – Behind the Lens

“From the Golden Age of Hollywood to the rise of hip-hop, over
the last 100 years, music artists have used Phantom to project their
identity and challenge convention. Their motor cars often became
icons in their own right, with a lasting place in the history of
modern music. This enduring connection reminds us that Rolls-Royce
and the extraordinary people who are part of the marque’s story are
united by one ambition: to make their presence felt.”

Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

The connection between Rolls-Royce and the world of
popular music is almost as old as the recording industry itself. Long
before icons like John Lennon, Elvis Presley and Pharrell Williams
wrote themselves into Phantom’s story, artists including Duke
Ellington, Fred Astaire, Count Basie, Ravi Shankar, Edith Piaf and Sam
Cooke all travelled by Rolls-Royce, recognising the brand as the
definitive symbol of success and artistry. Personalities for whom the
term ‘music mogul’ was created, including Brian Epstein, Berry Gordy
and Ahmet Ertegun, were also among the marque’s most notable owners.
Across genres, geographies and generations, Rolls-Royce remains the
ultimate reward for creative brilliance and a canvas for personal expression.

Of all models, Phantom – the pinnacle of the marque – is the
Rolls-Royce most closely associated with the world of music. Over
eight generations and 100 years – a centenary the nameplate celebrates
in 2025 – this extraordinary motor car has been consistently chosen by
some of the most creative and influential figures in musical history.
Phantom’s appeal to these individuals endures; it retains its status
as the world’s pre-eminent luxury product, comprised of the very best
in engineering excellence, fine materials and exquisite, highly
skilled craftsmanship. It also offers its owner the freedom to define
their identity – a quality that has helped many Phantoms owned by
musical luminaries achieve legendary status in their own right.

MARLENE DIETRICH: FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

Most actors travel to Hollywood in search of stardom.
Marlene Dietrich arrived already part of the constellation. Fresh from
her breakout role in The Blue Angel, and having introduced
the world to what would become her signature song, Falling in Love
Again, she travelled to California in 1930 to begin filming
Morocco. Her welcome was as dramatic as her screen presence:
at Paramount Studios, she was greeted not only with flowers, but with
the gift of a green Rolls-Royce Phantom I. Morocco earned
Dietrich an Academy Award nomination – and her Phantom also took its
share of the spotlight, appearing in the film’s closing scenes and
publicity images.

ELVIS PRESLEY: ALL SHOOK UP

In 1956, a self-titled album by a promising young
singer named Elvis Presley became the first rock ‘n’ roll album to top
the Billboard chart, where it remained for 10 weeks. In 1963, at the
height of his fame, ‘The King’ bought a Midnight Blue Phantom V with a
host of Bespoke features. In what may have been an early version of
in-car karaoke, the features included a microphone, a writing pad in
the rear armrest – ready for flashes of inspiration – along with a
mirror and clothes brush to ensure Elvis was always ready to make an
entrance. In a charming domestic detail, the original mirror-polished
paint famously attracted the attention of Elvis’s mother’s chickens,
which would peck at their reflection in the coachwork. The motor car
was refinished in a lighter Silver Blue that did not show the chips.

JOHN LENNON: LOVE ME DO

In December 1964, John Lennon rewarded himself for
The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night by commissioning a Phantom V.
The motor car was entirely black, including the windows, bumpers and
hub caps; it also boasted a cocktail cabinet and a television, as well
as a refrigerator in the boot. However, like Elvis’s Phantom V,
Lennon’s would also undergo a complete transformation. In May 1967,
just before Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was
released, the motor car was resprayed yellow, then hand-painted with
swirls of red, orange, green and blue, with floral side panels and
Lennon’s star sign, Libra, completing the motor car’s new persona.

For the younger generation, Lennon’s Phantom perfectly captured
the mood of the carefree ‘Summer of Love’ that year. To their elders,
it was an outrage, memorably summed up by a woman who, on seeing the
Phantom driving down London’s Piccadilly, shouted, “How dare you do
that to a Rolls-Royce!” before swatting at the paintwork with her
umbrella. When the motor car was sold in 1985, it reached $2,299,000,
almost 10 times the reserve price. It was both the most expensive
piece of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia at the time, and the highest price
ever achieved for a motor car sold by auction.

This Phantom is arguably the most famous Rolls-Royce connected
with Lennon, but he owned another. Lennon purchased a white
Rolls-Royce Phantom V in 1968 to coincide with the launch of the
White Album and to mark a new phase of his life with Yoko
Ono. This was characterised by his wearing white clothes, decorating
the interior and exterior of his Berkshire home in bright white, and
pursuing a distinctly minimalist aesthetic.

Originally commissioned in a two-tone black-over-green by Wing
Commander Paddy Barthropp, a wartime Spitfire pilot turned chauffeur,
Lennon individualised this motor car in line with his personal style
at the time. He paid £12,000 – equivalent to the price of a sizeable
house at the time – to have the motor car transformed to white inside
and out, and had it fitted with a sunroof, Philips turntable, 8-track
player, telephone and television. It would later appear in the Beatles
film Let It Be, as well as Performance, which
starred Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. In September 1969, Lennon
sold the car to Allen Klein, founder of ABKCO Records and The Beatles’
manager at the time, for a reported $50,000.

LIBERACE: I’LL BE SEEING YOU

Another musical iconoclast was Władziu Valentino
Liberace. Flamboyant and multi-talented, Liberace was the world’s
highest-paid entertainer in the 1950s and ‘60s thanks to his TV shows
and long residencies in Las Vegas. Among the extravagances that earned
him the soubriquet ‘Mr Showmanship’ was a 1961 Phantom V covered in
tiny mirror pieces that he would use to drive on stage during his
long-running residency at the Las Vegas Hilton. The motor car appeared
in the award-winning Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra,
in which Michael Douglas recreated its short but famous journey.

SIR ELTON JOHN: A RIDE FOR THE ROCKETMAN

Liberace’s playing style influenced a generation of
performers, including a budding pianist named Reginald Dwight, today
known as Sir Elton John, who would later take inspiration from his
hero by owning several Phantoms. In 1973, en route to a concert in
Manchester in his white Phantom VI, Sir Elton saw a newer example in a
showroom window. He instructed his chauffeur to stop, bought the car,
and used it to complete his journey to the venue.

Later, he would update the Phantom with black paintwork, a black
leather interior, tinted windows, a television, a video player, and
even a fax machine. The most significant addition, however, was a
bespoke audio system that was so powerful that the back windscreen had
to be strengthened to prevent it from shattering when the volume was
turned up.

Sir Elton also owned a Phantom V, for which he commissioned a
striking pink-and-white exterior paint finish and matching interior.
Following a tour of the USSR, where he was paid in coal, rather than
cash, Sir Elton was unable to pay his musicians. Instead, he gave the
Phantom to his percussionist, Ray Cooper, in lieu of a cash fee.
Cooper later used the motor car to pick up a young Damon Albarn from
school, who went on to find stardom of his own with Blur. History came
full circle in 2020, when Albarn and his virtual band, Gorillaz,
recorded The Pink Phantom, with Sir Elton appearing as a
guest vocalist.

KEITH MOON: WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN?

Legend has it that, while celebrating his 21st
birthday, the gifted but fatefully self-destructive drummer of The
Who, Keith Moon, plunged his Rolls-Royce into the swimming pool at the
Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, creating one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most
enduring legends.

Accounts of what really happened that night differ wildly. In an
interview with Rolling Stone in 1972, Moon stated the motor
car was a Lincoln Continental belonging to another hotel guest; he
said he let off the handbrake and rolled the car into the pool. Other
party guests maintain that no motor car ended up in the pool at all.
Whether a car ended up in the pool or not, the myth is so potent that
it has become the definitive image of rock ‘n’ roll indulgence – and
as such, the car in the pool could only be a Rolls-Royce.

To mark Phantom’s centenary and the motor car’s place in rock
‘n’ roll mythology, Rolls-Royce brought legend to life by submerging
an Extended body shell – a retired prototype destined for recycling –
in a swimming pool. The chosen location was Tinside Lido in Plymouth,
England, a celebrated Art Deco landmark next to the English Channel.
Linked to John Lennon, one of Phantom’s most famous clients, the Lido
served as a backdrop to a photograph of The Beatles taken on 12
September 1967 during their visit whilst filming for The Magical
Mystery Tour. That same year, Lennon unveiled his yellow,
hand-painted Phantom V, further cementing the nameplate’s place in
music legend.

HIP-HOP STAR

Since moving to Goodwood, where production began in
2003, Rolls-Royce has only strengthened its ties with contemporary
music. By 2016, it had become the most name-checked brand in song
lyrics, driven in part by the meteoric rise of hip-hop. The genre was
a cultural powerhouse by the 1990s, and a household staple at the turn
of the century, coinciding with Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood renaissance and
the launch of Phantom VII in 2003.

A year later, Pharrell Williams and Calvin ‘Snoop Dogg’ Broadus
Jr, would famously feature a Phantom VII in the 2004 music video for
Drop It Like It’s Hot, which would top the US Billboard Hot
100 for three weeks and commence Phantom’s lasting connection with the
genre’s most influential artists. Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson appeared in
the TV series Entourage in a Phantom VII Drophead Coupé – a
scene that would go on to become a widely shared meme; Tha Carter
II by Dwayne ‘Lil Wayne’ Carter is one of many albums to feature
Phantom on its cover. The genre has also played a key role in
popularising one of the marque’s most distinctive features: Starlight
Headliner. The phrase ‘stars in the roof’ – and its variations –
recurs in rap lyrics and has become a suitably poetic shorthand for
Rolls-Royce ownership.

ENCORE: PHANTOM’S LASTING LEGACY

Phantom has maintained a constant, evolving presence
in the story of modern music. In each era, it has offered artists and
innovators a means of self-expression, aspiration and identity. As
Phantom enters its second century, it continues to symbolise success,
individuality, and the power of human imagination.

Click

here to
view Phantom at Tinside Lido – Behind the Lens.