FAME Studios
Encyclopedia
FAME Studios are located at 603 East Avalon in Muscle Shoals, Alabama
. They have been an integral part of American popular music from the late 1950s to the present. Artists who recorded there included Wilson Pickett
, Aretha Franklin
, Otis Redding
, Joe Tex
, Duane Allman
, The Hour Glass
, Clarence Carter
, Candi Staton
, Mac Davis
, Paul Anka
, Tom Jones
, Etta James
, Andy Williams
, The Osmonds
, Shenandoah
, and many others. The studio was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage
on December 15, 1997.
, Billy Sherrill
and Tom Stafford in the late 1950s, the studio was first located above the City Drug Store in Florence, Alabama
. The facility was moved to a former tobacco warehouse on Wilson Dam Road in Muscle Shoals in the early 1960s, when Hall split from Sherrill and Stafford. Hall soon recorded the first hit record from the Muscle Shoals area, Arthur Alexander
's "You Better Move On
".
Hall took the proceeds from that recording to build the current facility on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals, and in 1963, Hall recorded the first hit produced in that building, Jimmy Hughes
' "Steal Away."
As the word about Muscle Shoals began to spread other acts began coming to Muscle Shoals to record. Nashville producer Felton Jarvis
brought Tommy Roe
and recorded Roe's song "Everybody." Atlanta Music Publisher Bill Lowery
, who had mentored Hall through his early days, sent The Tams
. Nashville Publisher/Producer Buddy Killen
brought Joe Tex
, while Atlantic Records'
Jerry Wexler
brought Aretha Franklin
and Wilson Pickett
to record.
The session musicians who worked at the studio became known as the "Muscle Shoals Horns" and the "Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
". In 1969, members of the rhythm section left to found a rival studio, the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
.
As the hits kept coming, Hall expanded into the area of teen pop hits with The Osmonds, a vocal group from Utah, featuring the younger brother Donny Osmond
. The collaboration resulted in the hit "One Bad Apple," among others, and helped Hall to become named "Producer of the Year" in 1971.
As the decade of the 70s rolled in, Hall began moving into country music, first with vocalist Bobbie Gentry
who recorded the album "Fancy", and then with singer/songwriter Mac Davis
, who topped both the Pop and Country charts with "Baby, Don't Get Hooked On Me". Davis recorded four gold albums at FAME, with the singles "Texas In My Rear View Mirror" and "Hooked On Music" becoming hits on both the country and pop charts.
Hall continued producing country hits in the 1980s, including Jerry Reed's
#1 records, "She Got The Goldmine" and "The Bird". He also started Gus Hardin
's career with the popular "After The Last Good-bye" and had a smash album with Larry Gatlin
and The Gatlin Brothers, Houston To Denver. Hall's productions on T.G. Sheppard's LPs include Livin' On The Edge, It Still Rains In Memphis and One For The Money. Top 20 singles during included "Fooled Around And Fell In Love". Top 10 singles included "In Over My Heart" and "Doncha?". Top 5 singles include "Strong Heart", "One For The Money" and a #1 single, "You're My First Lady".
Hall then returned to the way he did it in the beginning, developing new artists. A local country band that was playing in a club down the street from FAME Studios came to his attention and he and Robert Byrne co-produced an LP on the group Shenandoah
. Hall made a record deal with CBS Records
and the group thereafter had top 10 singles with "She Doesn't Cry Anymore" and "See If I Care" , top 5 singles with "Mama Knows" and "The Moon Over Georgia", and six number 1 singles with "The Church On Cumberland Road", "Sunday In The South" , "Two Dozen Roses", "Next To You, Next To Me", "Ghost In This House" and "I Got You".
Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Muscle Shoals is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. As of 2007, the United States Census Bureau estimated the population of the city to be 12,846. The city is included in The Shoals MSA. It is famous for its contributions to American popular music.-Geography:Muscle Shoals is located...
. They have been an integral part of American popular music from the late 1950s to the present. Artists who recorded there included Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
, Joe Tex
Joe Tex
Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...
, Duane Allman
Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band...
, The Hour Glass
The Hour Glass
The Hour Glass were a 1960s rhythm and blues band based in Los Angeles, California between 1967 and 1968. Among their members were two future members of the Allman Brothers Band and three future studio musicians at the world-renowned Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama .-History:Formed from the...
, Clarence Carter
Clarence Carter
Clarence Carter is a blind American soul singer and musician.-Life and career:Born in Montgomery, Alabama on 14 January 1936, Carter attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega, Alabama, and Alabama State College in Montgomery, graduating in August 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree...
, Candi Staton
Candi Staton
Candi Staton is an American soul and gospel singer, best known for her 1970 remake of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and her 1976 disco hit "Young Hearts Run Free". In 2007, Staton was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame.-Early years:...
, Mac Davis
Mac Davis
Mac Davis is a country music singer, songwriter, and actor originally from Lubbock, Texas who has enjoyed much crossover success...
, Paul Anka
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...
, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, Etta James
Etta James
Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...
, Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
, The Osmonds
The Osmonds
The Osmonds are an American family music group with a long and varied career—a career that took them from singing barbershop music as children, to achieving success as teen-music idols, to producing a hit television show, and to continued success as solo and group performers...
, Shenandoah
Shenandoah (band)
Shenandoah is an American country music group founded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1984 by Marty Raybon , Ralph Ezell , Stan Thorn , Jim Seales , and Mike McGuire...
, and many others. The studio was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage
Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage
The Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, commonly referred to as the Alabama Register, is an official listing of buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts deemed worthy of preservation in the U.S. state of Alabama. These properties, which may be of national, state, and local...
on December 15, 1997.
History
Founded by Rick HallRick Hall
Roe Erister "Rick" Hall is an American record producer, songwriter, music publisher and musician who is best known as the owner and proprietor of the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.-Life and career:...
, Billy Sherrill
Billy Sherrill
Billy Sherrill is a record producer and arranger who is most famous for his association with a number of country artists, most notably Tammy Wynette...
and Tom Stafford in the late 1950s, the studio was first located above the City Drug Store in Florence, Alabama
Florence, Alabama
Florence is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the northwestern corner of the state.According to the 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the city's population was 36,721....
. The facility was moved to a former tobacco warehouse on Wilson Dam Road in Muscle Shoals in the early 1960s, when Hall split from Sherrill and Stafford. Hall soon recorded the first hit record from the Muscle Shoals area, Arthur Alexander
Arthur Alexander
Arthur Alexander was an American country soul singer. Jason Ankeny, music critic for Allmusic, said Alexander was a "country-soul pioneer" and though largely unknown, "his music is the stuff of genius, a poignant and deeply intimate body of work on par with the best of his...
's "You Better Move On
You Better Move On (song)
"You Better Move On" is a song by Arthur Alexander from 1961 that reached #24 on the US charts in March 1962. The song was recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama...
".
Hall took the proceeds from that recording to build the current facility on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals, and in 1963, Hall recorded the first hit produced in that building, Jimmy Hughes
Jimmy Hughes (singer)
Jimmy Hughes is an American former rhythm and blues singer, whose biggest successes in the mid 1960s, notably his hit "Steal Away", were important in the early development of the Muscle Shoals music industry.-Life and career:...
' "Steal Away."
As the word about Muscle Shoals began to spread other acts began coming to Muscle Shoals to record. Nashville producer Felton Jarvis
Felton Jarvis
Felton Jarvis, , produced most of Elvis Presley's recordings from 1966-1977.He also released several singles in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
brought Tommy Roe
Tommy Roe
Tommy Roe is an American pop music singer-songwriter.Best-remembered for his hits "Sheila" and "Dizzy" , critic Bill Dahl wrote that Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of the late 1960s, but Roe cut some pretty decent rockers along the way, especially early in his...
and recorded Roe's song "Everybody." Atlanta Music Publisher Bill Lowery
Bill Lowery
Bill Lowery was an American music entrepreneur.-Early successes:Lowery was born in Leesville, Louisiana. He studied radio dramatics at Taft Junior College and went on to a number of radio-announcing jobs...
, who had mentored Hall through his early days, sent The Tams
The Tams
The Tams, sometimes later billed as 'The Joe Pope Tams' are an American vocal group from Atlanta, Georgia, who enjoyed their greatest chart success in the 1960s, and the 1970s, and most improbably in the 1980s. Two separate versions of the group continue to perform and record. One version features...
. Nashville Publisher/Producer Buddy Killen
Buddy Killen
William Doyce “Buddy” Killen was a record producer and music publisher, and a former owner of Trinity Broadcasting Network, and the largest country music publishing business, before he sold it in 1989...
brought Joe Tex
Joe Tex
Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...
, while Atlantic Records'
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
Jerry Wexler
Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
brought Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
and Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
to record.
The session musicians who worked at the studio became known as the "Muscle Shoals Horns" and the "Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as The Swampers, are a group of American soul, R&B, and country studio musicians based in the town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama...
". In 1969, members of the rhythm section left to found a rival studio, the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was formed in Muscle Shoals, Alabama,in 1969 when musicians Barry Beckett , Roger Hawkins , Jimmy Johnson and David Hood left FAME Studios to create their own studio...
.
As the hits kept coming, Hall expanded into the area of teen pop hits with The Osmonds, a vocal group from Utah, featuring the younger brother Donny Osmond
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...
. The collaboration resulted in the hit "One Bad Apple," among others, and helped Hall to become named "Producer of the Year" in 1971.
As the decade of the 70s rolled in, Hall began moving into country music, first with vocalist Bobbie Gentry
Bobbie Gentry
Roberta Lee Streeter , professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is a former American singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material...
who recorded the album "Fancy", and then with singer/songwriter Mac Davis
Mac Davis
Mac Davis is a country music singer, songwriter, and actor originally from Lubbock, Texas who has enjoyed much crossover success...
, who topped both the Pop and Country charts with "Baby, Don't Get Hooked On Me". Davis recorded four gold albums at FAME, with the singles "Texas In My Rear View Mirror" and "Hooked On Music" becoming hits on both the country and pop charts.
Hall continued producing country hits in the 1980s, including Jerry Reed's
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...
#1 records, "She Got The Goldmine" and "The Bird". He also started Gus Hardin
Gus Hardin
Gus Hardin was a country music singer.-Career:Hardin was born in 1945 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her rise to country music popularity began in 1983 with her first RCA Records single, the top 10 hit "After The Last Goodbye"...
's career with the popular "After The Last Good-bye" and had a smash album with Larry Gatlin
Larry Gatlin
Larry Wayne Gatlin is an American country music singer/songwriter. He is perhaps best known for teaming up with his brothers Steve and Rudy in the late 1970s, becoming one of country music's most successful acts of the 1970s and 1980s. Gatlin has had a total of 33 Top 40 singles...
and The Gatlin Brothers, Houston To Denver. Hall's productions on T.G. Sheppard's LPs include Livin' On The Edge, It Still Rains In Memphis and One For The Money. Top 20 singles during included "Fooled Around And Fell In Love". Top 10 singles included "In Over My Heart" and "Doncha?". Top 5 singles include "Strong Heart", "One For The Money" and a #1 single, "You're My First Lady".
Hall then returned to the way he did it in the beginning, developing new artists. A local country band that was playing in a club down the street from FAME Studios came to his attention and he and Robert Byrne co-produced an LP on the group Shenandoah
Shenandoah (band)
Shenandoah is an American country music group founded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1984 by Marty Raybon , Ralph Ezell , Stan Thorn , Jim Seales , and Mike McGuire...
. Hall made a record deal with CBS Records
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
and the group thereafter had top 10 singles with "She Doesn't Cry Anymore" and "See If I Care" , top 5 singles with "Mama Knows" and "The Moon Over Georgia", and six number 1 singles with "The Church On Cumberland Road", "Sunday In The South" , "Two Dozen Roses", "Next To You, Next To Me", "Ghost In This House" and "I Got You".