Rick Hall
Encyclopedia
Roe Erister "Rick" Hall (born 31 January 1932) 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
.
, and was raised in Franklin County
, Alabama. He moved to Rockford, Illinois
as a teenager, working as an apprentice tool maker, and began playing in local bar bands. When he was drafted for the Korean War
, he declared himself a conscientious objector
, joined the honor guard
of the Fourth United States Army, and played in a band which also included Faron Young
and fiddler Gordon Terry
. He later returned to Alabama to work, but, after both his young wife and father died in quick succession, he decided to support himself by playing music, and joined Carmol Taylor and the Country Pals, a group who appeared on a weekly regional radio show in Hamilton
.
After meeting saxophonist Billy Sherrill
, the pair began writing songs together, and formed an R&B band, The Fairlanes, fronted by singer Dan Penn
with Hall playing bass
. Hall had his first songwriting successes in the late 1950s, when George Jones
recorded his song "Aching Breaking Heart", Brenda Lee
recorded "She’ll Never Know", and Roy Orbison
recorded "Sweet and Innocent". Hall and Sherrill then accepted an offer from recording studio owner Tom Stafford in 1959 to help set up a new music publishing company in the town of Florence
, to be known as Florence Alabama Music Enterprises or FAME. However, in 1960, Sherrill and Stafford dissolved the partnership, leaving Hall with rights to the studio name. Hall then set up a studio at Muscle Shoals
, where one of his first recordings was Arthur Alexander
's "You Better Move On
". The commercial success of the record gave Hall the financial resources to establish a new, larger, FAME recording studio
.
Hall's successes continued after Atlanta-based agent Bill Lowery brought him acts to record, and the studio produced hits for Tommy Roe
, Joe Tex
, The Tams
, and Jimmy Hughes
. However, in 1964, Hall's regular session group, who included David Briggs
, Norbert Putnam
, Jerry Carrigan
, Earl "Peanut" Montgomery, and Donnie Fritts
, became frustrated at being paid minimum union-scale wages by Hall, and left Muscle Shoals to set up a studio of their own in Nashville. Hall then pulled together a new studio band, including Spooner Oldham
, Jimmy Johnson
, David Hood
and Roger Hawkins
, and continued to produce hit records. In 1966, he helped license Percy Sledge
's "When a Man Loves a Woman
", produced by Quin Ivy
, to Atlantic Records
, which then led to a regular arrangement under which Atlantic would send musicians to Hall's Muscle Shoals studio to record. This resulted in further hits for Wilson Pickett
, James and Bobby Purify, Aretha Franklin
, Clarence Carter
, Otis Redding
and Arthur Conley
, Hall further enhancing his reputation as a white Southern producer who could produce and engineer hits with black Southern soul singers. He also produced for other artists, including Etta James
. However, his fiery temperament led to the relationship with Atlantic ending after he got into a fist fight with Aretha Franklin's husband, Ted White in late 1967. The session group, by now generally known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
, split up shortly afterwards, several of them establishing a new recording studio, Muscle Shoals Sound. In 1969, FAME Records, with artists including Candi Staton
, Clarence Carter and Arthur Conley, established a distribution deal with Capitol Records
.
Hall then turned his attention away from soul music
towards mainstream pop
, producing hits for The Osmonds
, Paul Anka
, Tom Jones
, and Donny Osmond
. In 1971, he was named Billboard
Producer of the Year, the year after having been nominated for a Grammy in the same category. Later in the decade Hall moved back towards country music
, producing hits for Mac Davis
, Bobbie Gentry
, Jerry Reed
and the Gatlin Brothers. He also worked with songwriter and producer Robert Byrne to help local bar band Shenandoah
top the national country charts
several times in the 1980s and 1990s. Hall's publishing company of in-house songwriters also became responsible for some of the biggest country hits in those decades, for artists including John Michael Montgomery
and the Dixie Chicks
.
Hall was named Billboard's Producer of the Year for the World in 1971.
Hall was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985, his citation referring to him as the "Father of Muscle Shoals Music".
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, songwriter, music publisher and musician who is best known as the owner and proprietor of the FAME Studios
FAME Studios
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...
in Muscle Shoals, Alabama
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...
.
Life and career
Hall was born to a family of sharecroppers in Tishomingo County, MississippiMississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, and was raised in Franklin County
Franklin County, Alabama
Franklin County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Benjamin Franklin, famous statesman, scientist, and printer. As of 2010, the population was 31,704...
, Alabama. He moved to Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
as a teenager, working as an apprentice tool maker, and began playing in local bar bands. When he was drafted for the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, he declared himself a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
, joined the honor guard
Honor guard
An honor guard, or ceremonial guard, is a ceremonial unit, usually military in nature and composed of volunteers who are carefully screened for their physical ability and dexterity...
of the Fourth United States Army, and played in a band which also included Faron Young
Faron Young
Faron Young was an American country music singer and songwriter from the early 1950s into the mid-1980s and one of its most successful and colorful stars...
and fiddler Gordon Terry
Gordon Terry
Gordon Terry was an adept American bluegrass and country music fiddler and guitarist. He was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Fiddlers Hall of Fame.-Biography:...
. He later returned to Alabama to work, but, after both his young wife and father died in quick succession, he decided to support himself by playing music, and joined Carmol Taylor and the Country Pals, a group who appeared on a weekly regional radio show in Hamilton
Hamilton, Alabama
Hamilton is a city in Marion County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 6,786. The city is the county seat of Marion County.-Geography:Hamilton is located at , along the Buttahatchee River....
.
After meeting saxophonist 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...
, the pair began writing songs together, and formed an R&B band, The Fairlanes, fronted by singer Dan Penn
Dan Penn
Dan Penn is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including "Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "Out of Left Field" & "Cry Like A Baby"...
with Hall playing bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
. Hall had his first songwriting successes in the late 1950s, when George Jones
George Jones
George Glenn Jones is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette....
recorded his song "Aching Breaking Heart", Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley , known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis...
recorded "She’ll Never Know", and Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
recorded "Sweet and Innocent". Hall and Sherrill then accepted an offer from recording studio owner Tom Stafford in 1959 to help set up a new music publishing company in the town of Florence
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....
, to be known as Florence Alabama Music Enterprises or FAME. However, in 1960, Sherrill and Stafford dissolved the partnership, leaving Hall with rights to the studio name. Hall then set up a studio at Muscle Shoals
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...
, where one of his first recordings was 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...
". The commercial success of the record gave Hall the financial resources to establish a new, larger, FAME recording studio
FAME Studios
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...
.
Hall's successes continued after Atlanta-based agent Bill Lowery brought him acts to record, and the studio produced hits for 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...
, 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...
, 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...
, and 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:...
. However, in 1964, Hall's regular session group, who included David Briggs
David Briggs (American musician)
David Briggs is an American keyboardist, record producer, arranger, composer and studio owner....
, Norbert Putnam
Norbert Putnam
Norbert Putnam is an American record producer and musician. He grew up near Florence, Alabama and was part of the Muscle Shoals musicians brought to Nashville to play for Elvis Presley in 1965. Putnam worked there as a bassist on recording sessions with Presley, Roy Orbison, Al Hirt, Henry...
, Jerry Carrigan
Jerry Carrigan
Jerry Carrigan is an American drummer and record producer born 13 September 1943 in Florence, Alabama. He first achieved widespread recognition by being part of the first wave of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and later as a session musician in Nashville, Tennessee for over 3 decades...
, Earl "Peanut" Montgomery, and Donnie Fritts
Donnie Fritts
Donnie Fritts is an American session musician and songwriter. A recording artist in his own right, he has been Kris Kristofferson's keyboard player for over twenty years...
, became frustrated at being paid minimum union-scale wages by Hall, and left Muscle Shoals to set up a studio of their own in Nashville. Hall then pulled together a new studio band, including Spooner Oldham
Spooner Oldham
Dewey Lindon "Spooner" Oldham is an American songwriter and session musician. An organist, he recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and at FAME Studios on such hit R&B songs as "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge, "Mustang Sally" by Wilson Pickett and "I Never Loved a Man" by Aretha...
, Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Johnson (musician)
Jimmy Johnson is an American a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section that was attached to FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama for a period in the 1960s and 1970s, and later was the a founder of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio located at first on 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, Alabama and at...
, David Hood
David Hood
David Hood , is a bassist from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He also plays the trombone and is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame....
and Roger Hawkins
Roger Hawkins
Roger G Hawkins , is an American drummer best known for playing as part of the studio backing band known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section of Alabama...
, and continued to produce hit records. In 1966, he helped license Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge is an American R&B and soul performer who recorded the hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1966.-Early career:...
's "When a Man Loves a Woman
When a Man Loves a Woman (song)
"When a Man Loves a Woman" is a song recorded by Percy Sledge in 1966 at Norala Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama. It made number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts. It was listed 54th in the List of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 greatest songs of all time...
", produced by Quin Ivy
Quin Ivy
Quin Ivy is a former disc jockey turned songwriter crucial to the Muscle Shoals scene in the 1960s.He was the son of a farmer who later moved to Oxford where he worked as a grocer. He was a DJ at WMPS in Memphis, WKDA in Nashville and WLAY in Muscle Shoals. He wrote songs with producer Rick Hall...
, to 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...
, which then led to a regular arrangement under which Atlantic would send musicians to Hall's Muscle Shoals studio to record. This resulted in further hits for 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...
, James and Bobby Purify, 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...
, 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...
, 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...
and Arthur Conley
Arthur Conley
Arthur Lee Conley was an American soul singer, best known for the 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music".-Career:...
, Hall further enhancing his reputation as a white Southern producer who could produce and engineer hits with black Southern soul singers. He also produced for other artists, including 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...
. However, his fiery temperament led to the relationship with Atlantic ending after he got into a fist fight with Aretha Franklin's husband, Ted White in late 1967. The session group, by now generally known as 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...
, split up shortly afterwards, several of them establishing a new recording studio, Muscle Shoals Sound. In 1969, FAME Records, with artists including 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:...
, Clarence Carter and Arthur Conley, established a distribution deal with Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
.
Hall then turned his attention away from soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
towards mainstream pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, producing hits for 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...
, 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...
, and 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...
. In 1971, he was named Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Producer of the Year, the year after having been nominated for a Grammy in the same category. Later in the decade Hall moved back towards country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, producing hits for Mac Davis
Mac Davis
Mac Davis is a country music singer, songwriter, and actor originally from Lubbock, Texas who has enjoyed much crossover success...
, 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...
, Jerry Reed
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...
and the Gatlin Brothers. He also worked with songwriter and producer Robert Byrne to help local bar band 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...
top the national country charts
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
several times in the 1980s and 1990s. Hall's publishing company of in-house songwriters also became responsible for some of the biggest country hits in those decades, for artists including John Michael Montgomery
John Michael Montgomery
John Michael Montgomery is an American country music artist. He has produced more than thirty singles on the Billboard country charts, including two of Billboard’s Number One country singles of the year: "I Swear" and "Sold "...
and the Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
.
Awards
Hall was nominated for a Grammy in the Producer of the Year category in 1970.Hall was named Billboard's Producer of the Year for the World in 1971.
Hall was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985, his citation referring to him as the "Father of Muscle Shoals Music".