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| location = 603 Avalon Avenue, Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35661| designation1 = ARLH| designation1_offname = FAME Recording StudioPUBLISHER=ALABAMA HISTORICAL COMMISSION URL-STATUS=DEAD ARCHIVE-DATE=4 SEPTEMBER 2012, | designation1_number =| designation2 = NRHP| designation2_offname=Florence, Alabama Music Enterprises (FAME) Recording Studios| designation2_date = November 29, 2016| designation2_number = 16000397}}FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) Studios is a recording studio located at 603 East Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, an area of northern Alabama known as the Shoals. Though small and distant from the main recording locations of the American music industry, FAME has produced many hit records and was instrumental in what came to be known as the Muscle Shoals sound. It was started in the 1950s by Rick Hall, known as the Founder of Muscle Shoals Music.WEB,www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/, Rick Hall – Tishomingo, Alabama, 1985, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, January 20, 2017, Recognized as the “Father of Muscle Shoals Music,” maverick producer, publisher, songwriter, musician and studio owner Rick Hall founded FAME Recording Studios and produced the Muscle Shoals music industry’s first national hits.,www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/," title="web.archive.org/web/20180103072722www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/,">web.archive.org/web/20180103072722www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/, January 3, 2018, dead, The studio, owned by Hall until his death in 2018, is still actively operating. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on December 15, 1997, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. The 2013 award-winning documentary Muscle Shoals features Rick Hall, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (also called The Swampers), and the Muscle Shoals sound originally popularized by FAME.

History

Early history

FAME (standing for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises)WEB,www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/, Rick Hall – Tishomingo, Alabama, 1985, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, January 20, 2017, FAME Recording Studio’s name is actually an acronym for “Florence Alabama Music Enterprises.,www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/," title="web.archive.org/web/20180103072722www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/,">web.archive.org/web/20180103072722www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/, January 3, 2018, dead, was founded by Rick Hall, Billy Sherrill, and Tom Stafford in the late 1950s. It was first located above the City Drug Store in Florence, Alabama. Two doors down was a pawn shop – “Uncle Sams” – where aspiring artists would buy or pawn their instruments, depending on the trajectory of their careers. The studio 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” in 1961.Muscle Shoals Sound. Liner notes. Rhino Records R2 71517, 1993. Hall took the proceeds from that recording to build the current facility, on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals. In 1963, he recorded the first hit produced in that building, Jimmy Hughes’s “Steal Away”.WEB,www.bear-family.com/hughes-jimmy/, Hughes, Jimmy, 20 October 2021, FAME studio prospered, and by the late 1960s pop and soul musicians such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, and Solomon Burke had recorded there. Singer Aretha Franklin credited Hall for the “turning point” in her career when she recorded at FAME in early 1967, taking her from a struggling artist to the “Queen of Soul”.WEB,www.heraldnet.com/life/rick-hall-the-father-of-the-muscle-shoals-sound-dies-at-85/, Rick Hall, the father of the Muscle Shoals sound, dies at 85, HeraldNet.com, January 3, 2018, January 4, 2018, According to Hall, one of the reasons for FAME’s success at a time of stiff competition from studios in other cities was that he overlooked the issue of race, a perspective he called “colorblind”.WEB,www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-me-rick-hall-20180102-story.html, Rick Hall, the father of the Muscle Shoals sound, dies at 85, 2 January 2018, LA Times, “It was a dangerous time, but the studio was a safe haven where blacks and whites could work together in musical harmony,” Hall wrote in his autobiography.WEB, Jon, Pareles,www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/obituaries/rick-hall-muscle-shoals-dies.html, Rick Hall, Architect of the Muscle Shoals Sound, Dies at 85, The New York Times, January 3, 2018, January 4, 2018, Decades later, a publication in Malaysia referred to Hall as a “white fiddler who became an unlikely force in soul music”.WEB, Samad, Joe,www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/30736/, Unlikely producer of soul sound Rick Hall dies at 85, The Malaysian Insight, January 4, 2018, January 4, 2018, As the word about Muscle Shoals began to spread other artists began coming there to record. The Nashville producer Felton Jarvis brought Tommy Roe and recorded Roe’s song “Everybody” in 1963. The Atlanta music publisher Bill Lowery, who had mentored Hall in his early days, sent the Tams. The Nashville publisher and producer Buddy Killen brought Joe Tex. Leonard Chess encouraged Etta James to record there, and she made her 1967 hit “Tell Mama” and the Tell Mama album at FAME. Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records brought both Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to record. The recording session with Franklin brought unexpected conflict: one of the horn players sexually harassed the singer, and her husband had him fired from the session. Later that evening Hall went over to make up with Franklin and her husband, but a fight ensued, and the recording session was canceled. Wexler swore to Hall he would never work with him again.NEWS,s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/muscle-shoals/index.html, Deep Soul, Mick, Brown, Daily Telegraph, August 17, 2018, Duane Allman, later of the Allman Brothers Band, pitched a tent and camped out in the parking lot of FAME Studios in 1968 in order to be near the recording sessions occurring there.BOOK, Poe, Randy, Gibbons, Billy F., Skydog: The Duane Allman Story, 2006, Backbeat Books, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 0879308915, He soon befriended Rick Hall and Wilson Pickett, who was recording there. While on lunch break, Allman taught Pickett “Hey Jude”; their version of the song was recorded with Allman playing lead guitar. On hearing the session, people at Atlantic began asking who had played the guitar solos, and Hall responded with a hand-written note that read “some hippie cat who’s been living in our parking lot”. Shortly afterward, Allman was offered a recording contract; auditions for the Allman Brothers Band were later held at FAME Studios. Allman loved the area, and frequently returned to the Shoals for session work throughout his short life.The session musicians who worked at the studio became known as the Muscle Shoals Horns and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (or the Swampers). In 1969, just after Hall had signed a deal with Capitol Records, the four primary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section members (Barry Beckett (keyboards), Jimmy Johnson (guitar), Roger Hawkins (drums), and David Hood (bass), left to found a competing business, the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, originally at 3614 Jackson Highway in nearby Sheffield, Alabama. Subsequently, Hall hired the Fame Gang as the new studio band.NEWS, Brown, Mick, October 2013, How Muscle Shoals became music’s most unlikely hit factory,s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/muscle-shoals/index.html, Telegraph, London, England, January 18, 2017, Also called the Third FAME Rhythm Section, consisted of eight musicians plus arranger-producer Mickey Buckins. This group backed up singers such as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, Bobbie Gentry, Etta James, and Candi Staton during recording sessions at FAME Studios.WEB,www.fame2.com/studio-rhytm-section/, The Rhythm Sections, 2017, FAME2, FAME, January 20, 2017, The FAME Gang even did an album on themselves... The Fame Gang isn’t just a title for whatever musicians happened to be available on a given day.,www.fame2.com/studio-rhytm-section/," title="web.archive.org/web/20170202001119www.fame2.com/studio-rhytm-section/,">web.archive.org/web/20170202001119www.fame2.com/studio-rhytm-section/, February 2, 2017, dead, Aretha Franklin recorded at FAME on only one occasion, in early 1967; her hit “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You” was recorded at that time, with the Swampers providing the accompaniment.WEB,www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/19/aretha-franklin-fame-studios-muscle-shoals-1967-rick-hall, The day Aretha Franklin found her sound – and a bunch of men nearly killed it, The Guardian, April 16, 2021, Atlantic picked her up and in early 1967 sent her to FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, The track “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” was also recorded during that session.WEB,apnews.com/article/8c8dc8aeeff548cebfe5320d9c6ba8a5, FAME, Swampers played big role in Aretha Franklin’s career, Associated Press, April 16, 2021, Franklin later publicly acknowledged Rick Hall “for the turning point in her career, taking her from a struggling artist” to a major music star.WEB,www.ms2mr.com/venue-history/#:~:text=Singer%20Aretha%20Franklin%20credited%20Hall,the%20%E2%80%9CQueen%20of%20Soul%E2%80%9D.&text=As%20the%20word%20about%20Muscle,began%20coming%20there%20to%20record., Early History, Big River Broadcasting, April 16, 2021, The entire LP might have been recorded at FAME, but after Franklin’s husband Ted White started an altercation, producer Jerry Wexler decided to continue recording in New York, including “Respect”, again using the Swampers for the accompaniment.WEB,www.al.com/life-and-culture/erry-2018/08/725d37c2fa5245/swampers-guitarist-talks-class.html, Swampers guitarist talks classic Aretha Franklin sessions, AL.com Alabama Media Group, April 16, 2021,

1970s to 1990s

(File:Rick Hall at FAME Recording Studios.jpg|left|thumb|Rick Hall at FAME Studios in 2010)The studio continued to do well through the 1970s. Hall was able to convince Capitol Records to distribute FAME recordings.WEB,www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/producer-rick-hall-father-of-muscle-shoals-music-dead-at-85-198867/, Producer Rick Hall, ‘Father of Muscle Shoals Music,’ Dead at 85, Stephen L., Betts, Rollingstone.com, 2 January 2018, 13 September 2023, WEB,www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/deep-soul-how-muscle-shoals-became-musics-most-unlikely-hit-factory, Deep Soul: How Muscle Shoals became music’s most unlikely hit factory., Mick Brown, Rocksbackpages.com, In 1971, Rick Hall was named Producer of the Year by Billboard magazine,WEB,www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/, Alabama Music Hall of Fame :: Rick Hall, Alamhof.org, 2017-01-20,www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/," title="web.archive.org/web/20180103072722www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/,">web.archive.org/web/20180103072722www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/, 2018-01-03, dead, a year after having been nominated for a Grammy Award in the same category.WEB,www.bmi.com/news/entry/bmi-mourns-the-loss-of-muscle-shoals-legend-rick-hall, BMI Mourns the Loss of Muscle Shoals Legend Rick Hall, BMI, January 2, 2018, January 4, 2018, 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” in 1970, among others, and helped Hall to become named “Producer of the Year” in 1971. As the decade of the 70s rolled in, FAME moved back towards country music, producing hits for Mac Davis, Bobbie Gentry, Jerry Reed, and the Gatlin Brothers.WEB,www.fame2.com/, FAME :: Home, Fame2.com, He also worked with the songwriter and producer Robert Byrne to help a local bar band, Shenandoah, top the national Hot Country Songs chart several times in the 1980s and 1990s.WEB,www.alabamamusicoffice.com/artists-a-z/h/939-hall-rick.html, Hall, Rick, Alabamamusicoffice.com, Hall’s publishing staff of in-house songwriters wrote some of the biggest country hits in those decades. His publishing catalog included many significant items.WEB,www.fame2.com/publishing/, FAME :: Publishing, Fame2.com, 2018-01-04,www.fame2.com/publishing," title="web.archive.org/web/20180924214319www.fame2.com/publishing,">web.archive.org/web/20180924214319www.fame2.com/publishing, 2018-09-24, dead, In 1985, Rick Hall was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, his citation referring to him as the “Father of Muscle Shoals Music.“Successful singers working at FAME included Bobbie Gentry, who recorded the album Fancy (1970), and then with the singer-songwriter Mac Davis, who topped both the Pop and Country charts with “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me” (1972). 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. Many artists recorded with The Fame Gang such as Joe Tex, Bobby Blue Bland, Eddie Floyd, Candi Staton, Clarence Carter,WEB,www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1247, Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (MSRS) - Encyclopedia of Alabama, Encyclopedia of Alabama, Little Milton, Sawyer Brown, Tony Joe White, Duane Allman, Elkie Brooks, and the Oak Ridge Boys.Hall continued producing country hits in the 1980s, including Jerry Reed’s number 1 records “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)” and “The Bird” in 1982. He also started Gus Hardin’s career with the popular “After the Last Good-bye” and had a hit album with Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, Houston to Denver (1984). Hall’s productions on T.G. Sheppard’s LPs include Livin’ on the Edge (1985), It Still Rains in Memphis (1986), and One for the Money (1987). Top 20 singles included “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” by the Elvin Bishop Group in 1975. Top 10 singles included “In Over My Heart” and “Doncha?” by T.G. Sheppard in 1985. Top 5 singles include “Strong Heart” (1985), “One for the Money” (1987), and a number 1 single, “You’re My First Lady” (1987) by T.G. Sheppard also.Hall then returned to the way he had begun, 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 with 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” (1988) and “See If I Care” (1990), top 5 singles with “Mama Knows” (1988) and “The Moon Over Georgia” (1991), and six number 1 singles with “The Church on Cumberland Road” (1989), “Sunday in the South” (1989), “Two Dozen Roses” (1989), “Next to You, Next to Me” (1990), “Ghost in This House” (1990), and “I Got You” (1991).In addition to FAME studios, Hall operated FAME Records, whose original roster included Clarence Carter, Candi Staton, Jimmy Hughes, Willie Hightower and the Fame Gang. The original run of the label was between 1964 and 1974, with distribution handled by Vee-Jay Records from 1964 to 1966, Atco Records from 1966 to 1967, Capitol Records from 1969 to 1972, and United Artists Records from 1972 through early 1974. In 2007, Hall reactivated the FAME Records label through a distribution deal with EMI.WEB,www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/, Rick Hall – Tishomingo, Alabama, 1985, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, January 20, 2017, deal with EMI ... combined new material by FAME artists with reissues of classic recordings from Muscle Shoals’ Southern soul heyday..,www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/," title="web.archive.org/web/20180103072722www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/,">web.archive.org/web/20180103072722www.alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1985/rick-hall/, January 3, 2018, dead,

Legacy

Rick Hall died in early 2018. In its obituary, The New Yorker concluded its coverage of Hall’s career with FAME by saying, “Muscle Shoals remains remarkable not just for the music made there but for its unlikeliness as an epicenter of anything; that a tiny town in a quiet corner of Alabama became a hotbed of progressive, integrated rhythm and blues still feels inexplicable. Whatever Hall conjured there—whatever he dreamt, and made real—is essential to any recounting of American ingenuity. It is a testament to a certain kind of hope.“WEB, Petrusich, Amanda,www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/remembering-rick-hall-and-the-musical-alchemy-of-fame-studios, Remembering Rick Hall and the Musical Alchemy of FAME Studios, The New Yorker, January 3, 2018, January 4, 2018, An Alabama publication commented that Hall is survived by his family “and a Muscle Shoals music legacy like no other”.WEB,www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/01/rick_hall_fame_muscle_shoals.html, The musical secrets of FAME Studios legend Rick Hall, Al.com, January 4, 2018, January 4, 2018, An article in the Anniston Star (Alabama) concludes with this epitaph, “If the world wants to know about Alabama — a state seldom publicized for anything but college football and embarrassing politics — the late Rick Hall and his legacy are worthy models to uphold”.WEB,www.annistonstar.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-the-genius-of-a-music-legend/article_1b3a8f4a-f0e7-11e7-b18b-1fc79b509020.html, Editorial: The genius of a music legend, The Anniston Star, January 3, 2018, January 4, 2018, In early 2018, Rolling Stone published this evaluation: “Hall’s Grammy-winning production touched nearly every genre of popular music from country to R&B, and his Fame Studio and publishing company were a breeding ground for future legends in the worlds of songwriting and session work, as well as a recording home to some of the greatest musicians and recording artists of all time.“After Rick Hall died, his widow Linda Hall continued to run FAME Recording Studio. In 2023, Linda Hall was awarded a Woman In Music Award by the Muscle Shoals Music Association and the Muscle Shoals Songwriters Foundationmuscleshoalsmusicassociation.com/2023/11/06/msma-x-mssf-muscle-shoals-music-awards/

21st century

FAME Recording Studio continues to exist as a fully engaged recording facility in Muscle Shoals. In 2007, Bettye LaVette’s Grammy-nominated CD The Scene of the Crime, produced by Patterson Hood and Drive-By Truckers, was recorded at FAME Recording Studios. The Truckers also backed Lavette on the record, with contributions from David Hood and Spooner Oldham, from the original studio house band, the Swampers.Fame Sessions, the second album by the Nightowls, was recorded at FAME Studios in September 2015 in collaboration with David Hood and Spooner Oldham.WEB, Steeped in the History of Southern Soul, the Nightowls Release ‘Fame Sessions’ (Sept 4th, Super Sonic Sounds),shorefire.com/releases/entry/steeped-in-the-history-of-southern-soul-the-nightowls-release-fame-sessions, Shore Fire Media, 28 October 2015, 26 June 2015, Gregg Allman’s final album, Southern Blood (2017), was recorded at FAME in March 2016.NEWS, Inside Gregg Allman’s Musical Farewell,www.rollingstone.com/music/features/inside-gregg-allmans-final-album-southern-blood-w494132, David, Browne, July 26, 2017, July 26, 2017, Rolling Stone, Other artists who recorded at FAME in recent years include the Drive-By Truckers, Jason Isbell, Demi Lovato, and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Third Day recorded their final album, Revival, at FAME in 2017. More recently, Roadside Glorious,WEB,famestudios.com/roadside-glorious/, Roadside Glorious – Fame Studios, Famestudios.com, 11 July 2020, 13 September 2023, Meg Williams, Big Daddy Wilson,WEB,www.bluesblastmagazine.com/big-daddy-wilson-deep-in-my-soul-album-review/, Big Daddy Wilson – Deep In My Soul | Album Review, Marty, Gunther, Bluesblastmagazine.com, 3 March 2021, and Australians Murray Cook and The Soul Movers,WEB,australianmusician.com.au/the-soul-movers-bona-fide-record-makin/, Archived copy, 2022-11-19, 2022-11-19,web.archive.org/web/20221119012131/https://australianmusician.com.au/the-soul-movers-bona-fide-record-makin/, dead, Misty Blue and Lucie Tiger (2019, 2022)WEB,themusicnetwork.com/lucie-tiger-ep-gasoline/, At the crossroads with Lucie Tiger’s new Americana EP ‘Gasoline’, Themusicnetwork.com, 13 August 2020, 13 September 2023, NEWS, Arbour, Mallory, April 22, 2022, Artist of the Week: Lucie Tiger, Countrytown.com.au,countrytown.com.au/features/artist-week-lucie-tiger/T4pLQ0JFREc/22-04-22, recorded at FAME Recording Studio.

References

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External links

{{Commons category|FAME Studios}}

• FAME Studios (Official website)
• NPR: The Legendary Muscle Shoals Sound
• Muscle Shoals Movie (Official website)

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