The Styrous® Viewfinder: FAME Studios

January 7, 2018

Rick Hall, FAME & Muscle Shoals

"I wanted so badly for all of us in Muscle Shoals to wake up one day and be much better than we ever thought we could possibly be.”

~ Rick Hall

Rick Hall - 2015

photo by Shane Rice

Rick Hall died a few days ago, January 2, 2018. He was born, Roe Erister "Rick" Hall on January 31, 1932. He was an American record producer, songwriter, music publisher, and musician best known as the owner and proprietor of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. As the "Father of Muscle Shoals Music", he was influential in recording and promoting both country and soul music, and in helping develop the careers of such musicians as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Duane Allman, Etta James, Candi Staton, Bobbie Gentry and The Osmonds among many others.

Rick Hall, FAME Studios - 1962

photo by Hollis Bennett

Fame Recording Studios opened in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in 1961 as a spin-off of a publishing company that worked with future studio legends Dan Penn, Billy Sherrill and Hall.

The FAME Studios became one of the the most popular places for soul, R&B, and pop musicians to cut records in the '60s and '70s. While the studio was well run and equipped with the latest recording gear, the reason FAME was popular had less to do with the facilities and more to do with the in-house band, The Fame Gang.

The Gang were the secret heroes of dozens of hit records, creating a sound that earned fans even if listeners rarely knew the names of the people who provided the backing for those hits. The first Fame house band featured David Briggs and Spooner Oldham on keyboards, Norbert Putnam on bass, Earl "Peanut" Montgomery and Terry Thompson on guitars, and Jerry Carrigan on drums.

The Fame Gang

Picture: Courtesy Fame Records

While the group's primary responsibility was backing the clients of FAME Studios, unlike the studio's other rhythm sections, the third band released records on its own, under the name the Fame Gang; Hall had launched a Fame Records label, and the Fame Gang became one of the label's artists.

Gene 'Bowlegs' Miller, Billy Foster, Etta James, Rick Hall

FAME Studios - 1967

photo: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty

FAME Studios is where Otis Redding recorded You Left the Water Running. The song was later released as a bootleg single, and did not appear legitimately until 1987 on the compilation album The Otis Redding Story.

L to R: Junior Lowe, Jimmy Johnson,

Otis Redding and Rick Hall - 1966

Picture: Courtesy Fame Records

When the members of the second Fame house band struck out on their own to form The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Hall organized a new combo, the largest to date. The third Fame studio crew featured Junior Lowe on guitar, Jesse Boyce on bass, Clayton Ivey on keyboards and guitar, Freeman Brown on drums, Harrison Calloway on trumpet, Aaron Varnell on tenor and alto sax, Ronnie Eades on baritone sax, and Harvey Thompson on tenor sax and flute, with Mickey Buckins handling arrangements and production.

Wilson Pickett, FAME Studios - 1966

Picture: Courtesy Fame Records

The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio located at 3614 Jackson Highway, which the Swampers set up after their falling out with Rick Hall.

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio

photo by Hollis Bennett

Little Richard, Robert “Bumps” Blackwell & Rick Hall

FAME Studios - 1970

Hall was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985 and also received the John Herbert Orr Pioneer Award. In 2014, he won the Grammy Trustees Award in recognition of his lengthy career.
In early 2018, Rolling Stone published a retrospective of Hall's career and included 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."

Rick Hall died Tuesday, January 2, 2018, after a bout with cancer. He was 85 years old.

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Duane Allman

Aretha Franklin
Etta James
Little Richard
Otis Redding

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