Stax Records

Founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1960 by country music fiddle player Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton, following a previous false start with Satellite Records, Stax maintained a down-home, family atmosphere during its early years. Black and white musicians and singers worked together in relaxed conditions, where nobody looked at a clock or worried about union session rates, at the recording studio in a converted movie theatre at 926 East McLemore. They created records from ideas jotted down on bits of paper, phrases remembered from gospel songs, and rhythm licks that might make the kids on American Bandstand dance. Guitarist Steve Cropper, organist Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald (“Duck”) Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson, Jr., had numerous hits as Booker T. and the MG’s, and they made many more records as the rhythm section (and, in effect, producers) for most of the recordings at Stax during the decade, sometimes aided and abetted by pianist Isaac Hayes and lyricist David Porter, who teamed up as writer-producers in 1964.

Many Stax records featured a distinctive horn sound, and their bass-heavy bottom end had a powerful impact when played on jukeboxes and in dance clubs. Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records was the earliest industry figure to recognize the potential of this Memphis Sound. Wexler made a deal that allowed Atlantic to distribute Stax both nationally and internationally; he also was the catalyst for several milestone records made by singers from out of town: “Respect” (1965) by Otis Redding (from Georgia), whose records were released on the subsidiary label Volt; “In the Midnight Hour” (1965) by Wilson Pickett (from Alabama by way of Detroit), released on Atlantic; and “Soul Man” (1962) by Sam and Dave (from Florida). Toward the end of the 1960s, the interracial harmony at Stax was disturbed by the social and political tension sweeping the nation, which culminated in the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., in a nearby motel.

Still under its original management but represented publicly by Al Bell, the black promotion man who became vice-president and co-owner, Stax achieved its greatest commercial success during the early 1970s with hits recorded in Detroit, Chicago, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, as well as in its own studios, by Johnnie Taylor, Hayes, the Staple Singers, the Dramatics, and others. Many of the songs of this era, along with members of the original rhythm section, resurfaced in the movie The Blues Brothers (1980).