Fame Recording Studios: Where music transcends color and history
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in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, has been a cornerstone of music history since its founding in 1959 by Rick Hall.
The walls of Fame Studios tell the story of its rich history, with every item in the building holding significance.
Rodney Hall now runs Fame Studios, but it was his father, Rick Hall, who started the studio.
"He happened across a guy named Arthur Alexander who was a local bellhop, a Black man from Florence. And they recorded a song called and it became a hit," Rodney Hall said.
"His next artist was a guy named Jimmy Hughes of Leighton, Alabama. And they had a song called which was a hit. So he was batting a thousand doing R&B and soul music, and just figured out that that's where he had found his niche."
The artists soon found Rick Hall.
"It just snowballed into Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Lou Rawls, Solomon Burke, Etta James, on and on and on," Rodney Hall said. "And if you were an R&B soul artist in the '60s and '70s, you recorded here or you wanted to."
During a time of social and political upheaval in the country, and racial injustice in Alabama, Fame Studios offered a different environment.
"North Alabama was kind of a safe haven. It was always kind of a Union sympathizer, even back in the Civil War," Rodney Hall said. "So it was safe here, you know, and it was the first integrated rhythm section in Alabama, for sure, and one of the first in the country."
Rodney Hall noted that his father launched the careers of many Black musicians and is remembered as a man who broke barriers for Black artists.
"He didn't care about color. He didn't care about anything. All he cared about was a hit record," Rodney Hall said. "He realized that it had happened later, but I'm not sure that he realized the full impact that it had, that the music had on society."
When asked if his father was proud of this legacy, Rodney Hall responded, "Absolutely. 100 percent. Yeah. He was very proud that that happened."
Even 66 years after Rick Hall started the studio, Fame is still launching careers and recording hits.
"There's a thread that runs through it all. And I think that soul, which is believability, which is authenticity," Rodney Hall said. "The up-and-coming just want to get that sound. They just want, you know, a piece of what they hear in Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin records, they want it on their records."
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Rodney Hall emphasized that while the world outside Fame Studios has changed a lot since 1959, the focus inside remains on the music, not the color.
"We're all about music. If you can play and you can sing and you can bring it, then you're welcome here," Rodney Hall said.
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