Broadway Sound Studio

BROADWAY SOUND STUDIO

1307 Broadway St., Sheffield, AL

In 1968, a year before the FAME rhythm section’s break with Rick Hall and the establishment of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Quin Ivy moved his Quinvy Recording Studio (formerly Norala Sound Studio) to a new facility at 1307 Broadway Street in Sheffield. Around the same time, Ivy began devoting more time to his publishing and other business interests and became less involved in the studio’s day-to-day operations. By mid-1970, when Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams started bringing artists from his Mankind Records label to Quinvy, Ivy’s engineer David Johnson was handling most of the production duties.

“I first became aware of the Quinvy studios when Percy Sledge hit… I loved recording there. It was relatively cheap but they gave me so much. I’ve worked in a lot of places but the people there made me so welcome right from the get go. It was like working with family. It was a lot of fun too.”
—Jerry Williams

1971 saw the release of several successful Quinvy-recorded singles on the Mankind label, including offerings from Doris Duke, Brooks O’Dell and Freddie North. The following year, Arthur Conley’s “Rita” and Z.Z. Hill’s “Second Chance” were among seven Quinvy productions to receive Grammy nominations.

By the time Ivy sold his interest in the studio to Johnson in late 1973, Quinvy had begun to shift its focus from R&B to what would later become known as “Southern rock.” Having produced a demo recording for Lynyrd Skynyrd at Quinvy in 1970, Johnson went on to record other seminal acts in the genre, including Mama’s Pride and the Outlaws (who opened for Skynyrd when they performed at the Florence-Lauderdale Coliseum in 1974).

Broadway Sound Studio, as it was known during Johnson’s tenure, closed in 1989 when Johnson became executive director of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

Personnel

Owners:
• Quin Ivy (1968-1973)
• David Johnson (1973-1989)

Musicians:
• Larry Byrom (guitar)
• Ken Bell (guitar)
• Travis Wammack (guitar)
• Bob Wray (bass)
• Randy McCormick (keyboards)
• Roger Clark (drums)
• Jimmy "BeBop" Evans (drums)

Discography

1968:
• Percy Sledge, “You're All Around Me”
• Jeanie Greene, “Sure as Sin”
• Judy White, “Satisfaction Guaranteed”
• Tony Borders, “I Met Her in Church”

1969:
• Tony Borders, “Polly Wolly”
• Percy Sledge, “My Special Prayer”
• Percy Sledge, “Any Day Now”
• Percy Sledge, “Kind Woman”
• Ruby Winters, “Always David”
• Z.Z. Hill, “(Home Just Ain't Home at) Suppertime”
• Tony Borders, “Lonely Weekend”
• Percy Sledge, “True Love Travels on a Gravel Road”
• Barry Goldberg, “On the Road Again”
• Barry Goldberg, Two Jews Blues*

1970:
• Percy Sledge, “Too Many Rivers to Cross”
• Percy Sledge, “Stop the World Tonight”
• Tony Borders, “For My Woman's Love”
• Buddy Causey, “Hey Baby (Medley)”
• Jimmy Braswell, “Hand Shaking”
• Percy Sledge, “Help Me Make It Through the Night”
• Z.Z. Hill, “Faithful and True”
• The Male, “You're Playing with Fire”
• Bill Brandon, “Strangest Feeling”
• Tony Borders, “Promise to Myself”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd, Collectybles*

1971:
• Doris Duke, “If She's Your Wife (Who Am I)”
• Doris Duke, A Legend in Her Own Time*
• Freddie North, “She’s All I Got”
• Freddie North, Friend
• Z.Z. Hill, “Chokin’ Kind”
• Z.Z. Hill, The Brand New Z.Z. Hill
• Swamp Dogg, “Creeping Away”
• Swamp Dogg, Rat On!
• W.C. Quillen, “I Saw the Light”
• Percy Sledge, Jr., “Sugar Makes Everything Sweeter”

1972:
• Percy Sledge, “Rainbow Road”
• Brooks O'Dell, “Is It Real”
• Eddie Bradford, “You Made Your Bed”
• J.J. Cale, Really*
• Marlin Greene, Tiptoe Past the Dragon*
• Swamp Dogg, Cuffed, Collared and Tagged*
• Z.Z. Hill, “Second Chance”
• Z.Z. Hill, “It Ain't No Use”
• Arthur Conley, “Rita”
• Doris Duke, “I Don't Know How to Fall Out of Love with You”
• Percy Sledge, “Sunday Brother”
• Freddie North, “Song #29 (I'm Your Man)”

1973:
• Jimmy Jules, “Ten Carat Fool”
• Freddie North, “You’re Killing Me Slowly But Surely”
• Charlie Whitehead, Charlie Whitehead and the Swamp Dogg Band*

1974:
• Sandra Wright, “Midnight Affair”
• Ralph Graham, Differently*

1975:
• Sandra Wright, “Lovin' You, Lovin' Me”
• Bill Coday, “I Don't Want to Play This Game”
• Percy Sledge, I’ll Be Your Everything
• Jinx, Jinx

1976:
• Jinx, “Greenville Woman”
• Lenny LeBlanc, Lenny LeBlanc

1977:
• Freddie North, Floatin'

1981:
• Tony Copeland, Nighttime Gamblers*

1983:
• Percy Sledge, “You Had to Be There”
• Percy Sledge, “She's Too Pretty to Cry”
• Percy Sledge, Percy!
• Swamp Dogg, Unmuzzled!*

1984:
• James Govan, “Uphill Climb”
• Blaze Foley, Blaze Foley

1985:
• Clarence Carter, “Strokin’”
• Clarence Carter, Dr. C.C.