Spar Music
SPAR MUSIC
123½ E. Tennessee St., Florence, AL
SPAR (Stafford Publishing and Recording) was located above the City Drug Store in downtown Florence at the intersection of Seminary and Tennessee streets. Tom Stafford, whose father owned the drug store, opened the studio in 1959 with a $300 investment from Tune Records founder James Joiner, and the assistance of Tune recording artist Bobby Denton, whom Stafford had known since childhood.
As manager of the Princess Theater, Stafford had developed friendships with a number of young, aspiring musicians, including such future luminaries as Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, David Briggs and Norbert Putnam. SPAR became their playground and a place where they could hone their craft.
SPAR (Stafford Publishing and Recording) was located above the City Drug Store in downtown Florence at the intersection of Seminary and Tennessee streets. Tom Stafford, whose father owned the drug store, opened the studio in 1959 with a $300 investment from Tune Records founder James Joiner, and the assistance of Tune recording artist Bobby Denton, whom Stafford had known since childhood.
As manager of the Princess Theater, Stafford had developed friendships with a number of young, aspiring musicians, including such future luminaries as Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, David Briggs and Norbert Putnam. SPAR became their playground and a place where they could hone their craft.
“Tom was the kind of guy who encouraged you to continue writing. And he brought you together with all these wonderful people.”
—Spooner Oldham
“We were just kids who hung out at the theater and the drug store. We’d go to the drug store, buy a hot dog, see a pretty girl… then go upstairs and write a song about it.”
—David Briggs
“SPAR Music was the ‘in place’ to be. Musicians, writers, wannabe soul men, all swigging cough syrup, chasing it with coca cola and having a lot of fun!”
—Norbert Putnam
Local bands the Del-Rays and the Mark V featured several SPAR Music regulars.
Rick Hall and Billy Sherrill came onto the scene in 1959, when Joiner, in his “most profound and lasting act,” introduced the pair to Stafford. The former Tune songwriters entered into a partnership with Stafford, which they christened Florence Alabama Music Enterprises (FAME), but the union didn’t last long. In mid-1960, annoyed by Hall’s ambition and work ethic, Stafford and Sherrill showed him the door.
“They would sit and talk for hours about any subject in the world. I was constantly kicking butt and taking names, trying to get the business going. I was a man on a mission.”
—Rick Hall
Hall bought the FAME name for one dollar, while Stafford and Sherrill retained the studio above the City Drug Store, along with the SPAR Music record label and most of its publishing arm. Sherrill himself left soon afterwards, however, taking a job at Sam Phillips’ newly opened Nashville studio. Within a decade, Sherrill would be the Music City’s top producer, making hits with such legendary artists as Tammy Wynette (for whom he co-wrote “Stand By Your Man”) and George Jones.
In December 1960, Stafford bought out Joiner’s share of SPAR for $900, changed the company’s name to Spartus, and enlisted two new partners, the teenaged David Briggs and Donnie Fritts. Stafford also began managing Arthur Alexander, a black singer-songwriter from Sheffield whose SPAR recording of “Sally Sue Brown” (co-written with Stafford and Peanutt Montgomery) had been released as a single on Judd Records.
“Tom was into black voices. In fact he was into it enough he went and got one when no one else was interested.”
—Dan Penn
Spartus published Alexander’s first solo composition, “You Better Move On,” in 1961, and cut a rough piano demo of the song above the City Drug Store. Recognizing both the song’s brilliance and his own limitations as a record producer, Stafford turned to his old business partner, Rick Hall, for help.
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Personnel
Owners:
• Tom Stafford (1959- )
• James Joiner (1959-1960)
• Rick Hall (1959-1960)
• Billy Sherrill (1959-1960)
• David Briggs (1960- )
• Donnie Fritts (1960- )
Writers and Musicians:
• Arthur Alexander
• Bobby Denton
• David Briggs
• Norbert Putnam
• Jerry Carrigan
• Dan Penn
• Spooner Oldham
• Donnie Fritts
• Bill Blackburn
• Peanutt Montgomery
• Terry Thompson
• Roger Hawkins
Discography
1959:
• Dan Penn, “Crazy Over You”
1960:
• Arthur Alexander, “Sally Sue Brown”
Sources:
Christopher S. Fuqua, Music Fell on Alabama (Huntsville: Honeysuckle Imprint, 1991).
Peter Guralnick, Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2015).
Charles L. Hughes, Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015).
Norbert Putnam, Music Lessons: A Musical Memoir (Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2017).
Richard Younger, Get a Shot of Rhythm and Blues: The Arthur Alexander Story (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2000).
Christopher Reali, “Helping Pave the Road to FAME: Behind the Music of Muscle Shoals,” Southern Cultures 21, no. 3 (Fall 2015): 53-74.
Terry Pace and Robert Palmer, Times Daily, August 1, 1999.