Rick Hall
RICK HALL
Recognized as the “Father of Muscle Shoals Music,” producer, publisher, songwriter, musician, and studio owner Rick Hall (1932-2018) founded FAME Studios and produced the Muscle Shoals music industry’s first national hits. He recorded artists ranging from Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Clarence Carter, Etta James, and Candi Staton to Mac Davis, Bobbie Gentry, the Osmonds, Paul Anka, and Shenandoah.
Born in Mississippi, Hall began his music career playing fiddle with the Country Pals. The popular group performed at square dances and even hosted its own weekly radio show from Hamilton, Alabama. Hall scored his first songwriting successes when George Jones recorded his song “Aching Breaking Heart” and Brenda Lee cut “She’ll Never Know.”
Recognized as the “Father of Muscle Shoals Music,” producer, publisher, songwriter, musician, and studio owner Rick Hall (1932-2018) founded FAME Studios and produced the Muscle Shoals music industry’s first national hits. He recorded artists ranging from Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Clarence Carter, Etta James, and Candi Staton to Mac Davis, Bobbie Gentry, the Osmonds, Paul Anka, and Shenandoah.
Born in Mississippi, Rick began his music career playing fiddle with the Country Pals. The popular group performed at square dances and even hosted its own weekly radio show from Hamilton, Alabama. Hall scored his first songwriting successes when George Jones recorded his song “Aching Breaking Heart” and Brenda Lee cut “She’ll Never Know.”
Hall and musician Billy Sherrill became songwriting partners and formed their own rock ’n’ roll and R&B band, the Fairlanes. After Roy Orbison cut the Hall/Sherrill song “Sweet and Innocent” in 1959, they partnered with Tom Stafford to launch a new publishing company – Florence Alabama Music Enterprises (FAME) – above the City Drug Store in downtown Florence. In 1960 the partnership dissolved and Hall took the publishing company to Muscle Shoals, where he established his own studio in a tobacco warehouse on Wilson Dam Road. A year later, Hall produced “You Better Move On,” written and recorded by Sheffield singer and hotel bellhop Arthur Alexander. The single climbed to No. 24 on the pop charts in 1962, giving Hall the proceeds to custom-build his all-new FAME Recording Studios on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals.
His national success continued with Tommy Roe’s “Everybody,” the Tams’ “What Kind of a Fool Do You Think I Am?,” Jimmy Hughes’ “Steal Away,” Joe Simon’s “Let’s Do It Over,” and Joe Tex’s “Hold What You’ve Got.”
Forging an alliance with Atlantic Records in 1966, Hall’s reputation grew as a white Southern producer who could produce and engineer hits with black soul singers. Soul classics recorded at FAME include Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1,000 Dances,” “Mustang Sally,” and “Funky Broadway;” James and Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet;” Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)” and “Do Right Woman (Do Right Man);” Clarence Carter’s “Slip Away” and “Patches”; Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music;” and Otis Redding’s “You Left the Water Running.” Hall also produced Etta James’ signature tune, “Tell Mama,” for the Chicago-based Chess Records.
In the 1970s, Hall shifted into the world of mainstream pop, recording hits for the Osmonds (“One Bad Apple,” “Double Lovin,’” and “Yo-Yo”) and Donny Osmond (“Go Away, Little Girl”). He also produced Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy,” Mac Davis’ “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me” and Paul Anka’s No. 1 smash “You’re Having My Baby.” Billboard named him Producer of the Year in 1971. Hall produced Mac Davis’ country-pop crossover hits “Texas in My Rear-View Mirror” and “Hooked on Music” followed by two No. 1 hits by Jerry Reed, “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)” and “The Bird.”
Working with co-producer Robert Byrne, Hall developed the Muscle Shoals band Shenandoah into one of the most successful country acts of the 1980s. The group topped the charts with “Mama Knows,” “The Church on Cumberland Road,” “Sunday in the South,” “Moon Over Georgia,” and “Ghost in This House.”
Hall’s publishing company became a dominant force in country music with some of the era’s biggest hits, from Ronnie Milsaps’s “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me” and Ricky Van Shelton’s “(I Am) A Simple Man” to the country-pop crossover smash “I Swear” (recorded by John Michael Montgomery and All 4-One) and Tim McGraw’s “I Like It, I Love It.” Moving into the 21st century, Hall recorded several songs with the country supergroup Alabama for its When It All Goes South anniversary album.
Since 2000 FAME Publishing has had cuts on the Dixie Chicks, George Strait, Joe Diffie, Martina McBride, Travis Tritt, Sara Evans, Cyndi Thomson, Aaron Tippin, Billy Ray Cyrus, Alabama, John Michael Montgomery, Chris Ledoux, Perfect Stranger, 3 of Hearts, Chad Brock, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Michael Peterson, Kristin Garner, T. Graham Brown, Wild Horses, and Kenny Chesney. In 2007, Hall reactivated his FAME Records label through a distribution deal with EMI that combined new material by FAME artists with reissues of classic recordings from Muscle Shoals’ Southern soul heyday.
Hall was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985. His life and career are profiled in the award-winning 2013 documentary film Muscle Shoals. Hall received a Grammy Trustees Award in 2014 for his significant contributions to the field of recording.
Sources:
Rick Hall, The Man from Muscle Shoals (Monterey: Heritage Builders, 2015).
Carla Jean Whitley, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio (Charleston: The History Press, 2014).