Rock: Memphis 1960s Overview

Having made an enormous impact in the 1950s, Sam Phillips and Sun Records largely faded away by 1960, but other labels and studios kept Memphis, Tenn., on the musical map. Joe Cuoghi’s Hi Records label had several instrumental hits from 1959 through 1962 with the combo led by Elvis Presley’s bass player Bill Black, but Hi’s greatest influence came some 10 years later, through Willie Mitchell’s productions with Al Green and others. Former Muscle Shoals session man Chips Moman set up American Sound Studios, where Dan Penn produced a series of national hits by the Box Tops (for Bell Records of New York City) and where Elvis Presley recorded his career-reviving album From Elvis in Memphis in 1969. But for most of the decade the dominant label and studio in the city was Stax Records, the bastion of Southern soul music.