Up until 1967, Rick Hall relied mainly on artists he signed to FAME Records, plus artists signed to Atlantic Records, brought to the Shoals by Jerry Wexler, to fill the bulk of the studio time. When Wexler withdrew his artists following the altercation with Rick Hall over the behaviour of one of the FAME session band, Hall had to change the formula.
Clarence Carter and Candi Staton were the two mainstays of the next few years, singers on whom Hall could build the FAME brand. But he needed more. The answer was to attract visitors such as Etta James and Solomon Burke, both of whom had a strong profile in the music industry and could therefore add to FAME’s reputation.
Solomon Burke 1967
Atlantic Records Trade Ad (Wikimedia Commons)
Solomon Burke had signed to Atlantic Records in 1960 and had benefitted from working with Jerry Wexler. He recorded thirty-two singles, most of which had entered the Pop and R&B charts and had achieved two big R&B hits in 1965 with “Got to Get You Off My Mind”, which went to number one, and “Tonight’s the Night”, which reached number two. In subsequent years, the successes tailed off, as Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin became the big R&B stars at Atlantic.
Wexler did not bring Solomon Burke to Muscle Shoals, as he did Pickett and Franklin. Instead, Burke took the initiative and went to Chips Moman’s American Sound Studio in Memphis in search of inspiration. He later decided to leave Atlantic and join Bell Records, working with his new manager Tamiko Jones, whom he met at American Sound.
Together they came to FAME Studios in 1969 to record an album, which they co-produced, called “Proud Mary”. The selection of songs for the album covers a range of styles and sources, but there are three tracks from local songwriters, with a Muscle Shoals signature sound. The opening track is a John Fogerty song “Proud Mary”, which Creedence Clearwater Revival had released in 1968. It features a strong horn section, playing Memphis style. Track two is the Otis Redding song “These Arms of Mine” from 1962, sung in a similar style to Otis, backed by melodic horns and organ in typical Muscle Shoals fashion. That is followed by “I’ll Be Doggone”, written by Marv Tarplin, Warren Moore and Smokey Robinson at Motown and released by Marvin Gaye in 1965. Burke’s version features a country-style guitar line and a touch of harmonica, which are more Nashville than Detroit. Solomon Burke was clearly not afraid to follow in the footsteps of some great singers!
Track four, “How Big A Fool (Can A Fool Be), is a song written by Solomon Burke himself, with strong echoes of Motown. Side A is completed by “Don’t Wait Too Long”, a song written by FAME’s Mickey Buckins, who was sound engineer on the album. Buckins’ inspiration was probably Otis Redding; the song is a Soul classic, which shows the power of Burke’s voice.
The B-side combines two songs by FAME songwriters with some older songs. “That Lucky Old Sun” is a ballad written by Beasley Smith and Haven Gillespie in 1949, given the Solomon Burke power treatment. The next two tracks are home-grown. “Uptight Good Woman”, written by Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham and Jimmy Johnson, and “I Can’t Stop (No, No, No), written by Dan Penn and Roger Hawkins, are typical FAME songs, one slow and one up-tempo. The first was recorded in 1967 by Wilson Pickett. The second was recorded by Arthur Conley in 1966. They are two more classics of the Muscle Shoals sound.
“Please Send Me Someone to Love” is a slow Blues ballad first recorded by Percy Mayfield in 1950, released on Specialty Records. It went to number one on the R&B chart. The final song is “What Am I Living For”, written by Fred Jay and Art Harris, which also went to number one on the R&B chart in 1958, sung by Chuck Willis. Ernest Tubb released a Country version of the song in 1959, followed by a Pop version from Conway Twitty in 1960. The song acquired some R&B pedigree in 1967, when Percy Sledge recorded his version, probably the inspiration for Solomon Burke.
In an interview with Roger Catlin in the Hartford Courant in 1996, Burke described how he first used the term Soul music. A journalist had asked him what kind of singer he wanted to be. Burke’s answer was: “I want to be a soul singer”. He wanted his music to be inspirational and gospel based. Given his background in the church, that was understandable. Many people in the church regarded Blues and R&B as the music of the Devil, and Burke wasn’t the first to face this problem. Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin had similar misgivings about getting involved in secular music. For all three, and many others, the solution was to sing from the soul.
Solomon Burke never attained the heights achieved by Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, but he was a prolific and influential talent. His recording at FAME Studios is a powerful addition to the FAME discography, highlighting the musical abilities of the FAME session men and demonstrating to many other artists that a visit to Muscle Shoals could bring rewards.
Solomon Burke 2008
Photo: Tom Beetz (Wikimedia Commons)
Three singles were released from the album, all of which entered the American Charts. In February 1969 “Uptight Good Woman” reached number one hundred and sixteen on the Pop chart and number forty-seven on the R&B chart. In May, “Proud Mary” did better, rising to number forty-five Pop and number fifteen R&B. Finally in July, “That Lucky Old Sun” went to number one hundred and twenty-nine
