Otis Redding
Sam Moore and his singing partner Dave Prater helped put Stax Records on the map with their string of top hits in the 1960s. Their powerful performances inspired their nicknames of Double Dynamite and The Sultans of Sweat. They began recording together in 1965 and helped redefine soul music of the...
Joyce Moore has been encouraged by many friends and family members for years to write a book. After her NAMM interview, we concluded the same thing. Joyce was there when Jackie Wilson recorded “Higher and Higher.” She had an onboard tour of the very plane that crashed two months later, killing Otis...
Karla Redding-Andrew’s father, Otis Redding, committed himself early on in his short career to philanthropy. The soul legend started a camp inviting 600 school students to learn about music and the arts back in 1966. Otis also awarded scholarships to young students and after his untimely death in...
Bobby Brooks Wilson is the son of famed soul singer, Jackie Wilson, but he didn’t always know that. Bobby grew up loving music and only found out who his biological father was after so many people told him that he looked and sounded just like him! After serving in the US Navy, Bobby started his...
Al Bell was in the Stax recording studio in Memphis at the very moment Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed just a few blocks away. Ironically, the recording Al was producing at that time was a song he wrote encouraging Dr. King, whom he had known for years, to be cautious carrying...
Allee Willis wrote a number of successful songs that have become part of the fabric of pop music. Allee either wrote or co-wrote songs such as “September” by Earth Wind & Fire, the theme for the sitcom Friends entitled “I’ll Be there for You,” the Broadway musical The Color Purple, and "Neutron...
William Bell began singing in doo-wop groups before signing for Stax Records in Memphis, which is where his first hit was recorded. In fact that song, "You Don't Miss Your Water" was also the first big hit for the newly formed record label that would go on to redefine soul music. William wrote...
Bobby Guitar Bennett was among the pioneering musicians who proved that Fender Stratocaster was the perfect instrument for the blues. Mr. Fender designed his electric guitar for country music and it was soon used by early rock and roll artists such as Buddy Holly, however it was Guitar Bennett and...
Floyd Newman is among the most noted studio musicians from the early days of Stax Records in Memphis. As a saxophonist, Floyd became an integral part of the studio band at Stax Records known as the Mar-Keys. He was also a member of the famed Memphis Horns group, which was formed by Wayne Jackson...
James Alexander reformed his band, the Bar-Kays following the plane crash that took the lives of three members, and singer Otis Redding. The new band was created in tribute to those killed with the help of Ben Cauley, the only survivor of the crash (James was on a second plane) and singer Larry...