Percy Sledge

When Rick Hall opened up his record studio FAME Studios in the small town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, it became something of a rock 'n' roll myth when some of the finest music ever written began to pour out of it. Hits from the likes of Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding became international, and Hall even managed blur the distinction between white and black a little as his all-white session group, The Swampers, became deeply respected among the funk and soul artists. After the session group separated themselves from Hall, some of them set up their own studio, the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, and became the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section. From here, musicians began to shine their brightest as The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan all left that town as legends as if enchanted by the beauty of Muscle Shoals.

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Muscle Shoals was just a town in Alabama with an extraordinary habit of producing some of the finest music in the world. It started out with Rick Hall and his FAME Studios, producing hits from the likes of Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and Etta James. And not only that, even at the heart of racial distinction in America, he found the ability to join both black and white in unity over the love of soul music. Even after Hall's session group split up, some of them went to name themselves The Swampers, later becoming known as the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section when they opened the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. From here came legendary tunes from The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. So just what was it that made Muscle Shoals the must-be place for artist in the seventies?

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