Results for “Fame records”

Vintage southern soul is more popular now than at any time since its mid-60s heyday. Timeless songs and genre-defining singing enjoy an appreciation that extends way beyond hardcore devotees, and the southern soul fan club just gets bigger and bigger. The music produced by Fame Records’ founder Rick Hall and the incredible musicians, performers and songwriters who plied their trade in his studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama have contributed greatly to this growing popularity.

Although others would emerge in its wake, it was FAME Studios that put the “Muscle Shoals Sound” on the map. Artists such as Wilson Pickett, James & Bobby Purify, Arthur Conley, Clarence Carter, Candi Staton and Aretha Franklin cut some of their most important hits there in the 60s. As well as performers, Fame also cultivated the writing talents of – among others – Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, and published many of southern soul’s most revered songs.

Muscle Shoals eventually became a recording Mecca for artists from all genres of popular music, and FAME’s remit expanded to embrace Bobbie Gentry, Tom Jones, Mac Davis, Paul Anka, Liza Minnelli and – perhaps most famously – the Osmonds. These and others all made a different kind of memorable music under Rick Hall’s supervision, but it’s the incredible southern soul recordings which poured out of FAME in the 1960s upon which the studio’s reputation stands.

We’re very proud of the CDs in our Fame reissue programme. A listen to any one of the nine featured here will show why. 

“Santa Baby, slip a CD under the tree, for me…”

Yes, folks, the Season To Be Jolly is with us once again. The time of year when thoughts turn to peace on Earth, goodwill to all men and an earnest hope that those Elmore James, B.B. King and Fame Records boxed sets you’ve been hoping to own for years will be hanging in a stocking by the fireplace.

How pleasant would it be this Christmas night to slip away to the record room while the other half is watching Kill The Midwife or Strictly Christmas Specials, crack open a cold beer and crank up a seasonal helping of ‘Dust My Broom’ or ‘Sweet Sixteen’?

Who needs mince pies, port and stilton or other sundry filling when you could be gorging yourself on Ace’s Zombies boxed set, or any of our award winning Southern Soul selections? Never mind all that Dasher, Prancer and Vixen caper – bring on Carter, Jackson and Staton with music that’ll do you right all year round.

For anyone who’s stuck for an idea for a Christmas pressie suggestion, for themselves or someone else of similarly exquisite taste, we’ve made a list (and checked it twice to help you decide where to spend your record token money, in the absence of actual record tokens these days. It may be an idea to leave this webpage open and in full view of the other half if there’s been moaning that you’re difficult to buy for. Better you get that Ace T-shirt (or any of the others from our extensive range) you’ve been craving than another lurid escapee from the Val Doonican Christmas cardigan collection.

Do You Hear What I Hear? Is it the Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour 6CD set in a natty slipcase, by any chance?

If it isn’t, I guarantee that those will be your chestnuts roasting on that open fire, Santa Baby…

So, although it’s been said – many times, many ways…

GIVE (OR GET) ACE RELEASES THIS CHRISTMAS!

Memphis Soul Legends fly in for Two Exclusive European Dates in the UK. 

There weren’t many early Northern Soul venues that didn’t feature artists from the legendary Mirwood label, so it was joy to discover in 2004 that Ace had purchased the Mirwood and Mira labels, resulting in Jackie Lee’s ‘The Duck’ getting a fresh, digitalised outing on “The Mirwood Story Volume 2” along with Jimmy Conwell’s “Cigarette Ashes” and Mine Exclusively” by the Olympics. Both Lee and the Olympics also got their own solo sets on Kent along with an Afro-Blues Quintet Plus 1 release on Beat Goes Public.