Jim Stewart

Induction Year: 2002

Induction Category: Non-Performer

Inductee: Jim Stewart (record executive; born July 29, 1930)

Jim Stewart and sister Estelle Axton were the co-founders of Memphis-based Stax Records. Stax and Motown were the two most important record labels in America in terms of bringing black music into the mainstream during the Sixties and Seventies. Stax recorded some of the greatest acts in the history of soul music – , , Booker T. & the MG’s, Eddie Floyd, Johnnie Taylor and Carla Thomas among them. Even and , who were both signed to Atlantic Records, cut some of their greatest sides at Stax. If Motown was “the Sound of Young America,” then Stax/Volt was “Soulsville, U.S.A.” Between 1959 and 1975, Stax and its affiliated labels released 300 albums and 800 singles. Among the latter, 167 were bonafide hit singles.

Stewart was a country fiddle player from Middleton, Tennessee. He moved to Memphis with musical ambition, joining the Canyon Cowboys while making his living as a bank employee. His sister Estelle – who worked for another bank in Memphis – became an equal partner with Stewart in the Satellite label, launched in 1957 on the model of fellow Memphis label Sun Records. Satellite scored a hit in 1960 with its third release, “Gee Whiz” (#5 R&B, #10 pop), by Carla Thomas. When the Mar-Keys’ instrumental “Last Night” became a national hit in 1961, it was discovered that there was another label with the same name in California. To avoid litigation, the Memphis-based Satellite became Stax (deriving from the names STewart and AXton).

By this time, after a tip from local producer Chips Moman, Stewart and Axton had taken over an old movie theater at East McLemore and College streets in Memphis. Neighborhood musicians began hanging around 932 E. McLemore Avenue, including organist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn and drummer Al Jackson, Jr. Thus, Stax acquired a peerless house band that also came to include the renowned Memphis Horns (Andrew Love, Wayne Jackson and Joe Arnold).

Stax signed such artists as , who recorded for the sister label Volt from 1962 until his death in 1967. A distribution deal with Atlantic Records resulted in the larger, New York-based company sending some of its premier soul acts to record at Stax. (That same deal also gave ownership of Stax’s master recordings to Atlantic, which became a sticking point when the deal came up for renewal in 1967.) Stewart, who was involved in many aspects of the company’s operation, also brought to the label local songwriters and David Porter. Hayes and Porter became Stax’s equivalent to Motown’s Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team. In 1965, Stewart made a key hire, appointing Al Bell - a popular black deejay from Washington, D.C. – Stax’s national sales director.

Stax thrived during the Sixties and early Seventies, generating an awesome string of soul and R&B hits with their bread-and-butter artists – , , Carla Thomas, Booker T. and the MG’s – while breaking such acts as Eddie Floyd (“Knock On Wood,” “Raise Your Hand”), Johnnie Taylor (“Who’s Making Love”), (“I’ll Take You There,” “Respect Yourself”), Jean Knight (“Mr. Big Stuff”), the Emotions (“So I Can Love You”), Mel and Tim (“Starting All Over Again”), the Soul Children (“I’ll Be the Other Woman”) and William Bell (“I Forgot to Be Your Lover”). Even comedian Richard Pryor was a Stax artist, having been signed to the label’s Partee subsidiary. House songwriter and sideman became a star in his own right with a series of albums released on Stax’s Enterprise subsidiary, including the #1 Shaft soundtrack.

Jim Stewart sold his interest in Stax to Al Bell in 1972, and the company continued until forced into bankruptcy in 1976. Interest in the label and its legacy were rekindled in the Nineties with the release of three massive box sets, comprising 28 CDs between them, that include every single released on Stax and its subsidiaries. In April 2001, further recognition of Stax’s legacy came in the form of a groundbreaking for the Stax Museum of American Music and the adjoining Stax Academy and Performing Arts Center on East McLemore Avenue in Memphis. “It’s been a long time coming,” guitarist Steve Cropper noted with understatement.

The label begun by Jim Stewart back in the late Fifties is finally being recognized as a priceless institution that contributed substantially to America’s musical culture.

TIMELINE

July 29, 1930: Jim Stewart is born in Middleton, Tennessee.

1957: Jim Stewart borrows some recording equipment and learns the basics of running a small independent label from his barber, Erwin Ellis.

1958: Jim Stewart launches Satellite Records, the precursor of Stax Records, in Memphis. Satellite’s first release is “Blue Roses,” a country and western song by Fred Bylar.

February 6, 1961: Jim Stewart’s Satellite label has its first hit with Carla Thomas’s “Gee Whiz” (#5 R&B, #10 pop), which is quickly picked up for national release by Atlantic Records.

July 7, 1961: “Last Night,” by the Mar-Keys enters the national charts, where it will peak at #3 pop, #2 R&B. It is the last single released on Jim Stewart’s Satellite Records, which thereafter becomes Stax Records when it comes to light there is another Satellite Records in California.

September 12, 1962: Stax Records has its first #1 hit with “Green Onions,” by Booker T. & the MG’s, which tops the R&B chart for four weeks. It peaks at #3 on the pop chart.

November 8, 1962: The first album on Stax Records – ‘Green Onions,’ by Booker T. & the MG’s – is released.

March 16, 1968: “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” by , reaches #1 for the first of four weeks. Recorded three days before Redding’s death in a plane crash, it is the biggest hit from the Stax Records label group, appearing on Volt.

1968: Memphis recording studios are generating $30 million a year. Two-thirds of the business is attributed to Stax Records.

May 17, 1968: After unsuccessfully negotiating a new contract with Atlantic Records, Jim Stewart sells Stax Records to Gulf + Western.

July 1, 1970: Jim Stewart and partner Al Bell purchase Stax Records back from Gulf + Western, determined to run it themselves.

November 20, 1971: ’ “Theme from ‘Shaft’” becomes the second Stax single to top the national charts.

June 3, 1972: ’ “I’ll Take You There” becomes the third Stax single to top the national charts.

October 8, 1972: Jim Stewart sells his interest in Stax Records to Al Bell, the company’s national sales director and de facto chief.

January 12, 1976: A bankruptcy judge orders the closing of Stax Records.

1977: Stax Records’ assets and master recordings are sold to the Berkeley, California-based Fantasy Records.

December 9, 1978: The final single released on the Stax label, the Bar-Kays’ “Holy Ghost,” enters the R&B chart, where it will reach #9.

1991: The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, 1959-1968, a nine-CD box set, is released.

1993: The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 2: 1968-1971, a nine-CD box set, is released.

1995: The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3: 1972-1975, a ten-CD box set, is released.

April 2001: Ground is broken on the Stax Museum of American Music in Memphis.

March 18, 2002: Jim Stewart is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the seventeenth annual induction dinner. Sam Moore and Steve Cropper are his presenters.

Recommended Reading

Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records.
Rob Bowman. New York: Music Sales Corporation, 2001.

“Stax/Volt.”
Bill Dahl. Goldmine (September 20, 1991): 18+.

The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, 1959-1968
Atlantic Records, 1991. (Note: Rob Bowman�s accompanying monograph provide a detailed overview of Stax Records.)

The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 2: 1968-1971
Stax Records, 1993. (Note: Rob Bowman�s accompanying monograph provide a detailed overview of Stax Records.)

The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3: 1972-1975
Stax Records, 1995. (Note: Rob Bowman�s accompanying monograph provide a detailed overview of Stax Records.)