Tuesday Tunes 160: Muscle Shoals

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When I was researching for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday post, the prompt for which was to play something recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals Studio, I saw quite a lot of others I could have chosen. That gave me an idea: why not play some more of them for my Tuesday Tunes post this week? So here we are – five more songs that were recorded there.

As is my wont I’m mixing them up a bit, and I guess that three of these may be familiar to you while the other two might not. I’m starting with one of those two:

I love the surprise ending to that! Take a Letter Maria was the debut single written and recorded by the American soul singer R. B. Greaves. It was recorded at Muscle Shoals on August 19, 1969, using the house studio musicians, and was released as a single in September 1969. It soon started getting regular airplay and peaked at #2 in the US, #3 in Canada, and #6 in Australia, but wasn’t a hit in the UK – he has never made our charts. It must have got some airplay, though, as I know the song. There have been several cover versions but I don’t think I’ve heard them. The record went Gold in the US, and sold more than 2.5m copies. It was also the first big hit to come out of the newly formed studio, setting them up rather nicely.

In December 1969 The Rolling Stones recorded three tracks at Muscle Shoals, which then became part of their next album, Sticky Fingers. I wanted to play you Brown Sugar, but the song has been mired in controversy of late, so I thought better of it. The other two were You Gotta Move and the one I’m playing. This is an acoustic version, but just as good as their original take:

Wild Horses is a beautiful song, and has always been one of my Stones favourites. Sticky Fingers was released in April 1971, and topped the charts in the UK, the US, and in loads of other countries too. It has sold more than 3m copies in the US and 300k in the UK. Remember that cheeky cover, with the zip that actually worked? Nothing underneath it though, on my copy anyway. Wild Horses was released as a single in N America in June 1971, making #28 in the US and #11 in Canada. It wasn’t a single here at that time, but subsequent re-releases have seen it clock up more than 400k UK sales.

Another Brit to have made a record at Muscle Shoals almost as soon as the studio started was Lulu, our favourite pop poppet. The album was called New Routes, and this is one of its tracks:

There are so many recordings of Mr Bojangles, but I think this is one of the nicest I’ve heard. Really sweet vocals and a nice arrangement. The song was written by American country singer Jerry Jeff Walker, who had a minor US hit – #77 – with it in 1968. The big chart version was the one by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band , who took it to #9 in 1970. There’s even a version on a Bob Dylan album. Lulu’s album was released in January 1970 and reached #88 in the US but didn’t chart anywhere else. This one wasn’t released by her as a single, but given the NGDB’s success later that year maybe her record company missed a trick?

Rod Stewart also recorded at Muscle Shoals, for his album Atlantic Crossing. This is the official live performance of one of its tracks:

Atlantic Crossing was released in August 1975, making #1 in the UK and Australia and #9 in the US. It marked a break from his previous pattern, as it was the first record he made without his old mates from The Faces and the usual studio crew, and eventually brought about his departure from the band in late 1975, following a tour during which the others told him how much they disliked his new musical direction! It isn’t one of his biggest sellers: just the 500k copies in the US and 300k in the UK. I Don’t Want To Talk About It was released in March 1977 as part of a double A-side single with The First Cut Is The Deepest, topping the UK chart but only making #46 in the US. I’ve always quite liked it, but wouldn’t rate it as one of his best: it is still a popular part of his live shows, though, so what do I know!

Having talked myself out of a rocker to start this set, I thought I’d find one slightly more upbeat than the others to close today. Who knew that this guy had recorded at Muscle Shoals:

Kodachrome was the opening track on Paul Simon’s third solo album, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, which was released in May 1973 (the video is wrong!) and got to #2 in the US and #4 in the UK. This was another of those albums that formed a big part of the soundtrack to my uni days, being released just before the end of my first year there. The song was released at the same time as the lead single from the album, peaking at #2 in the US. It wasn’t a single at the time in the UK or Australia, both of which had national broadcasters who banned songs featuring trademarked names in their title. Dear old BBC! The record company got round this by releasing it as the B-side to the single of Take Me To The Mardi Gras, which reached #7 here. The UK was the only country in which that song was a hit: with that B-side it isn’t difficult to see why, is it!

That’s all for this week. I enjoyed putting these together, as it gave me a chance to widen my musical knowledge, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them too. I’ll see you again in a couple of days so, until then, have a great week 😊

41 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 160: Muscle Shoals”

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  4. Forgot about the song , “Take a Letter..” until I heard it. A blast from the past. This is the day for old songs apparently. LOL! I had all the old country songs going through my head from my post and now this, and Mr Bogjangles.
    I do like Lulu’s voice, but prefer the Nitty Gritty Band version. Probably just because that’s what I am used to. 🙂
    Enjoyed the other songs too. Great selection. Happy Tuesday!

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  5. Gotta agree with your assessment of a lot of Lulu’s 60s stuff as twee- ‘Boom Bang A Bang??’- but she has/had a great voice behind all the commercial oom pah pah brass and boom boom booming drums. She CAN sing.
    ‘Take Me To The Mardi Gras’ is pretty good too; a lot of good songs today, as usual.
    R. B. Greaves deserved more than the one hit, but that’s show biz folks.

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  6. I have always loved Take a Letter Maria and am a huge Lulu fan. That is one of my favourite Rod Stewart songs too. And you can’t go wrong with the Paul Simon song or the Rolling Stones tune. I guess it’s 5 for 5 this week!!

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  7. Manwhile, I hope you don’t mind, but LuLu’s version of Mr. Bojangles was too whitewashed for me. I thought about playing Sammy Davis Jr. for you, whose version I first knew, but I settled for this version, because the happy music so contrasted with the sad lyrics it always makes me cry.

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      • She kind of had two voices: the raucous one for hits like Shout, and a more regular one for other pop hits, like The Boat That I Row. A lot of her stuff was quite twee, but who cared – she was gorgeous! She also had a duet hit with Ronan Keating on a cover of Seger’s We’ve Got Tonight. But a recommendation would be this one. She was invited to do it by Bowie, who thought her voice would be right for it. The story is that he kept encouraging her to smoke more during the session to get her vocals the way he wanted. Got to #3 here: https://youtu.be/TyFAnA9oPRE

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      • You’ll probably find that most of her stuff is very sixties pop. Try Shout – it should at least clear any earwax out! There are quite a few videos of her on YouTube – have fun!

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      • Absolutely! That was the time I grew into music and is still my favourite decade. I think we were spoiled, compared with all the crap that passes for music these days.

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      • Spoiled? Certainly. But we who were there were given great gifts by great performers, the likes of which may never be given to our childen’s children’s children ever again, unless the human race decides to do something worthwhile for all living beings, or exit stage left becsuse we as a people are unable to come together to create a paradise on earth.

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      • It was a fabulous decade for music, wasn’t it. You’re probably right on the future, sadly. Good Moody Blues reference that you sneaked in there 👍

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  10. Take a Letter Maria was instantly recognizable, even though I haven’t heard it in decades. I was 10 when it came out.

    I’m not a big Stones guy, but I really like this one. I like the acoustic version of some songs better than the original version. This is one that fits that bill.

    First time I’ve heard this version of Mr. Bojangles. I’m not familiar with Lulu, other than to say that is the name of our yellow lab. 😊

    First time I’ve heard this Rod Stewart song. Thumbs up.

    I think this is one of Paul Simon’s best tracks—great lyrics.

    By the way, I’m much more likely to listen to all the songs when you limit it to five. Good decision, Clive.

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    • Take A Letter has that feel about it, doesn’t it. I’m nit surprised it was a huge hit there – more surprising that it wasn’t here.

      This is one of the Stones’ best for me, and I agree on acoustic versions: this one is really good.

      Lulu was a big star here, having a string of hits that started with Shout, in 1964 when she was only 15. She had a #1 there in 1967 with the theme from the Sidney Poitier movie, To Sir With Love. Was married to Maurice Gibb for a while. I rather like her version of this one.

      I’m surprised you didn’t know the Rod Stewart one – maybe you had to have the album, as it only just crept into the top 50 over there. Glad you like it.

      I agree on the Paul Simon one too. If the BBC hadn’t banned it for advertising I think ‘crap’ in the first verse would have had the same effect – things were quite prudish here in those days!

      Thanks for confirming you prefer the reduction to five songs. It works better for me, too 👍

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