Big Leather Couch

In 1957 Jim Stewart started a record company in Tennessee. He named his baby Satellite Records.

In 1958, Stewart's sister Estelle became involved by making a financial contribution in the company and they moved their studios from Brunswick, TN to an old movie theater, The Capitol Theater at 926 East McLemore Avenue in Memphis.

The first successful artists for Satellite was Rufus and Carla Thomas, a father-daughter duo. Their sound attracted the attention of Atlantic Records and Stewart made a deal allowing Atlantic the right of first refusal on distribution of Satellite artists. At that time, the records would be distributed under the Atlantic or Atco label.

That changed in 1961 with the release of the MAR-KAYS hit "Last Night" which was released nationally using the Satellite Records label. The result of this was Stewart learning of another Satellite Records out of California.

The label was renamed using a combination of Jim and Estelle's last names Stewart and Axton and thus was born STAX RECORDS.


Within a few months, pianist Booker T. Jones joined the label and combined his talents with some members of the Mar-Kays forming BOOKER T AND THE MEMPHIS GROUP. This was shortened to BOOKER T AND THE MGS. The band exemplified the southern style of soul Stewart was hoping to achieve and besides recording on their own, they became the house band for Stax Records. Besides Booker, the band included Lewie Steinberg on bass (later replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn), Al Jackson, Jr. on drums and Steve Cropper on guitar.

Jerry Wexler, co-founder of Atlantic Records became enamored with the sound being recorded out of Memphis and learned that it had come totally by accident. When Stewart converted the movie theater into a recording studio, they had removed all of the seats, but the floor was still sloped and this contributed to the unique sound of Stax.

In 1965 they signed a formal deal becoming the sole national distributor of Stax Records. Atlantic Records also began sending their artists down to Memphis to record. Wilson Pickett recorded many of his hits there, though they were distributed on the Atlantic label. Conversely, the duo of Sam & Dave were "leased" to the Stax label which oversaw their recordings and their records were distributed under the Stax logo.


At that time Motown Records would combine their acts and send them out on the road together in 'revues'. Stax infrequently used this practice. Their first attempt as doing so was almost a disaster. In the summer of 1965 the revue began in Los Angeles, CA. The next day the Watts Riots occurred, trapping several Stax artists in Watts during the violence.

The label did sponsor a Christmas show each year in Memphis. The most notorious of these shows occurred in 1968 when a drunk Janis Joplin appeared and was booed off the stage. The most successful Stax package revue was a tour of England and France in 1967. Playing to sold-out crowds across western Europe, Stax released several live albums from the tour recordings, including the best-selling Otis Live In Europe.

After the payola scandals of the late 50's, many radio stations, hoping to avoid the appearance of favoritism, adopted a policy not to introduce more than one or two new songs from the same label at the same time. As other labels did, Stax formed subsidiary labels to continue to get their artists heard. These included Enterprise, Chalice, Hip, Safice and the most famous, Volt which was the home for Otis Redding.

As the 60's went on Stax and its subsidiaries were producing many hits. The songwriting team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter was a major contributor to this success.

In 1967 everything changed for Jim and Estelle and for the Stax label. Atlantic was sold to Warner-Seven Arts which immediately activated a clause in the Stax-Atlantic contract calling for a renegotiation.

Warner quickly pointed out to Jim Stewart that he had signed away the rights to all of the master recordings to the Stax-Atlantic released material when he signed the deal with Atlantic Records. Warner refused to renegotiate the deal or to return the masters which forced Stewart to sell his company to Gulf & Western. Estelle left the company, but Jim stayed on under the new ownership.

Stax had to continue on without the meat of their releases and without Sam & Dave who stayed with Atlantic Records. If things were not bad enough, Otis Redding and a good portion of the Mar-Lays were killed in a plane crash in December of 1967.

When the Atlantic distribution deal expired in 1968 Atlantic briefly marketed Stax/Volt recordings made after the split. These recordings feature the alternate Stax/Volt logos used on the album covers on their labels, as opposed to the original Atlantic-era logos, such as the "Stax-o-wax" logo. Stax label recordings were reissued on the Atlantic label, and Volt label material on the Atco label. Gulf and Western-owned Stax/Volt releases used new label designs, new logos (including the recognizable finger snapping logo) and new catalogue numbering systems to avoid confusion among the record distributors.


Stax continued on as an independent label and had their first hit with Johnny Taylor's "Who's Making Love" in 1968. Isaac Hayes also scored a hit with "Hot Buttered Soul" in 1969 and became the biggest star on the label by 1971 when the soundtrack to the movie "Shaft" was released. All of Hayes' music was released on a subsidiary label Enterprise Records formed in 1967.


Unfortunately Gulf & Western did a lousy job of marketing for Stax and record sales sagged.

In 1970 Stewart and Al Bell purchased the label and Stewart sank most of his personal fortune into the label to try and keep it afloat.

Bell began signing mainly black artists and even formed another subsidiary, Partee Records to sign comedy artists like Richard Pryor and Moms Mabley.

When the STAPLES SINGERS moved from Gospel to R&B, they began producing hits for the label and one of its original stars Rufus Thomas had a resurgence during the 70's.