The roots of an R&B revolution: What year was Stax Records founded?
In the modern musical age, it is difficult to imagine a grassroots independent label operating out of a garage, challenging the position of any of the three major record companies. Back in the 1950s-era Memphis, Tennessee, however, that is just what Stax Records set out to do.
A hugely transformative age for music and popular culture, the 1950s saw the birth of youth culture through the emergence of styles like R&B, rockabilly, and rock and roll.
At the time, though, major record labels weren’t quite so receptive to those trailblazing sounds. In fact, rock and roll – perhaps the most enduring, influential, and important musical genre of the 20th century – was deemed little more than a passing fad during the early 1950s. As such, it was down to small, independent record labels to lead the way.
Inevitably, once those small labels started shifting some stock, the major labels suddenly adopted the prevailing R&B and rock sounds, launching a plethora of now-iconic stars, from Elvis Presley to Little Richard. In turn, though, the saturation of that blossoming scene birthed even more record labels, including a Memphis-based operation originally known as Satellite Records.
Originally founded by budding young music mogul Jim Stewart, with the financial support of his sister, Estelle Axton, Satellite was a shoestring operation run out of a garage, and the label’s early releases largely consisted of rockabilly and country music songs. If you have never heard of Satellite, or any of its early releases, do not worry; you are probably in the majority. It wasn’t until Stewart and Axton became exposed to the revolutionary sounds of R&B that the operation started to gain traction.
It was in 1959 that the label made its first jaunt into the world of R&B, releasing the doo-wop single ‘Fool In Love’ by the short-lived Memphis vocal group Veltones. Although the record didn’t make a huge dent in the musical mainstream of the time, it was enough to land Satellite on the radar of local musician and radio DJ, Rufus Thomas. Along with his daughter, Carla Thomas, the pair became Satellite’s flagship acts, earning the independent label some minor hits during the late 1950s.
With those early successes, Stewart and Axton graduated from their garage headquarters into an old cinema in the heart of Memphis, signing a distribution deal with Atlantic Records. That deal was essential in boosting the power and notoriety of the Memphis label, and helped to earn Satellite a number of nationwide hits, mod favourite ‘Last Night’ by The Mar-Keys being a particularly notable example.
Although this newfound success helped to establish Satellite on the nationwide scene, it did also dredge up a few issues. Namely, there was another record label based out of California who were also operating under the Satellite name, unaware of their Memphis counterparts. A name change was in order for Stewart and Axton’s label, so they made the strange choice to smash their surnames together to rechristen the label Stax Records in 1961.
The rest, as they say, is history. Stax Records went on to help define the R&B and soul sounds of the 1960s, producing a wealth of utterly iconic stars, including the likes of Otis Redding, the aforementioned Carla Thomas, and, of course, Isaac Hayes, too. In fact, the label is still in operation to this day, affirming its position among the most influential and enduring record labels of all time. Not too shabby for something which started in a dingy garage in late 1950s Tennessee.
