Stax Records: Memphis' Soulsville USA

Brother and sister Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton started Satellite Records in 1957. Their offices and recording studio were in a converted movie theater at 926 East McLemore Avenue, in a residential neighborhood just south of downtown Memphis.

Satellite's first hits, both from 1961, were "Gee Whiz" by Carla Thomas, daughter of WDIA deejay Rufus Thomas, and "Last Night" by the Mar-Keys.

I was eight that summer, and "Gee Whiz" was about girls, and love; big-kid stuff. "Last Night," however, stood out among the moon-June songs that still ruled the hit parade. The drummer, the organist, and the sax guy all got a chance to show what they could do, and the results practically leaped from transistor radio speakers.

Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton later learned that there was already a record company in California called "Satellite." They renamed theirs "Stax," using the first two letters of their surnames.

In 1962, Stax hit with another instrumental that was fun to hum along with. The 45 label said "Green Onions - Booker T. and the MGs." I would soon learn that organist Booker T. Jones, lead guitarist Steve Cropper, and drummer Al Jackson, had been Mar-Keys; and that "MG" meant "Memphis Group."

Liner notes on Stax albums later revealed that Donald "Duck" Dunn, the bass guitarist on "Last Night," had replaced Lee Steinberg in the MGs, and that what sounded like a horn section was actually trumpeter Wayne Jackson and tenor sax man Andrew Love. This lineup became the Stax house band, playing on dozens of songs that, forty years later, are in heavy rotation on oldies and classic soul stations. They still sound great on an AM car radio.