Stax Records

History

Stax Records began as Satellite Records in Memphis in 1957, founded by Jim Stewart, initially operating in a garage. Early releases were country, rockabilly, or pop, reflecting Stewart's tastes as a country fiddle player. In 1958, Stewart's sister Estelle Axton began her financial interest, mortgaging her home to invest and enabling the purchase of an Ampex 350 mono console tape recorder. The company set up a small recording studio in a converted garage near National Cemetery in Brunswick, Tennessee, in 1959.

Stewart later recalled, 'I don't even remember the address. We didn't have any sound equipment or anything else but a small building and a lot of desire.' Around this time, staff producer Chips Moman introduced Stewart to rhythm and blues. In summer 1959, Satellite released its first R&B record, 'Fool in Love' by the Veltones, picked up for national distribution by Mercury Records.

While promoting it, Stewart met Memphis disc jockey and R&B singer Rufus Thomas. At Moman's urging, Stewart moved the company back to Memphis into the former Capitol Theatre at 926 East McLemore Avenue in South Memphis. Stewart chose the building because 'it was in the area close to where Rufus Thomas (WDIA Radio disk jockey) lived [alongside] several of the other musicians and writers that are still working with the studio today.' In summer 1960, Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla recorded 'Cause I Love You' there, which became a substantial regional hit, picked up by Atlantic Records on its Atco subsidiary, selling between thirty and forty thousand copies.

With that success, Stewart made a distribution deal giving Atlantic first choice on releasing Satellite recordings. In June 1961, Satellite signed the Royal Spades, who changed their name to the Mar-Keys and released 'Last Night,' which shot to No. 3 on the US pop chart and No. 2 on the R&B chart. After a complaint from another company named Satellite Records, the label permanently changed its name to Stax Records in September 1961. Following the death of Otis Redding in 1967 and the severance of the distribution deal with Atlantic in 1968, Stax continued under new co-owner Al Bell, who expanded operations to compete with Motown.

By the mid-1970s, a problematic distribution deal with CBS Records led to insolvency, forcing closure in late 1975. In 1977, Fantasy Records acquired the post-1968 Stax catalogue and selected pre-1968 recordings. From 1978, Stax (owned by Fantasy) signed new acts and issued new material, but by the early 1980s, no new material was issued, and Stax became strictly a reissue label for two decades. After Concord Records acquired Fantasy in 2004, the Stax label was reactivated to issue both the 1968–1975 catalog and new recordings by modern R&B and soul performers. Atlantic Records continues to hold the rights to the vast majority of the 1959–1968 Stax material.