Elvis Presley: The Sun Sessions
RCA 1987
The finest music of his life was the first batch of records he ever made. Among a hundred revelations to be heard in this collection are these: He was a better singer than any of the crooners or rock-and-rollers whose disparate music he links. His stylistic synthesis of country, blues, and gospel sounds smoother, more effortless, and more complete than any of his contemporaries. Until he decided to start covering Little Richard a little later on, he improved everything he touched. His blues were better (Junior Parker, Arthur Crudup). His country was better (Bill Monroe). His standards were better (“Blue Moon”). — Chris Herrington
Johnny Cash: With His Hot And Blue Guitar
Sun 1957
Perhaps equaling the originality of Elvis, the sound Cash conjured up with the Tennessee Two stood on its own terms. The sparse arrangements of guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant wrapped around Cash’s stern baritone, filled with the gravitas of the ages. Instantly iconic, it contrasted starkly with records from Nashville, which were already taking on a more polished sound. And, as the label’s first LP, this was also a groundbreaking release for Sun Records. — Alex Greene
Howlin’ Wolf: Moanin’ in the Moonlight
Chess 1958
Like Elvis on RCA, this was an LP on a non-Memphis label that oozed pure Bluff City vibes. Indeed, “How Many More Years” and “Moanin’ at Midnight” (the artist’s first hit singles) along with “All Night Boogie” were recorded in Memphis by Sam Phillips, who proclaimed that Wolf’s voice was “where the soul of man never dies.” Ultimately guitarist Hubert Sumlin was summoned to Chicago from Memphis as a key player in Wolf’s band for years, forever cinching the Memphis-Mississippi roots of an artist first brought to Phillips by Ike Turner. — AG
Booker T. & the MGs: Green Onions
Stax 1962
Though the fabled studio on McLemore had already released singles on Atlantic or its own Satellite label, this was the first LP released on the newly rechristened Stax imprint, rising to #33 on the pop charts. And it was all due to an impromptu jam session, when the MGs, slated to back Billy Lee Riley, began doing their own thing. Their spontaneous creation instantly put the minimalist, rawer sound of Stax on the map, laying the groundwork for nearly every Stax hit that followed. — AG
Otis Redding: Otis Blue
Stax 1965
Sam Cooke had been killed just prior to the recording, and Redding, in inheriting Cooke’s mantle as the world’s finest soul singer, spikes the record with revelatory covers of three Cooke classics:
“Wonderful World,” “Shake,” and “Change Gonna Come.” With originals such as the future Aretha Franklin classic “Respect” and his soon-to-be-trademark ballad “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” putting it over the top, Otis Blue stands as Redding’s testament. — CH
Isaac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul
Enterprise 1969
Already a respected writer and arranger for Stax, Hayes found that this lark of an album helped put the new post-Atlantic Stax on the map. Indeed, though its commercial success came as a surprise, it helped forge the “new Stax sound,” with grander arrangements and a slicker brand of funk (the band here is the Bar-Kays). It also signaled the birth of longer, lusher songs that could only exist in the LP format, like Hayes’ version of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” clocking in at more than 18 minutes. — AG
Big Star: #1 Record
Ardent 1972
Rivaling New York’s Velvet Underground as rock-and-roll’s definitive semi-popular band, these four Anglophilic Memphis kids holed up in Ardent Studios and concocted a beautifully fractured vision of pure pop, like mid-period Beatles turned upside down and inside out. When the restless rock-and-roll haiku of “In the Street” segues into the adolescent yearning of “Thirteen,” it may say more about teendom than any band ever has. — CH
Al Green: Call Me
Hi 1973
In 1973, Green may have been the last of the true soul singers, an established star and hitmaker with nothing left to prove. And in 1973, Al Green outdid himself. Call Me is a 35-minute epic, an album of overwhelming intimacy and command that encapsulates everything that made Green and the Hi sound great and then made each and every element of that style even better. Green’s brilliance is a daring lexicon of slurs, moans, purrs, and whispers occasionally interrupted by falsetto swoops that dart all around the groove. His singing style might be a jazzlike indulgence if he wasn’t a genius, but he is, and his genius never flowered fuller than on Call Me. — CH
Various Artists: Hustle & Flow: Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture
Grand Hustle, Atlantic 2005
When Three 6 Mafia won the Academy Award for their contribution to this soundtrack, it was merely the culmination of careers that had begun a full decade earlier. The sounds they pioneered in the 1990s have lived on in the twenty-first century, sampled repeatedly for today’s hits. And while this album also included Atlanta artists, Memphis runs deep here, with tracks from Al Kapone, Nasty Nardo (sampling Project Pat), 8Ball & MJG, and others. It’s the same Bluff City trap sound that dominates the hip-hop charts now. — AG
Justin Timberlake: The 20/20 Experience
RCA 2013
After bringing sexy back, Justin Timberlake ditched the more conventional pop jams with 2013’s The 20/20 Experience. With songs averaging out to seven minutes, spacy tracks featuring extended vamping, sudden key changes, experimental afrobeat rhythms, and killer guitar solos by Elliot Ives are the name of the game. Timberlake is flanked by a full complement of brass, percussion, and strings courtesy of backing band The Tennessee Kids. Is it pop? Soul? R&B? Ultimately, one label doesn’t do it justice. Despite a six-year hiatus from music prior to its release, The 20/20 Experience reaffirms Timberlake’s ability to effortlessly blend styles in the pursuit of, as a collaborator calls it, “music that you can see.” — Samuel X. Cicci
