Richie Becker has been a Star-maker since he began working in the music business. As one of the greatest documentaries of 2014, Muscle Shoals is on its way to your TV screens. Johnny Depp and Richard Branson will be creating a TV Series around Muscle Shoals. We are catching up with living legend Richie Becker to discuss how his artist Arthur Alexander’s music became the start of the Muscle Shoals sound and the rise of The British Invasion.
Richie Becker went on to say…
“Rick Hall and Tom Stafford came to my music publishing office in Nashville. Noel Ball and I listened to Arthur Alexander’s record. We knew this was a hit record when we heard it.
As crazy as this sounds, no one wanted Arthur Alexander. I believed in his sound and I did not want to take no for an answer. In 1962, I met with Sid Bernstein (the guy who brought The Beatles to America in 1964) at GAC (General Artist Corporation) and we turned on the TV. Through my efforts, I got Arthur Alexander on The Dick Clark Show in order to get Sid’s attention. Bernstein flipped and said,”He is a hit!” He booked him on one-nighters on tour with other big artists. This helped launch Arthur’s record because all of the Disc Jockeys would finally play his music. Dick Clark was National! It was the big stage and we wanted him to get the fame he deserved.
From the royalties that Rick Hall received from Arthur Alexander’s hit record, he was able to build a newer and better studio. The first studio we went to was a tobacco warehouse. The new studio was a bigger facility and more up to date. Artists came from all over to record in the space after “You Better Move On” was released. They named it FAME. They wanted that sound. There was a different sound captured in that studio. There are no words I can use to describe the feel. There was soul and a vibe that was unique about it.
In this series I hope they will captivate Arthur Alexander’s musical influence. His sound is the reason people would flock to Muscle Shoals to record. If it weren’t for all of the royalties collected from Arthur Alexander’s hit record, FAME studios would not have survived. His music was magical in a sense that it brought to life new genres and recognition to new artists. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis, Bob Dylan and many more grand artists who wanted to deliver Arthur Alexander’s sound could feel the soul and the beauty of his music.”
