Alabama Public Library Service

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵𝘄𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗺𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 — 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁.

It began with FAME Studios, founded in the late 1950s by Rick Hall and eventually settled at 603 East Avalon Ave. in Muscle Shoals. FAME has welcomed a literal who's who of music royalty, from Etta James, Wilson Pickett, and Aretha Franklin to Alicia Keys, Demi Lovato, and Jason Isbell. It's the room where Aretha Franklin found her sound. It's the room where Wilson Pickett recorded "Mustang Sally." It's where FAME produced chart-topping, generation-defining music year after year.

The first number-one single to come out of the Shoals, Percy Sledge's 1966 classic "When a Man Loves a Woman," was recorded not at FAME but at Quinvy Recording Studio in the neighboring town of Sheffield. But it was Hall who secured its release, and its success put the entire region on the map.

The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section — also known as the Swampers, consisting of David Hood on bass, Jimmy Johnson on rhythm guitar, Roger Hawkins on drums, and Barry Beckett on keys — began working together at FAME before leaving in 1969 to open their own studio at 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield. The new studio found success early thanks to the Rolling Stones, who cut "Wild Horses" and "Brown Sugar" there and opened the floodgates for artists like Paul Simon, Rod Stewart, and Bob Seger.

The Swampers played on hit records by soul stars such as Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, and Aretha Franklin, as well as country-rock songs by Glenn Frey, Levon Helm, Eddie Rabbitt, and Willie Nelson, and top-selling albums by Bob Seger, Paul Simon, and the Staple Singers. Lynyrd Skynyrd later gave the Swampers a permanent place in rock history by name-dropping them in "Sweet Home Alabama" in 1974.

What made the Muscle Shoals sound? Nobody has ever fully explained it. The musicians themselves tend to shrug when asked. Something about the place, they say. Something about the way the sessions ran. Something that can't be engineered or replicated on purpose.

FAME Studios is still operating. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield is now a museum. And the sound those sessions produced is woven so deeply into American music that you've almost certainly heard it without knowing where it came from.

What's your favorite piece of Alabama history that you think deserves more national attention?

𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: FAME Recording Studios at 603 East Avalon Ave. in Muscle Shoals, Alabama — where Aretha Franklin found her sound, Wilson Pickett recorded "Mustang Sally," and one of the most storied chapters in American music history was written. The studio's own tagline says it best: "Where It All Started."

𝗔𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗺𝗮'𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 — 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝟭𝟵𝟱𝟬𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘆.

After World War II, a group of German rocket scientists — including Wernher von Braun, the engineer behind Germany's V-2 rocket — were brought to the United States under a classified program called Operation Paperclip. They were stationed first at Fort Bliss, Texas, where they worked with the U.S. Army and conducted rocket tests at White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico. In 1950, von Braun's team moved to Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama, where they designed the Army's Redstone and Jupiter ballistic missiles, as well as the Jupiter-C, Juno II, and Saturn I launch vehicles.
What followed transformed Huntsville entirely. On July 1, 1960, von Braun's Army team was transferred to NASA as the core of the new Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, with von Braun serving as its first director. Under his leadership, the center built the Saturn I, the Saturn IB, and finally the massive Saturn V — the rocket that in 1969 carried Apollo 11 to the Moon. The Saturn V remains the most powerful launch vehicle ever successfully flown.
Only three Saturn V rockets still exist in the world. The one at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville is the only Saturn V to have been designated a National Historic Landmark. It is displayed horizontally inside the Davidson Center for Space Exploration — and standing beneath it, you begin to understand what it actually took to leave this planet. The center is a Smithsonian affiliate, the official visitor center for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and home to one of the largest collections of rockets and space memorabilia on display anywhere in the world.
The moon landings were many things to many people. To Huntsville, they were a local production.

Have you visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center? What's your connection to Alabama's space history?

𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: The Saturn V rocket on display in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. One of only three Saturn V rockets in existence, this one is the only Saturn V to have been designated a National Historic Landmark. At 363 feet long and capable of generating 7.6 million pounds of thrust, it remains the most powerful launch vehicle ever successfully flown.

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆, 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁-𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁.

The Latin word for left is sinister. The French word is gauche, which also means clumsy or socially awkward. In many cultures across many centuries, left-handedness was associated with bad luck, moral weakness, or the devil. Children who showed a preference for their left hand were routinely forced to switch, sometimes through methods that today would be recognized as abusive.
It wasn't until the 20th century that the practice began to fade in Western schools, and even then it faded slowly. Many people alive today were forced to write with their right hand as children despite being naturally left-handed.
What the enforcers of right-handedness didn't know, or chose to ignore, was that left-handedness appears to be largely genetic, shows up consistently across all human populations at roughly the same rate — about 10 percent — and has been present in our species for as long as we have evidence of tool use. Cave paintings made tens of thousands of years ago show hand stencils that suggest the same approximate ratio of left- to right-handers that exists today.
Among the notable left-handers in history: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, and four of the last seven U.S. presidents. Libraries are full of books written by people who were once told the hand they were holding the pen with was the wrong one.

Are you left-handed, or do you know someone who was made to switch as a child?

𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: For most of human history, a child holding a pencil like this one — in the left hand — would have been made to switch. It wasn't until well into the 20th century that schools began to let left-handers simply be left-handers.