Jerry Wexler

Mickey Buckins played a significant role in the success of the FAME recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The studio’s founder, Rick Hall, hired Mickey in 1967 to assist with managing the recording process. With his background in performing, songwriting and arranging, Mickey applied himself and learned all he could, rising to the role of the chief recording engineer. He recorded such artists as Clarence Carter, Lou Rawls, the Osmonds, Wilson Pickett, Little Richard and the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin.

Jerry Greenberg began his long and successful musical career in 1957 when his band Jerry Green and the Passengers began recording. Within a few years he had established Seaboard Distributions to provide a way to promote recordings to radio stations and record stores. While working in the recording industry, Jerry became the youngest person to be president of a major record label, Atlantic in 1974, when he was just 32 years old. While at Atlantic he worked with Ahmet Ertegun and his long-time mentor and friend, the legendary producer Jerry Wexler.

Clayton Ivey is proud to have been the first white producer to sign exclusively with Motown Records. As a result of his work at Motown (which was located in Los Angeles at that time), Clayton worked with legends such as Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, the Commodores and the Supremes, among others. He later produced records with Hank Williams Jr., Roy Orbison, Wayne Newton and John Kay. As a studio musician he played on all of Toby Keith's #1 records, numerous Chet Atkins and Ronnie Milsap recordings and such on hits as "Patches (Clarence Carter)," "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me" (Mac

This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Jerry Wexler became a major contributor to the record business in the 1950s and 60s with his work as a producer at Atlantic Records. Many feel it was Jerry who coined the phrase “rhythm and blues” and worked long and hard to record the sounds of soul and R&B over his 50 plus year career. Jerry loved the session players in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and brought many of his top artists to the recording studios there to cut records, many of which became big hits. Among the artists