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Jim Stewart, the Father of Stax, is dead. The ship has lost its captain, and our hearts are lost at sea. As eternal as he seemed to a young boy like me, I thought this day would never come as he pulled me into his dream of making music for the world.Â
There was an intense fire burning in Jimâs chest, born of the love of music, and that fire quickly spread to those around him. What was Jimâs thought process, putting his country music studio smack dab in the middle of South Memphis? The young neighborhood musicians found Stax on their own. They biked to the studio; they worked at the market across the street from the studio; they ditched high school to record at the studio. Stax became a haven, an outlet for the young songwriters in the neighborhood to express themselves.Â
Jim never admitted that he believed in me. What if your boss was a small, reclusive lion who never told you exactly what he expected â or what he wanted of you besides showing up for work on time? I would have preferred the lionâs roar to the slightly turned head and his look of feigned disinterest. In hindsight, though, I realize it was often that look of disappointment that spurred me to try to make better music.Â
After Booker T. & The M.G.âs recorded âBehave Yourself,â Jim liked it so much that he wanted to put the song out as a single. Jim pushed the band on the spur of the moment, to come up with a B-side for âBehave Yourself.â Lucky for me I had been working on a bluesy musical sequence, I taught it to the band, and it became âGreen Onions.â So Jim gets the credit for pushing us to record the song which became the iconic âGreen Onionsâ.Â
Such was the nature of Jim Stewart, the driving force behind the great Stax Records of Memphis, Tennessee. For me, he was the source of countless hours of musical joy, as well as the privilege of making music in a studio less than two blocks from my childhood home.Â
Jim fought for Stax Records to the bitter end, sacrificing house, home and well-being. For his gifts to me, the Stax Family, and the world, may he rest in Godâs peace.Â
Farewell to a King.Â
While Florence + the Machineâs Florence Welch was previously not exactly a fan of using TikTok to promote her music, sheâs since come around, she reveals in an interview with The New Yorker.
She explained to the magazine that as she was preparing to release Dance Fever earlier this year, her label kept asking her what she was going to do on the video-sharing app to help promote the album, noting that going viral could potentially help boost streaming numbers. Her response to her label, according to Welch?
âOh, I actively donât want to go viral. Anytime anything of mine has gone remotely viral, itâs filled mewith dread. Any kind of attention that is not directly related to the work or an album, I donât want it,âshe recalled. âMy fans, the people who follow me, are not going to believe that I just suddenly decided to do TikTok.â
After her label asked her to engage more with the platform, Welch posted a video ofherself performing a snippet of her song âMy Loveâ in March. She captioned the a cappella clip, âThe label arebegging me for âlo fi tik toksâ so here you go. pls send help.â The clip subsequently did experience some viral success â just as her label wanted. (Dance Fever subsequently peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 after its May release.)
Reading the comments on the post changed her mind about the platform, the Grammy-nominated artist told The New Yorker. âI found [the TikTok community] to be anarchic and hilarious and weird in a way that I really enjoyed,â she shared.
âI feel like itâs a platform on which you can be stranger,â she added. âLike, if I just want to drink fake blood in a graveyard, TikTok is an environment that would embrace that.â
Welcome to Billboard Proâs Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industryâs attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.  This week: A Lady Gaga deep cut goes viral thanks to Netflixâs Wednesday â despite not being featured in the show â while a star trioâs â00s R&B cover gets a big bump for the original, and Snoop Dogg does it for the kids.
Lady Gagaâs âBloody Maryâ Soars Over 400% in Streams Thanks to âWednesdayâÂ
The streaming gains of The Crampsâ âGoo Goo Muck,â as covered in Trending Up last week, make perfect sense: the spooky-punk classic was used in a school dance sequence in Netflixâs smash new Addams Family revival Wednesday. With millions binging the show following its Nov. 23 premiere, âGoo Goo Muckâ naturally received a healthy streaming bump by viewers eager to listen to the song that soundtracked Jenna Ortegaâs limb-throwing dance moves.Â
Yet that school dance sequence is also helping Lady Gagaâs âBloody Maryâ make major moves⌠and Gagaâs Born This Way track (released on Interscope in 2011) isnât even featured in Wednesday. Instead, TikTok users have figured out that speeding up âBloody Maryâ makes the electro-pop track synch perfectly with Wednesdayâs off-kilter choreography, and are producing and liking hundreds of âBloody Maryâ/Wednesday clips as a result. Â
âBloody Mary,â which was never released as a single from Born This Way, is up 415% in weekly U.S. on-demand streams for the week ending Dec. 1, cracking 2 million plays in that time frame, according to Luminate. âSlay Wednesday!â Mother Monster wrote on Twitter last Thursday (Dec. 1) to acknowledge the trend. âYouâre welcome at Haus of Gaga anytime (and bring Thing with you, we love paws around here).â At the end of a year where TV and movie soundtrack hits were louder than ever on TikTok, itâs only fitting that we get a soundtrack hit fully born on the platform. â JASON LIPSHUTZÂ
The Weeknd & Metro Boomin Fans Canât Keep Their âI Donât Wanna Knowâ Listening on the Low
It mightâve been re-titled âCreepinâ,â but any fan of â00s pop or R&B knew what the deal was by the end of The Weekndâs first line. The song, taken from star producer Metro Boominâs new Boominati Worldwide/Republic set Heroes & Villains, is a cover in all but name of Mario Winansâ cheated-on classic âI Donât Wanna Knowâ (from his 2004 album Hurt No More on Bad Boy/Universal) with rapâs late-year-MVP 21 Savage handling the guest verse duties that belonged to Diddy on the original. Featured as the lead track on Spotifyâs most recent New Music Friday playlist, âCreepinââ was one of the best-performing tracks on streaming over the weekend, and is currently leading the daily charts for both Spotify and Apple Music.Â
Weâll see next week what kind of early chances âCreepinââ has of matching or exceeding the chart heights of âI Donât Wanna Know,â which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2004. But in the meantime, some of its streaming success has also spilled over to the songâs predecessor: Its daily official on-demand U.S. stream count rose from just under 50,000 on Dec. 1 (the day before âCreepinââ) to over 157,000 on Dec. 3 â a gain of 215%, according to Luminate. â ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Raye Resets, Scores a Fast-Moving Viral HitÂ
âA little context, if you care to listen/ I find myself in a sât position,â Raye sings early in her new single âEscapism,â featuring 070 Shake; the British pop artist is singing about an unexpected breakup and the drowning-of-sorrows that will follow, but Raye also found herself in a sticky situation last year when she publicly claimed that her label, Polydor Records, was refusing to release her long-completed debut album. Â
Now, Raye has a new deal with Human Re Sources/The Orchard, and a viral hit with âEscapism,â which has gotten the sped-up TikTok treatment and taken off as the soundtrack to various lip-syncs and rap-alongs following its Nov. 11 release. âEscapismâ earned nearly 2 million U.S. on-demand streams in the week ending Dec. 1, according to Luminate â a 300% gain from the previous week. Raye has been featured on dance hits by David Guetta, Jax Jones and Major Lazer, but she may be entering 2023 with a fresh start and a hit as a lead artist â the opposite of a sât situation, really. â JL Â
âAffirmationâs With Snoop Becomes a Surprise TikTok Trend
If youâve ever felt like you needed some motivational pep talk from Tha Doggfather, itâs been quite the last couple weeks for you on TikTok, where the Snoop Dogg-fronted kidsâ music project Doggyland has been taking off lately. âAffirmation Songâ has been the biggest breakout track from its independently released Kids Hits, Vol. 1 project, with thousands of vid eos â most from adults, clearly still in need of a little positive reinforcement â being soundtracked by Snoop leading a chorus of kids in a series of the titular chants (âThere is no one better to be but myself! Today is gonna be an amazing day!â) The songâs streaming performance has gotten an accompanying self-esteem boost, spiking 272% in official on-demand U.S. streams to 269,000 for the week ending Dec. 1, according to Luminate, and undoubtedly raising some label eyebrows about what other artists might be able to get into the viral kidsâ music game. â AU
Q&A: Stephen Brower, Global Co-Lead of Artist Relations at Amazon Music, on Whatâs Trending Up in His World
What was the process for programming this yearâs lineup of Amazon Original and cover holiday songs?
We always look to work with artists we know our Amazon Music customers love. Lizzo and Kane Brown have had massive success on Amazon Music, both throughout their careers and certainly with their 2022 album releases. Lauren Spencer-Smith is likewise an emerging artist that Amazon Music customers have been loving all year long. Working with each of them to find a holiday song that we thought holiday listeners on Amazon Music would discover and love was a fun process, and one we think will delight their fans on Amazon Music.Â
We also look to work with artists across different genres and styles of holiday music. If youâre an R&B fan, thereâs an amazing Giveon Amazon Original for you to discover. If you love classical holiday music, Alexis Ffrench has delivered a beautiful song for you.
What have you noticed in terms of how Amazon Music users are interacting with holiday music in 2022 as opposed to previous years?
Our customers have found these new holiday Amazon Originals early this year, and certainly seem to be responding to these songs. Weâre already seeing Originals on the Holiday 100, with Lauren Spencer-Smith at No. 51, Lizzo at No. 54 and Kane Brown at No. 58 on the chart. Both Lizzo and Lauren Spencer-Smith debuted on the Hot 100 this week, and Lizzoâs track is currently at No. 52 on the Official Charts (UK) Top 100 this week. That these songs are only available on Amazon Music â and are doing so well so early in December â shows how excited our customers are about holiday music and about these new Amazon Originals.
Every year, several artists try to launch new holiday songs as well as covers of classics, with only a few cutting through the clutter. What do you think is the biggest key to a successful new holiday song?
The beauty of holiday music, but also one of its challenges, is that having a holiday hit is really a long-term proposition. These songs only have a brief window of time to catch the publicâs ear, but they have that window every year. Our 2018 Amazon Original from Katy Perry, âCozy Little Christmas,â was certified platinum earlier this year, and now feels like one of those songs listeners are going to look for every year. I think something similar is happening with Carrie Underwoodâs Amazon Original song âFavorite Time of Yearâ from 2020. Those songs have that magic quality of being both nostalgic and contemporary at the same time, which I think will be key to their timelessness.Â
With artists with whom we work to create new cover versions of classic tracks, I think a key is having something distinctive so that their new version can sit alongside an original or iconic version and not compete with it. Last year, Camila Cabelloâs Amazon Original version of âIâll Be Home For Christmasâ featured mariachi flourishes that felt totally authentic to her, and also gave her version something listeners would seek out alongside other versions of that song. This year, Lauren Spencer-Smithâs take on âLast Christmasâ is as an emotional ballad, which gives a totally different feel than Wham!âs iconic version.
Fill in the blank: the biggest new trend in holiday music over the next few years will be _______.
Holiday versions of songs that arenât otherwise tied to the season. In the U.K., Stormzy has released an Amazon Original holiday version of his current single âFirebabeâ that customers are loving. We did something similar last year with the Amazon Original holiday version of Coi Lerayâs viral smash âTwinnem.â I love both of those and think they really offer something unique to fans alongside songs that are more explicitly âholiday,â thematically. â JL
Seasons Gainings: Happy âHeatherâ Day
In between cleaning up from Thanksgiving and starting to hang your holiday decorations, did you make time to celebrate âHeatherâ Day? Maybe not, but plenty of Conan Gray fans surely did, with âHeather Dayâ trending all across social media on Dec. 3 â thanks to the date being mentioned in the 2020 hit balladâs opening lyrics, âI still remember, the third of December, me in your sweaterâŚâ Plenty of commemorating took place across streaming services as well, with âHeatherâ (from Grayâs Republic-released Kid Krow album) rising 92% in daily official on-demand U.S. streams to over 914,000 on Dec. 3, according to Luminate â enough for the song to re-enter the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA chart at No. 62. â AU
J-pop songstress JUJU spoke to Billboard Japan for its latest Women in Music interview featuring trailblazing women in the Japanese music industry. The initiative launched this year in the same spirit of Billboardâs annual Women in Music issue that began in 2007, with a mission to produce interviews, live performances and panel discussions focusing on women who continue to break new ground in Japanâs music business.
The 19-year veteran of Japanese showbiz continues to make great strides this year, including her new song âHanaâ (Flowers) written as the theme for the movie Motherhood, which hit Japanese theaters in November. The pop star who has inspired legions of fans with her powerful vocals throughout her music career shared her thoughts on self-acceptance and celebrating individuality in this latest interview.
Have you ever felt that being a woman was an obstacle in your career?
At the moment, not at all. This year marks the 19th anniversary of my debut as a singer, but I donât think Iâve experienced anything where I felt that it was difficult to accomplish because Iâm a woman. When I look around me, however, I do feel the need to change the system. The way society works was mostly established more than 60 years ago during the period of economic growth in Japan, and is out of step with the times. Even the systems that were created specifically for women need to be updated by assessing what we really need. For example, a blanket rule for maternity leave isnât enough, donât you think? People have completely different potentials whether theyâre a woman or a man, in terms of physical strength and family environment and such, but the disadvantages may be greater if everyone is bound by a set of rules that arenât flexible.
Since you mentioned maternity leave⌠Your latest song âHanaâ is the theme of Ryuichi Hirokiâs new movie Motherhood, which depicts the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters.
The movie is a story that revolves around women, but the title of the theme song âHanaâ expresses the idea of respecting all individuals as we live our lives as people, including being women. We all grow up knowing that there are many different kinds of flowers, right? From the kinds we donât know the names of that bloom on the roadside to the ones in a magnificent bouquet made at a florist, flowers bloom at different times and in different ways, but theyâre all splendid. The spirit of the lyrics is, âWouldnât it be great if we each could bloom in the place of our choice, in the way we decided, and in the color we want to be?â I hope this song inspires listeners to reflect on whether theyâre being true to themselves. Iâd like people to remember that itâs OK for you to be who you are.
I get the impression that you firmly believe that people are diverse in their own ways. When did you start thinking this way?
Ever since I was a child, I think. There were a lot of weird adults around me growing up. My family and the other grown-ups around me didnât care that there were children around and never hid anything from me. Even topics that people would normally be like, âDonât let kids hear that!â would be openly discussed. Maybe they figured, âIf sheâs going to eventually hear about it elsewhere, she might as well hear it from us.â Like, âIf she doesnât understand something, she can ask an adult around her on the spot. That way, she wonât end up misunderstanding.â People would come to our parentsâ gatherings crying and asking for advice about their problems. Because I grew up in such an environment, I was able to imagine that even those who normally seem happy can have such problems, and I came to think, as a kid, that being a grown-up can be hard.
I spent some time in New York later on, a place where people of different races and languages gather, but I realized that in the sense that people have various worries and problems even if they donât show it on the outside, the world is no different from the one Iâd seen growing up.
How have you dealt with your own worries and problems?
Whenever Iâm in a difficult situation, I think back to a letter a friend sent me long ago. It said, âA day is a day, no matter how you spend it.â Things happen as you live your life and sometimes it can be hard. Still, the days go on, and no matter how you spend it, the same amount of time will pass. Then letâs try to not take it too seriously, so that we donât spend all our time on the hard things. Thatâs the message I got from the letter. I mean, today is the youngest day of our lives. And tomorrow weâll be a day older and maybe wiser. So Iâm not afraid of getting older, and itâs never too late to start something. After all, a day is a day no matter how you spend it. Thatâs why I try to think that things will work out no matter how I do it. Though sometimes itâs not good enough even when I do try to think like that.
You know it, but sometimes itâs not good enough. Is there a way to cope when you canât bring yourself to think, âA day is a day no matter how I spend it?â
Iâm the type who doesnât know when to give up, so I canât give up on myself when Iâm in a bad situation. What inspires me when I want to pull myself up again is a line from Whitney Houstonâs âGreatest Love of Allâ: âI decided long ago / Never to walk in anyoneâs shadows / If I fail, if I succeed / At least Iâll live as I believe / No matter what they take from me / They canât take away my dignity.â I sing this verse out loud when I want to fire myself up.
Iâm sure there are many people who are inspired by the way you motivate yourself to perform on stage and by hearing your voice.
Iâd be happy if that were so. Even if we have to go through some painful experiences, itâd be nice if we could learn a lot from them. Iâve loved to sing since I was a child and always wanted to be a singer and was lucky enough to make that dream come true. Still, there are times when I feel bad or sad, but each time I think, âOh, now I have one more thing I can sing about,â so Iâm able to continue without breaking down. I think everyone has their own way of putting things into perspective like that, even if theyâre not singers.
âThis interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan.
Official HIGE DANdismâs âSubtitleâ returns to the top of the Billboard Japan Hot 100 again, extending its record to 5 weeks at No. 1 on the chart dated Dec. 7.
âSubtitleâ continues to sit at No. 1 for streaming for the seventh straight week (from 19,306,522 to 18,006,563 weekly streams) and hits No. 1 for downloads (from 14,583 to 15,611 units) for the fourth, while also coming in at No. 3 for video (from 2,869,548 to 2,696,956 views), No. 6 for radio airplay, and No. 8 for karaoke.
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Last weekâs No. 1 song, Kenshi Yonezuâs âKICK BACK,â falls to No. 2, coming in at No. 2 for streaming (from 13,272,889 to 12,507,777 streams), downloads (from 14,349 to 11,613 units), video (from 4,356,710 to 3,031,299 views) and karaoke. In other metrics, the track hit No. 10 for radio and No. 11 for sales. Both âSubtitleâ and âKICK BACKâ are slowing down figure-wise, but âSubtitleâ saw a smaller decrease overall and their positions reversed on this weekâs list.
King & Princeâs former No. 1 single âTsukiyomiâ holds at No. 3 on the Japan Hot 100 and continues to perform well. The single sold 111,385 copies this week (up from 80,306 last week) and rises 3-1 for the second time on the metric, and also holds at No. 1 for video for the third week although figures have decreased slightly from 3,564,897 to 3,363,622 views.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Nov. 28 to Dec. 4, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japanâs English Twitter account.
Blake Shelton is the latest People cover star, and the country crooner opened up about stepping back in his career to focus on time with his family, which includes wife Gwen Stefani and stepsons Kingston, Zuma and Apollo.
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âTheyâve taught me something about myself that I never knew: Iâm more than just a country singer or a goofy guy. Iâm someone they actually lean on, and thatâs not a responsibility that I ever had and not something that I ever considered even being into,â he said of his family, noting that he feels a âdifferent kind of self-worthâ around them. âMaybe itâs the opposite of self-worth because you put yourself way down on the rung, and they move up ahead of you.â
Stefani shares Kingston, Zuma and Apollo with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale. The former couple were married for 13 years â and dated for nearly six years before that â but parted ways in 2015. Shelton and Stefani tied the knot in 2021, and have been going strong ever since.Â
âGwen and I have done so much traveling and touring and work the first half of our lives that now weâre like, âHey, Iâm good to put my sweatpants on at 6 p.m. and watch Ozark eight times,’â Shelton said. âThatâs our life now, and we love it.â
âEven though Iâm a stepparent, I take that job very seriously. The kids see me as a very important person in their life,â the âBoys âRound Hereâ singer added. â[When they ask,] âWhy isnât Blake here?â I take that stuff to heart. Iâve made plenty of money, but you canât buy time back. I donât want any regrets.â
In October, Shelton revealed that after next season, he will be leaving NBCâs The Voice, which he has been a coach on since the show premiered in 2011. âThe holdup over the years has been that itâs a hard thing for me to let go of. Iâve been here literally since the first minute,â he told People. âWhen I started on The Voice, that was 10 years into my career as a country artist. I never really made it to the A-level of country artists until I became a coach. The show did a hell of a lot more for me than I brought to the table at the time. Iâve far exceeded anything I thought I could ever accomplish in the entertainment world.â
Kelly Clarkson went back to the â90s for her latest Kellyoke cover, performing Gin Blossomsâ âFound Out About Youâ on the Wednesday (Dec. 7) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show.
âAll last summer, in case you donât recall/ I was yours and you were mine/ Forget it all/ Is there a line that I could write/ Thatâs sad enough to make you cry?/ And all those lines you wrote to me were lies,â she accuses over her house bandâs jangling instrumentation on the alt-rock classicâs opening lines.
First recorded on Gin Blossomsâ 1989 debut Dusted, the song was later included, and released as a single on their 1992 breakthrough album New Miserable Experience. At the time, the trackâs popularity helped the LP go multi-platinum after initially being overlooked by fans and critics. âFound Out About Youâ ultimately peaked at No. 6 on Billboardâs Pop Airplay chart, becoming the bandâs highest charting hit on the tally until both âTil I Hear It From Youâ and âFollow You Downâ went to No. 5 in the mid â90s.
Other recent songs the talk-show host has put her spin on include Bruno Marsâ âFinesse,â The Weather Girlsâ âItâs Raining Menâ and Lizzoâs âJuice.â Sheâs also duetted with Jimmy Fallon on Sonny and Cherâs âI Got You Babe,â and invited Dolly Parton onto the show to perform their duet version of â9 to 5.â
After taking season 22 off from coaching The Voice, Clarkson is set to make an appearance at the showâs season two-hour finale next Tuesday (Dec. 13) along with Kane Brown, Maluma, OneRepublic and Adam Lambert.
Watch Clarkson run through âFound Out About Youâ below.
H.E.R. officially wants you to call her by her name. The singer, who was born Gabriella Wilson, appeared on Good Morning America Wednesday (Dec. 7) to discuss how it feels to be starring as Belle in ABCâs Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration, and why the project has since led her to go by her birth name.
Host Michael Strahan introduced the singer, kicking off the interview by using her legal name, and inquired about her decision to go by that.
âIâve been re-finding my voice. Now Iâm not wearing glasses. I canât be acting and wearing glasses, so I think itâs time for people to really get to know the person behind H.E.R.,â the singer explained. âH.E.R. is me, but at the same time itâs a new chapter of my life, and I think Iâm really finding that connection and Iâm allowing people to see under the layers a little bit.â
The conversation then pivoted to the Oscar winner and five-time Grammy winner being the first Black and Filipina woman to take on the part of Belle.
âI never thought I could be a Disney princess,â she said of the project, which airs on ABC Dec. 15. âOf course every little girl wants to be a Disney princess, but Iâve never seen one that looks like me â so I get to be that to little girls now.â
âAnd thatâs such a huge deal on top of being a producer on Beauty and the Beast, which is crazy,â she continued. âI got to do a lot of the new arrangements and work with Alan Menken, the original arranger and producer. Itâs been an amazing experience just learning so much about myself, and itâs been a lot of fun honestly.â
H.E.R. will be one of several high-profile stars appearing in the project. Josh Groban will play the Beast, while Shania Twain (Mrs. Potts), Martin Short (Lumiere), Joshua Henry (Gaston), David Alan Grier (Cogsworth) and Rita Moreno (narration) will round out the cast.
Watch the interview in the above video.
Steve Greenberg, founder/CEO of S-Curve Records, produced âThe Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968,â and box sets devoted to Stax artists Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. He wrote album notes for âStax â68: A Memphis Story.â Below, he reflects on a 30-year friendship with Stax co-founder Jim Stewart, who died Dec. 5.Â
I first met Jim Stewart when I was producing the 9-CDÂ Complete Stax/Volt Singles:1959-1968Â box, which came out in 1991. While consulting with him over the phone about the project, he mentioned that legendary Stax songstress Carla Thomas still lived in Memphis, and that heâd really love a chance to work with her again on a recordâsomething he hadnât done in over 20 years. Almost immediately, I flew down to Memphis, meeting Jim and Carla at the stately Peabody Hotel to discuss the possibility of making a record together. The record never materialized, but a bond began to form between Jim and me.
What initially struck me about Jim was his humility: Here was a man whoâd co-founded one of the greatest R&B record labels of all timeâwho, in addition to running the label, was in the studio producing such classic recordings as Otis Reddingâs âTry A Little Tendernessâ and Rufus Thomasâ âWalking the Dog.â Perhaps even more impressively, he created an environment at Stax where Black and white musicians could work together in complete equality, all the while situated in the heart of the segregated South during the most tumultuous years of the civil rights movement.  Yet, Jim possessed none of the hubris or self-regard typical of many who have achieved greatness or attained legendary status.Â
Nor did he express an ounce of bitterness, even though his career could be described as a rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches-to-rags story: From a modest upbringing in rural Tennessee, he started a record label in 1957 with his sister Estelle Axton originally called Satellite before rebranding as Stax (St+ Ax) in 1961. A string of hits by the likes of Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the MGs, Redding and many more artists brought worldwide fame to Stax, and the label was flying high. But in 1968 Stewart learned that a distribution contract heâd signed with Atlanticâs president Jerry Wexler a few years earlierâwithout consulting an attorneyâhad somewhere in the fine print given Atlantic permanent rights to the entire Stax catalog. This calamity occurred nearly simultaneously with the death of Staxâs biggest star, Redding, in a plane crash, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, just a short distance from the Stax studio, causing parts of that city to go up in flames and hastening the demise of the air of racial harmony at the label.Â
Taken together, these tragedies would have been enough to cause most record companies to shutter. But, together with his new partner, the civil rights activist turned record promo man Al Bell, Jim started Stax Records again from scratch, with the label achieving even greater commercial and critical success in its second incarnation. As the â70s dawned, Stax, under Bellâs leadership, became deeply identified with the cause of Black empowerment, and Jim decided it was time to exit, selling his interest to his partner. Now a wealthy man, Jim could have ridden off into the sunset, but a few years later, when Stax began to experience serious financial difficulties, Jim reinvested most of his assets in the label, not being able to bear the idea of his babyâs demise. By 1976, the label declared bankruptcy and closed. Stewart lost nearly everything; his home and possessions were sold at auction in 1981.Â
When I first met Jim that night at the Peabody, I imagined he harbored no small amount of ill will towards Atlantic Records, the label that had taken away his catalog and was now putting out the box set Iâd produced. But no, he said, he didnât hold any sort of grudge, and when I invited him to come to New York for the launch party celebrating the release of the box set, he was only too happy to do so. The New York event featured a concert by legendary Stax performers and was attended by Atlantic Records veterans whoâd been around during Staxâs Atlantic period, including label founder Ahmet Ertegun. Jim offered some remarks from the podiumâhis first public appearance in nearly two decadesâand spoke of what a pleasure it was to see old friends, and what an honor it had been to get to work with such great artists and to have been in business with Atlantic. He even referred to Jerry Wexler as âmy hero.â He was the embodiment of grace.Â
Even after Stax closed, Jim continued in the music business. In the late â70s he opened a recording studio in Memphis with former Stax guitarist Bobby Manuel. Eventually, they started the Houston Connection record label, scoring a top 15 Billboard R&B hit in 1982 with former Stax artist Margie Josephâs âKnockout!â  They never had another national hit, but Jim kept at it, producing records locally.
The release of the Stax box brought Jim back into the music industryâs field of vision, and he began to make regular visits to New York, always stopping by to have lunch and to pitch me his newest discoveries. I remember he had a fun record called âMud Ducksâ by Memphis rapper Yan-C which we almost signed when I was head of A&R at Big Beat Records, but in the end the only record I ever worked on with Jim was LeaâNetta Nelsonâs âThatâs the Way,â a great slow R&B jam that I signed in 1994 when I was an A&R guy at, of all places, Atlantic Records. I had high hopes for that record, but looking back, I think Atlantic only let me sign it as a token gesture to Jim, and it received no attention, only seeing release as a radio promo single. I spoke to Jim shortly after that record disappeared without a trace, and he told me he was retiring from the music business.Â
Eventually, Jim received his due as one of the great label chiefs of the 20th century. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and made one final public appearance at Memphisâ Stax Museum of American Soul Music in 2019, where he was feted by such Stax legends as Carla Thomas and Al Bell in a special salute.
The last time I spoke to Jim was a phone interview with him for the liner notes of 2019âs âStaxâ68â box set, a collection chronicling Staxâs annus horribilus and its aftermath, produced by A&R man/music historian Joe McEwen. Jim was in good spirits, with a sharp recollection of events that happened more than 50 years earlier. He was better off financially, partially due to producer royalty payments for the Stax singles he produced, which began to be paid in the 1990s.  Even looking back on that trying year of 1968, he remembered it with fondness. âMost importantly,â he told me, âWe still loved what we were doing. We believed it was going to be okay.âÂ
This world will miss you, Jim Stewart. You were a great label executive, a producer of classic records and you believed in the dignity of all people. And you really appreciated that you got to do it at all.Â
