ca. 1963 Lonnie Mack promo photo for his early "Memphis" single on Fraternity Records
Mack never lived in Memphis or anything. Just including because of his hit song title.
Showcasing that 1958 Gibson Flying V "Number 7" from the start.
Read all about him: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Mack
"In the early 1960s he became a session guitarist with Fraternity Records, a small Cincinnati label. In 1963, he recorded two hit singles for Fraternity, the proto-blues-rock guitar instrumentals 'Memphis' and 'Wham!' He soon recorded additional tunes to flesh out his debut album, The Wham of that Memphis Man (1963). Mack made some notable recordings later, particularly in the 1980s, but his 1963 debut album is widely considered the centerpiece of his career. It became a perennial critics' favorite ...."
"On March 12, 1963, at the end of a recording session backing up The Charmaines, Mack was offered the remaining twenty minutes of studio-rental time. He recorded an energetic instrumental take-off on Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee". He had improvised it a few years earlier, when his keyboardist, Denzil "Dumpy" Rice, who normally sang and played the Berry tune, was absent for a performance. Mack didn't know the lyrics, but when the audience called for the tune, he improvised a highly embellished electric guitar instrumental based on the tune. He kept it as part of his live act, calling it simply "Memphis".
As recorded in 1963, "Memphis" featured a brisk melodic blues solo within a rockabilly/Memphis Soul framework, augmented by a rock drum-beat. It represented a significant advance in rock guitar virtuosity, beyond both the prevailing chords-and-riffs standard of Chuck Berry and the "inherently simple" melodic soloing standard of such early rock guitarists as Link Wray and Duane Eddy.
Mack recalled that, upon recording the tune, "It didn't mean a thing to me. I left to go on the road. We hit every roadhouse between Cincinnati and Miami, but we didn't have time to listen to the radio, so I didn't know what was going on [until] we were backing Chubby Checker one night. [T]he disc jockey came runnin' up to me, saying, 'You got the No. 1 record on our station!'" By late June, Memphis had risen to No. 4 on Billboard's R&B chart and No. 5 on Billboard's pop chart. According to The Book of Golden Discs, it sold over one million copies. The popularity of "Memphis" led to bookings at larger venues, at least one tour in the UK, and performances with Chuck Berry."
Listen to "Memphis" (Mack's instrumental take-off on Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee") here: youtu.be/qfFrBQFnB_o
ca. 1963 Lonnie Mack promo photo for his early "Memphis" single on Fraternity Records
Mack never lived in Memphis or anything. Just including because of his hit song title.
Showcasing that 1958 Gibson Flying V "Number 7" from the start.
Read all about him: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Mack
"In the early 1960s he became a session guitarist with Fraternity Records, a small Cincinnati label. In 1963, he recorded two hit singles for Fraternity, the proto-blues-rock guitar instrumentals 'Memphis' and 'Wham!' He soon recorded additional tunes to flesh out his debut album, The Wham of that Memphis Man (1963). Mack made some notable recordings later, particularly in the 1980s, but his 1963 debut album is widely considered the centerpiece of his career. It became a perennial critics' favorite ...."
"On March 12, 1963, at the end of a recording session backing up The Charmaines, Mack was offered the remaining twenty minutes of studio-rental time. He recorded an energetic instrumental take-off on Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee". He had improvised it a few years earlier, when his keyboardist, Denzil "Dumpy" Rice, who normally sang and played the Berry tune, was absent for a performance. Mack didn't know the lyrics, but when the audience called for the tune, he improvised a highly embellished electric guitar instrumental based on the tune. He kept it as part of his live act, calling it simply "Memphis".
As recorded in 1963, "Memphis" featured a brisk melodic blues solo within a rockabilly/Memphis Soul framework, augmented by a rock drum-beat. It represented a significant advance in rock guitar virtuosity, beyond both the prevailing chords-and-riffs standard of Chuck Berry and the "inherently simple" melodic soloing standard of such early rock guitarists as Link Wray and Duane Eddy.
Mack recalled that, upon recording the tune, "It didn't mean a thing to me. I left to go on the road. We hit every roadhouse between Cincinnati and Miami, but we didn't have time to listen to the radio, so I didn't know what was going on [until] we were backing Chubby Checker one night. [T]he disc jockey came runnin' up to me, saying, 'You got the No. 1 record on our station!'" By late June, Memphis had risen to No. 4 on Billboard's R&B chart and No. 5 on Billboard's pop chart. According to The Book of Golden Discs, it sold over one million copies. The popularity of "Memphis" led to bookings at larger venues, at least one tour in the UK, and performances with Chuck Berry."
Listen to "Memphis" (Mack's instrumental take-off on Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee") here: youtu.be/qfFrBQFnB_o