1964, the first year that Reggie kept records of the sessions he played on, saw him moving around quite a bit. In January, Rick Hall invited him down to his newly opened FAME studio in Muscle Shoals to augment what has become known as his 'first rhythm section' comprised of David Briggs, Jerry Carrigan, Norbert Putnam, Spooner Oldham, Earl Montgomery and Terry Thompson. Thompson, he said, had come to Memphis often in the late fifties, and he and Reggie would sit in at various clubs around town. He first met Rick Hall when he and his band, The Fairlanes, cut a record with Bill Black's Combo at Royal Studio in 1959 (see our Early Recordings page). As out-of-town producers like Felton Jarvis and Huey Meaux began to book studio time at Fame, Hall apparently felt he needed another guitar player, and imported Reggie for those sessions, resulting in some of the undiscovered gems listed below.
By early March, Reggie was back at Royal Studio in Memphis as their full-time studio guitarist. The session band in those days also included Bobby Emmons on keyboards, Jerry 'Satch' Arnold on drums, and either Bobby Stewart or Mike Leech on bass. Whether the label said Bill Black's Combo, Ace Cannon or Willie Mitchell, this was the core group cranking out those tight trademark Hi instrumentals that would become known as 'The Sound of Memphis'. The entries in this initial log book become less detailed at this point, and understandably so. 
When The Beatles, who had made such a big splash on The Ed Sullivan Show in February, were planning their first U.S. tour that Summer, they wanted Bill Black's Combo as one of their opening acts. Black was ill, and had been out of the picture for some time, and so it was up to Reggie to figure out how to make that happen... small wonder there were no entries in the log book after April 10th! The road band he put together, consisting of Sammy Creason, Bill English, Bubba Vernon, Bob Tucker and Ed Logan, set out on a 24 city whirlwind tour of the U.S. that August, then travelled to Europe in September as part of a 26 day package tour that featured Billy J. Kramer, The Ronettes and The Yardbirds, among others.
Upon their return to Memphis in October, it was back to business as usual on South Lauderdale Avenue. As noted, this initial log book is rather sparse on Royal session details for this period, and so we've included all 1964 releases on Hi and it's subsidiary label, M.O.C. (nobody seems quite sure what those intials stood for at this point!). Although we know that Reggie plays guitar on all of these records, M.O.C. 660 is particulary interesting as it is the first of only two 45s ever issued under his own name! Just like over on The Cosimo Code, there are links provided to a 45cat info page for each record, where available. We also intended to provide playable YouTube links to as many songs as we could find, but there were so many we couldn't find, that we decided to create our own YouTube Channel and host them there. Clicking on any track will open an audio player that will play all of them sequentially. (tip: if the player obstructs the text on the page, simply go 'fullscreen' and everything should fit nicely)
Be sure to check out our expanded 1964 liner notes page, and join in the discussion. Thanks!
- special thanks to 45cat, BSNpubs, Peter Hoogers, John Broven, Martin Hawkins, Jenny Lynn Young, Georgette Keller and, of course, Reggie!
| DATE | TIME | STUDIO | LABEL/PRODUCER | ARTIST | TRACKS | RELEASES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JANUARY 16 | FAME | HUEY P. MEAUX | DALE McBride | Sweet Love Ain't Gonna Rain No More Believe Each Word Our Hearts Beat As One | TEAR DROP 3062 | |
| JANUARY 17 | 0 | FAME | HUEY P. MEAUX | LEE MAYE | Touch Me On My Shoulder How's The World Treating You? Today Today Someone To Love | PIC 1 115 JAMIE 1276 JAMIE 1287 |
| JANUARY 18 | 9:30am | FAME | HUEY P. MEAUX | LEE MAYE | Who Made You What You Are I'm A Loving Fool | JET STREAM 735 JAMIE 1276 |
| 11:30am | FAME | HUEY P. MEAUX | THE BLEATERS | I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday Come and Get Your Baby Ain't That Loving You Baby | GUYDEN 2100 | |
| JANUARY 19 | 0 | FAME | HUEY P. MEAUX | LEE MAYE | Honey Hush Ribbons Laughter Will Bring Tears Those Are The Breaks Have Love Will Travel | JET STREAM 735 |
| 0 | FAME | DEMO SESSION | DAN PENN | Unfair I'm a Tracker | ACE CDCHD 1353 | |
| JANUARY 22 | 0 | ROYAL | 0 | "TALL TEXAN" | 0 | |
| FEBRUARY 13 | 3-6pm | ROYAL | 0 | BILL BLACK'S COMBO | 0 | |
| FEBRUARY 18 | FAME | ABC-PARAMOUNT | TOMMY ROE | 0 | ||
| FEBRUARY 19 | FAME | FELTON JARVIS | TOMMY ROE | Carol | ABC-PARAMOUNT 10543 | |
| FEBRUARY 20 | FAME | ABC-PARAMOUNT | TOMMY ROE | Be A Good Little Girl | ABC-PARAMOUNT 10543 | |
| FEBRUARY 23 | ROYAL | DEMO SESSION | FOUR KINGS | |||
| FEBRUARY 24 | FAME | |||||
| FEBRUARY 25 | ROYAL | HI | ACE CANNON | 5 Tunes | ||
| FEBRUARY 26 | ROYAL | HI | ACE CANNON | 3 Tunes | ||
| 12:30pm | FAME | BUDDY KNOX | ||||
| FEBRUARY 27 | FAME | FELTON JARVIS | CONWAY TWITTY | Such A Night* My Baby Left Me* *Reggie plays Rhythm only | ABC-PARAMOUNT 10550 | |
| MARCH 2 | ROYAL | JEC PUBLISHING | CARL McVOY | Swanee River | ||
| MARCH 9 | ROYAL | JEC PUBLISHING | ||||
| MARCH 10 | ROYAL | HI | BILL BLACK'S COMBO | |||
| MARCH 11 | ROYAL | HI | BILL BLACK'S COMBO | |||
| MARCH 12 | ROYAL | HI | ACE CANNON | 3 Tunes | ||
| MARCH 13 | ROYAL | HI | BILL BLACK'S COMBO | |||
| MARCH 24 | ROYAL | HI | JERRY ARNOLD | |||
| APRIL 1 | ROYAL | DEMO SESSION | ACE CANNON | |||
| APRIL 3 | ROYAL | HI | BILL BLACK'S COMBO | |||
| APRIL 10 | ROYAL | DEMO SESSION | FRANK CASONE |
| COVER ART | RELEASE NUMBER | RELEASE DATE | ARTIST | TITLE | TRACKS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | HL12015 SHL32015 | 3/15/64 | BILL BLACK'S COMBO | BILL BLACK'S COMBO PLAYS THE BLUES | I'll Never Be Free/Birth Of The Blues/Midnight/Blues In My Heart/Blues In The Night/Basin Street Blues//Comin' On/St. Louis Blues/Got You On My Mind/Wabash Blues/Peter Gunn/Weary Blues |
 | HL12016 SHL32016 | 4/64 | ACE CANNON | ACES Hi | You Don't Know Me/Heartbreak Hotel/Because Of You/Willow Weep For Me/Searchin'/Shangri La/Cotton Fields/Lonely Street/Swanee River/Gone/So Fine/Honky Tonk Song |
 | HL12017 SHL32017 | 5/1/64 | BILL BLACK'S COMBO | BILL BLACK'S COMBO PLAYS TUNES BY CHUCK BERRY | School Days/`Sweet Little Sixteen/Roll Over Beethoven/Maybelline/Carol/Little Queenie/Brown Eyed Handsome Man/Nadine/Thirty Days/Johnny B. Goode/Reelin' And Rockin'/Memphis Tennessee |
 | HL12018 SHL32018 JUKEBOX EP SBG29 | 9/1/64 | GENE SIMMONS | JUMPIN' GENE SIMMONS | Haunted House/You Can Have Her/Bony Maronie/The Green Door/Rock Around the Clock/Hotel Happiness//Teen-Age Letter/Don't Let Go/Slippin' And Sliddin'/(I'm) Comin' Down With Love/Just A Little Bit/No Help Wanted |
 | HL12019 SHL32019 | 9/24/64 | ACE CANNON | ACE CANNON PLAYS THE GREAT SHOW TUNES | Hello Dolly/Stranger In Paradise/Moonglow And Theme From Picnic/Song From Moulin Rouge/Around The World In Eighty Days/The High And The Mighty/Never On Sunday/Moon River/Some Enchanted Evening/A Summer Place/Love Is A Many Splendored Thing/Fascination |
 | HL12020 SHL32020 JUKEBOX EP SBG26 | 9/64 | BILL BLACK'S COMBO | BILL BLACK'S COMBO GOES BIG BAND | T.D.'s Boogie Woogie/Near You/Sentimental Journey/Tuxedo Junction/Canadian Sunset/Leap Frog/In The Mood/Java/Two O'clock Jump/So Rare/O (Oh!)/Stranger On The Shore |
 | HL12021 SHL32021 JUKEBOX EP SBG28 | 9/24/64 | WILLIE MITCHELL | HOLD IT!!! HERE'S WILLIE MITCHELL | Hold It/Percolatin'/Night Train/You Can't Sit Down/The Dog/The Crawl/"20-75"/Rinky Dink/Last Night/Mashed Potatoes/Last Date/Watermelon Man |
 | HL12022 SHL32022 | 9/24/64 | ACE CANNON his ALTO SAX and CHORUS | CHRISTMAS CHEERS FROM ACE CANNON | White Christmas/Winter Wonderland/Santa Claus Is Coming To Town/Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer/Here Comes Santa Claus/Frosty The Snowman/Blue Christmas/Jingle Bells/I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus/Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it Snow/Jingle Bell Rock/Rock Around The Christmas Tree |
