![]() ![]() As a result, the smaller facility became known as Studio B. It served as RCA’s Nashville headquarters until 1964, when the building next door was built to house RCA offices and a new larger studio, called Studio A. When the studio opened, the staff consisted of just Chet Atkins, his assistant Juanita Jones, an engineer, and a man in custom sales who brought in outside record labels for recording sessions. In the early days, it was called the RCA Victor Studio. The building was completed for about $40,000 in November 1957, and Maddox leased it to RCA for the next twenty years. Dan Maddox, a local businessman, stepped in and offered to construct a building to house the studio as an investment. Chet, then thirty-two, became RCA’s “musical director” in Nashville in the spring of 1957.Īccording to Atkins, RCA’s chief audio engineer, Bill Miltenburg, drew out the plans for the building on a dinner napkin. To run the Nashville operation, Sholes selected Chet Atkins, a standout guitar player who had been serving as an assistant producer to Sholes. With Presley proving to be such a huge commercial success and several country acts on RCA doing well, RCA’s country music chief, Steve Sholes, persuaded the label that it made good sense to open a Nashville office and a new studio. At the end of 1956, RCA tallied sales of ten million singles, three million EPs, and 800,000 copies of Presley’s first two albums. Six months into his contract, he was the biggest act in RCA’s history. Then, in late 1955, Elvis Presley signed with RCA and exploded on the scene. But the company did not have a Nashville division. Prior to building Studio B, RCA had a recording space on McGavock Street, a few blocks north of RCA Studio B’s eventual location. This number system, used to this day, allows spontaneous “head arrangements” in the studio and makes changing a song’s key quick and easy. Significantly, RCA Studio B is one of the places where the “Nashville number system”-a shorthand notation for a song’s chord progressions using numbers and symbols instead of notes-was refined by Country Music Hall of Fame members Neil Matthews of the Jordanaires and Charlie McCoy. Built in 1957, RCA Studio B became known as a birthplace for the “Nashville Sound,” a pop-oriented style of country music characterized by smooth instrumentation, background vocals, and string sections that helped establish Nashville as an international recording center. It was also the home base for Country Music Hall of Fame member Chet Atkins, a virtuoso guitarist and influential record producer for RCA’s artists. Here many famous artists-including Eddy Arnold, the Everly Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Jim Reeves, and Connie Smith-made some of their most important records. For twenty years, the RCA Records studio was the incubator for hit after hit in the country and pop markets. Historic RCA Studio B is among the most significant recording spaces in the world.
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