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A playlist I concocted after watching a documentary on one of the great record labels in American music.

Another film I caught up with recently is the 2024 documentary Stax: Soulsville U.S.A., which is streaming on Max.

Rather than giving a full-on review of the documentary (which I do recommend watching), I decided instead to put together a playlist featuring music from the city that gave birth to Stax Records (and so much other great music): Memphis, Tennessee.

I’ve been to Memphis once in my life, but I really enjoyed it and think it’s a fascinating city. All these songs emerge out of that great city—musicians from Memphis, released and/or recorded on one of the great record labels based out of the city. When I think about my favorite music cities (in terms of what the cities produced), Memphis or Manchester, England are probably the ones I’d single out as the best.

Also, Memphis-style barbecue is pretty darn good.

I decided to limit myself on this playlist to one song per artist; otherwise, we’d get A LOT of some artists (who are amongst my favorites in the history of popular music).

It’s certainly heavy on Stax artists, but you’ve also got some of the stuff from Sun, Hi, and Goldwax. However, I’m not going to pretend like this list isn’t anchored by Sun and Stax. You had the label that launched Elvis Presley and played such a huge role in the development of rock and roll, and then you have the other heavyweight soul/R&B label in America next to Motown, and you have both of them in the same city? That’s a special kind of magic.

There’s a little bit of more modern “rock” on there in the form of Jay Reatard, Compulsive Gamblers, and of course my beloved Big Star. I was disappointed that Big Star didn’t pop up in the Stax documentary, though given what happened with Big Star perhaps it’s not all that surprising. But there’s a little bit of something for everyone here. There are some of the heavy hitters, the songs you'd expect on a playlist of great music associated with Memphis. But I’ve also tried to slip in some more surprising stuff, either artists you wouldn’t expect or songs that are a little deeper in a given artist’s oeuvre. Who did I leave off? What band or track do I not know about and should add to this playlist? Let me know!