Sun Studio, Stax or RCA Studio B: which studio tour to book

I grew up in Muscle Shoals, five minutes from FAME, and I have spent more of my working life in recording studios than anywhere else. When guests ask which studio tour to choose, here is what I tell them.

Sun Studio, Memphis

Sun is the smallest and the most important. Sam Phillips recorded Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King in one modest room on Union Avenue. The tour takes about an hour, the guides are entertaining, and the room still records bands at night. If you only do one, do this one.

The Stax Museum, Memphis

The original Stax building was demolished in 1989, so this is a rebuilt studio, not the real room. But it is the best music museum in Memphis, with a sloping floor like the old movie theater, a small church moved from the Delta to explain where the sound came from, and Isaac Hayes's gold-trimmed Cadillac. Allow two hours. If you love soul, it is worth more than Graceland. The details are in our Stax Museum guide.

RCA Studio B, Nashville

Studio B is a working-style room with its original console and the lights set the way Elvis liked them for late sessions. It recorded over a thousand hits, from the Everly Brothers to Dolly Parton. The tour leaves from the Country Music Hall of Fame by shuttle, and it is the best way to understand the polished Nashville Sound of the late 1950s.

FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound, Alabama

These two are my home, so I am biased. Both are working studios with guides who often played on the records. FAME is where Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and Etta James recorded; 3614 Jackson Highway is where the Rolling Stones did Brown Sugar. They are two and a half hours from Nashville, so they need a day of their own.

And Graceland?

Graceland is not a studio, but Elvis did record in it: his last sessions, in 1976, were made in the Jungle Room, with cables run in from a truck outside. If you are an Elvis fan, it is a must. If not, use the half day for Stax.

My order

With one morning, Sun. With a day in Memphis, Sun and Stax. With a week, add Studio B and the Shoals. Our Southern road trip does all of them, in the order the music happened.