Career
The group began as The Royal Spades and had tried unsuccessfully to get a record made for the local Satellite Records even though tenor sax player Charles "Packy" Axton's mother and uncle owned that label. When they were finally able to get a record made, Axton's mother Estelle Axton convinced the group to change their name and they chose The Mar-Keys.
They also recorded organ and saxophone oriented singles of their own, scoring a number-three hit nationally with "Last Night" in 1961. It sold over one million copies, earning gold disc recognition. Keyboards were played by Jerry Lee "Smoochy" Smith. Other singles of theirs from the early 1960s include "Philly Dog" and "Popeye Stroll." Members of this rhythm section later formed other nationally prominent Memphis studio session groups, including the Memphis Horns, the Packers, and Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Each of these offshoot groups also recorded popular instrumental albums of their own, in addition to serving as the backing band on albums by dozens of rock, R&B, and soul music stars on Stax, Volt and other national labels. The legacy of the Mar-Keys and later groups was that of having been key players in the development of soul music styles like Southern soul and Memphis soul.
The Mar-Keys recently regrouped with a lineup consisting of former M.G. Lewis Steinberg, original members Floyd Newman, Smoochie Smith, Don Nix, Terry Johnson and Wayne Jackson and original member Packy Axton's son Chuck.
Read more about this topic: The Mar-Keys
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)