FLORENCE – The year, 1969… December…The Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section had only recently opened up 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield. And before Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Barry Beckett and Roger Hawkins knew it, they were famous. Well… Famous enough for The Rolling Stones to take notice anyway… This fact was quite evident. You see, “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses” were recorded there, just a couple of miles south of where the old Florence Holiday Inn was situated. It seemed that the music world had begun looking at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and FAME Studios as the Mecca of Rhythm and Blues and Rock & Roll music. In those years, every recording artist that was famous took their own Musical Hajj to The Shoals. And their journey to Recording Session Heaven seemed to pay off for their careers big-time.
But they needed a place to sleep. and the lodging accommodations in Sheffield and Muscle Shoals City were… let’s just say… less than accommodating.
That’s where the Florence Holiday Inn came in. When the acts came into town, they all got rooms there. It was 5 minutes from the studios, and nobody had to take their lives into their hands to stay in Sheffield and Muscle Shoals City. Well it really wasn’t that bad, but the Florence Holiday Inn was really suitable. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards really enjoyed their stay there.
And so, last Friday, the site where the Holiday Inn once stood was memorialized with a historic marker. It was exactly 44 years to the day. Swamper, Jimmy Johnson , who engineered the famous Stones sessions, unveiled the marker with Alabama State Tourism Director Lee Sentell and local music guru, Dick Cooper.
Here are some photos of the occasion:
