“Sugar Sugar” was inescapable in the summer of 1969, with Wilson Pickett and even The Wailers (with Bob Marley singing lead) recording their own versions. Muscling in on the action also were the studio musicians behind the hits being recorded in the late 60s at Rick Hall‘s Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama – The Fame Gang – who put together a (near) instrumental version for their one and only outing, Solid Gold from Muscle Shoals:
“Sugar Sugar“
The Fame Gang (1969)
Meet the Band
Freeman Brown — drums
Jesse Boyce — bass
Junior Lowe — guitar
Clayton Ivey — piano & organ
Harrison Calloway — trumpet
Aaron Varnell — tenor & alto sax
Harvey Thompson — tenor sax
Ronnie Eades — baritone sax
Mickey Buckins — producer/arranger
That’s right, as the sticker indicates, there is an “expanded” version of this 1969 album that includes four additional tracks: “Soul Feud“; “Grits and Gravy“; “Twangin’ My Thang“; and “Turn the Chicken Loose.” Two of these non-LP tracks – “Soul Feud” b/w “Grits and Gravy” – were issued as a 45 in August 1969 on the Fame label.
. . .
The Fame Studio Sidemen –
Waves of Musicians
The Fame Gang, as it turns out, were the third “rhythm section” in Fame Studio’s long and illustrious history. It was Arthur Alexander’s big 1961 hit, “You Better Move On,” that earned enough money to finance the building of Fame’s bricks-and-mortar studio, where Rick Hall assembled his first full-time session players, a group that included Norbert Putnam, Spooner Oldham, Terry Thompson, and David Briggs, among others. The next rhythm section, easily the most renowned of the four, comprised Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett, and Junior Lowe (and sometimes Duane Allman) and was the backing group for Aretha Franklin on her groundbreaking “I Never Loved a Man” session in 1967. However, on March 20, 1969, Johnson, Hood, Beckett, and Hawkins formally announced to Rick Hall their intention to open the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in nearby Sheffield. Hall immediately assembled another top-flight team of talent and then – coincidentally or not – allowed them to put out this full-length release.
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