Chips Moman
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Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Moman (born 1936 in La Grange, Georgia) is an American record producer, guitarist and songwriter. The nickname "Chips" apparently derives from his love of gambling. As a producer, Moman is known for recording Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, Carla Thomas and Box Tops in Memphis during the 1960s. As a songwriter, he is responsible for standards associated with Aretha Franklin, James Carr, Waylon Jennings and B. J. Thomas. And he has been a session guitarist for Franklin and other artists.
After moving to Memphis as a teenager, Moman played in the road bands of Johnny Burnette and Gene Vincent. Settling in Los Angeles, he played guitar on sessions recorded at the famed Gold Star Studios. Back in Memphis, he began an association with Satellite (later Stax Records), producing their first hit, Carla Thomas's 1960 "Gee Whiz." He also produced the first single for the Stax subsidiary label Volt, "Burnt Biscuits" b/w "Raw Dough," by the Triumphs, whose members included future Al Green drummer Howard Grimes. Leaving Stax in 1964 after a monetary dispute with label founder Jim Stewart, he began operating his own Memphis studio, American Sound Studios. There he, along with guitarists Reggie Young and Bobby Womack, bassist Tommy Cogbill, pianist and organist Bobby Emmons, and drummer Gene Chrisman, recorded the Box Tops, Womack, Merrilee Rush, Sandy Posey, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett and Herbie Mann. Although Dusty Springfield's 1969 Dusty in Memphis was recorded at American, Moman did not produce the album (that honor goes to Tom Dowd, Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin). Moman also produced Presley's 1969 From Elvis in Memphis.
During this period Moman co-wrote, with fellow Memphis producer and songwriter Dan Penn, "Do Right Woman-Do Right Man," recorded by Aretha Franklin, and "The Dark End of the Street," which soul singer James Carr recorded. Both songs have since become part of the repertoires of countless singers.
Chips Moman left Memphis in 1973 and briefly operated a studio in Atlanta. He then moved to Nashville, where he produced and co-wrote a hit for B. J. Thomas, "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" (1975). He also co-wrote "Luckenbach, Texas" for Waylon Jennings, and produced albums by Willie Nelson, Gary Stewart and Ronnie Milsap. After a brief return to Memphis in the mid-'80s, during which time his attempt to open a new studio foundered, he settled in West Point, Georgia, where he operates yet another recording studio.
[edit] References
- Hardy, Phil and Laing, Dave (1995). The Da Capo Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80640-1.
