Nashville’s Historic Temple of Sound

Historic RCA Studio B is among the most significant recording spaces in the world. For twenty years, the RCA Records studio was the incubator for hit after hit in the country and pop markets. Here many famous artists—including Eddy Arnold, the Everly Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Jim Reeves, and Connie Smith—made some of their most important records.

It was also the home base for Country Music Hall of Fame member Chet Atkins, a virtuoso guitarist and influential record producer for RCA’s artists. Built in 1957, RCA Studio B became known as a birthplace for the “Nashville Sound,” a pop-oriented style of country music characterized by smooth instrumentation, background vocals, and string sections that helped establish Nashville as an international recording center.

Significantly, RCA Studio B is one of the places where the “Nashville number system”—a shorthand notation for a song’s chord progressions using numbers and symbols instead of notes—was refined by Country Music Hall of Fame members Neil Matthews of the Jordanaires and Charlie McCoy. This number system, used to this day, allows spontaneous “head arrangements” in the studio and makes changing a song’s key quick and easy.

A Storied History

Prior to building Studio B, RCA had a recording space on McGavock Street, a few blocks north of RCA Studio B’s eventual location. But the company did not have a Nashville division. Then, in late 1955, Elvis Presley signed with RCA and exploded on the scene. Six months into his contract, he was the biggest act in RCA’s history. At the end of 1956, RCA tallied sales of ten million singles, three million EPs, and 800,000 copies of Presley’s first two albums.

With Presley proving to be such a huge commercial success and several country acts on RCA doing well, RCA’s country music chief, Steve Sholes, persuaded the label that it made good sense to open a Nashville office and a new studio. To run the Nashville operation, Sholes selected Chet Atkins, a standout guitar player who had been serving as an assistant producer to Sholes. Chet, then thirty-two, became RCA’s “musical director” in Nashville in the spring of 1957.

According to Atkins, RCA’s chief audio engineer, Bill Miltenburg, drew out the plans for the building on a dinner napkin. Dan Maddox, a local businessman, stepped in and offered to construct a building to house the studio as an investment. The building was completed for about $40,000 in November 1957, and Maddox leased it to RCA for the next twenty years.

In the early days, it was called the RCA Victor Studio. When the studio opened, the staff consisted of just Chet Atkins, his assistant Juanita Jones, an engineer, and a man in custom sales who brought in outside record labels for recording sessions. It served as RCA’s Nashville headquarters until 1964, when the building next door was built to house RCA offices and a new larger studio, called Studio A. As a result, the smaller facility became known as Studio B.

Over the years, a veritable hit parade of classics was recorded there, including Skeeter Davis’s “The End of the World,” Jim Reeves’s “He’ll Have to Go,” the Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely,” Charley Pride’s “Kiss an Angel Good Morning,” Connie Smith’s “Once a Day,” Porter Wagoner’s “Green, Green Grass of Home,” and Dolly Parton’s “Joshua.” Elvis Presley recorded more than 240 songs at RCA Studio B, including such big hits as “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” “It’s Now or Never,” “(Now and Then There’s) A Fool Such As I,” and “Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame.”

Open to the Public

In 1977, RCA closed all of its Nashville studios. After thousands of recording sessions over twenty years, RCA ceased operations at Studio B, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum began operating the studio as a historic site, allowing public tours for the first time. RCA Studio B was donated to the Museum by the late Dan and Margaret Maddox in 1992.

Following the Mike Curb Family Foundation’s philanthropic 2002 purchase and subsequent lease in perpetuity for $1 per year to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the storied studio’s exterior has been renovated and the interior has been returned to its historic appearance as an analog “temple of sound.”

Today, museum staff members manage the studio, supervising school programs and public tours during the day. A number of artists have continued to record at RCA Studio B from time to time. Among them have been Gillian Welch and David Rawlings with Time (The Revelator) in 2001, Marty Stuart with Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions in 2010, Bobby Bare with Darker Than Light in 2013, and John Hiatt with the Jerry Douglas Band with Leftover Feelings in 2021.

Partners

Preservation of Historic RCA Studio B is made possible through a partnership between the Mike Curb Family Foundation and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In 2002, the foundation philanthropically purchased historic RCA Studio B, making it possible for the Museum to provide studio tours in support of its educational mission.

Historic RCA Studio B is supported, in part, by City National Bank, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Sally Friedman, Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission, Rupert Neve Designs, Clarence and Ann Spalding, Chris and Maggie Stewart, Tennessee Arts Commission, and Jonathan and Elizabeth Weiswasser.

Since 1977, RCA Studio B has been operated as a historic site by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and is open for tours.

Visit our Digital Archive to learn more about RCA Studio B.

The Early Days of Studio B

Built by Nashville businessman Dan Maddox in 1957 and leased to RCA Records, RCA Studio B was first known as “RCA Victor Studio.” It became a cradle of the Nashville Sound in the late 1950s and early 1960s with hits including Don Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me,” the Browns’ “The Three Bells,” and Jim Reeves’s “He’ll Have to Go.” A sophisticated style typified by background vocals and strings, the Nashville Sound won new audiences for country music and enlarged Nashville’s international reputation as a recording center.

Studio B hitmakers also have included Country Music Hall of Fame® members Bobby Bare, Floyd Cramer,Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Dottie West, as well as pop trumpet player Al Hirt, gospel greats the Blackwood Brothers, bluegrass pioneer Lester Flatt, and R&B legend Fats Domino. In addition to recording at the studio for many years, Country Music Hall of Fame® member Chet Atkins managed RCA’s Nashville operation and produced hundreds of hits there between 1957 and 1973.

Studio B has witnessed numerous recording innovations, including new reverb techniques and the development of the “Nashville number system.” A musician’s shorthand for notating a song’s chord structure, this system facilitates the creation of individual parts while retaining the integrity of the song and performance.

The Campus Grows

In 1965, when Chet Atkins, together with Owen and Harold Bradley, opened a larger studio next door and began leasing it to RCA, the newer studio became known as RCA Studio A, and the older, smaller studio became RCA Studio B.

Eventually, two more small studios were added to RCA’s Nashville campus—Studio C, in the Studio A building, and Studio D, in the Studio B building. Recordings often employed more than one of the studios, some, all four.

In addition to accommodating large instrumental and vocal ensembles in recording sessions, the Studio A building also housed RCA Nashville executive offices, as well as booking agencies, music publishers, and other other music enterprises.

In 1973 Jerry Bradley, Atkins’s assistant, took over as head of RCA Nashville; Atkins then focused on his own recordings while still producing the occasional session. Producers for other labels also rented RCA’s studio facilities.

Joining the Museum Family

First made available to Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum visitors in 1977, RCA Studio B was donated to the Museum by the late Dan and Margaret Maddox in 1992.

Following the Mike Curb Family Foundation’s philanthropic 2002 purchase and subsequent lease in perpetuity to the non-profit Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, Studio B’s exterior has been renovated and the interior has been returned to its 1960s-era prime as a “temple of sound.”

Historic RCA Studio B is supported, in part, by City National Bank, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Sally Friedman, Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission, Rupert Neve Designs, Clarence and Ann Spalding, Chris and Maggie Stewart, Tennessee Arts Commission, and Jonathan and Elizabeth Weiswasser.