Malaco Records, founded at this site in 1967, became one of America’s foremost labels in southern soul, blues, and gospel, with Mississippi’s first state-of-the-art recording studio. The company had already operated for several years as the booking agency Malaco Attractions, founded by Tommy Couch and Mitch Malouf, and Couch later worked with Gerald “Wolf” Stephenson, who became chief engineer, and then with Stephenson and Stewart Madison as partners after Malouf left in 1975. Malaco released its first record in 1968, a 45 rpm soul single by Cozy Corley of Hattiesburg, and during the 1960s and 1970s often worked with larger companies including Capitol, ABC, Mercury, Atlantic, Stax, and T.K. to release and distribute recordings produced here. The label gained national stature through recordings such as Dorothy Moore’s “Misty Blue,” Z.Z. Hill’s “Down Home Blues,” and records by the Jackson Southernaires, Denise LaSalle, Bobby Bland, Little Milton, Latimore, and Johnnie Taylor. Although it specialized in rhythm and blues or soul music, it also recorded traditional blues, notably Mississippi Fred McDowell’s 1969 album I Do Not Play No Rock ‘n’ Roll. Among its 1970s rhythm and blues hits were King Floyd’s “Groove Me” on the subsidiary label Chimneyville, Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff” on Stax Records, and Dorothy Moore’s “Misty Blue,” the first Top Ten hit on Malaco Records. Z. Z. Hill’s album Down Home established Malaco’s reputation in the blues, remaining on the Billboard rhythm and blues charts for 93 weeks in 1982-83 and selling half a million copies, an unprecedented mark for a blues LP. Its success showed a substantial audience for the blues remained, and its production style set a standard for much of the music that followed. With songwriters, arrangers, and studio musicians, Malaco blended blues and soul on later albums by Hill and by singers including Denise LaSalle, Latimore, Little Milton, Bobby Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Shirley Brown, Tyrone Davis, Floyd Taylor, and Marvin Sease. Gospel groups including the Jackson Southernaires, the Williams Brothers, and the Mississippi Mass Choir also brought the company renown as a leading gospel label. Tommy Couch, Jr., launched the Waldoxy label in 1992, recording artists including Mel Waiters, Bobby Rush, Artie “Blues Boy” White, and Poonanny, and many Malaco hits became staples in the repertoires of blues bands across the country.
