Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

MITCHELL, Willie

(b 1928, Ashland MS; d 5 January 2010, Memphis TN) Bandleader and record producer who was one of the architects of the golden age of soul music. He began on trumpet and led a ten-piece touring band while still in his teens; after serving in the U.S. Army he played in Memphis clubs in the mid-1950s. He signed with Hi Records in 1961 as a recording artist and had minor R&B hits such as 'Soul Serenade' and '30-60-90', but soon found his feet as a producer.

Hi Records was actually formed in Memphis before the more famous local Stax label; both were headquartered in disused cinemas, and they listened to and influenced one another. Hi's sound owed much to the Hodges brothers, Teenie on guitar, Charles on organ and Leroy on bass, with Al Jackson or Howard Grimes on drums. But the Hi sound was also prominent with horns. He was quoted by Peter Guralnick in his Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom (1986): 'It’s the laziness of the rhythm. You hear those old lazy horns half a beat behind the music, and you think they’re gonna miss it, and all of a sudden, just so lazy, they come in and start to sway with it. It’s like kind of shucking you, putting you on.'

Mitchell produced albums and singles by singer and songwriter Ann Peebles (b 27 April 1947, St Louis MO), who had 18 hit singles in the black chart and several hit albums; the biggest was I Can't Stand The Rain at no. 25, whose title single crossed over to top 40 pop. Meanwhile, Mitchell played a club in Midland Texas in 1968 where the opening act was young Al Green, from Michigan, who said later, 'I was trying to sing like Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett. He told me to sing like Al Green.' Mitchell's backing and his coaching took Green's 'Let's Stay Together' to no. 1 on the pop chart '71, followed by 12 more top 40 hits before Green left music for a religious vocation.

Mitchell also produced O.V. Wright, Syl Johnson and others (as well as Bobby Bland's album Ain't Nothing You Can Do '64 for the Duke label). Hi Records was sold in the late 1970s; Mitchell bought the Royal studio, as it was called, and preserved it just as it was. He recorded Buddy Guy, John Mayer and Rod Stewart there; Peebles and Mitchell reunited for her comeback album Call Me '89, and when Green and MItchell reunited for two albums in the 21st century, they used the same microphone they had used 30 years earlier.