Which Music Row Building Is the Most Historically Significant?
- 2 sections
- 1 table
- 2 sources cited
Two buildings have the strongest claim, and which one wins depends on what you count. The Quonset Hut came first. Bradley Studios, nicknamed the Quonset Hut Studio, was established in 1954 by brothers Owen and Harold Bradley. Wikipedia calls it “the first commercial recording studio facility in what would later become known as Music Row” (Wikipedia). It produced hits by Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, and Marty Robbins, among others. RCA Studio B came next. It was built in 1957, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum calls it “a birthplace for the ‘Nashville Sound'” and one of “the most significant recording spaces in the world” (Country Music Hall of Fame). Elvis Presley recorded more than 240 songs there. If “significant” means the building that started Music Row, it is the Quonset Hut. If it means the room you can stand in and hear the history, it is Studio B, which the museum runs as a historic site with public tours.
The Two Buildings Side by Side
| Item | Quonset Hut (Bradley Studios) | RCA Studio B |
|---|---|---|
| Opened | 1954 | completed November 1957 |
| Built by | Owen and Harold Bradley | local businessman Dan Maddox, for about $40,000, leased to RCA |
| Claim to fame | first commercial recording studio on what became Music Row | a birthplace of the Nashville Sound; Chet Atkins's home base |
| Later owners | Columbia Records from 1962; Mike Curb from 2006 | donated to the museum by Dan and Margaret Maddox in 1992; bought by the Mike Curb Family Foundation in 2002 and leased to the museum for $1 a year |
| Today | recording classroom for Belmont University's Mike Curb College | museum-run historic site and classroom |
Sources: Wikipedia, Quonset Hut Studio; Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, About Historic RCA Studio B.
Records Made There
- Quonset Hut: Columbia bought it in 1962 and kept the Quonset hut studio itself intact. Between 1962 and 1982, it hosted hits by Johnny Cash, Bobby Vinton, Bob Dylan, Roger Miller, and George Jones.
- Studio B: 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”, and Dolly Parton’s “Joshua”.
RCA closed its Nashville studios in 1977. Studio B’s history and how to tour it are in the history of RCA Studio B, and the district around both buildings is in what Music Row is.