Memphis’s Top Ten Music Attractions

Memphis’s Top Ten Music Attractions naturally include Graceland and Sun Studio, also Stax records, the Blues Hall of Fame and the WC Handy Home and Museum.

Few cities in the world could count ten top music attractions, but Memphis can. New ones open all the time. Everyone’s heard of Graceland and Sun Studio, but there are plenty more.

The Arcade Restaurant

The Arcade Restaurant is not only a great American diner it has at least two major claims to fame. It opened in 1919 and claims to be the city’s oldest café. It was also one of Elvis Presley’s favorite diners, and if you’re lucky you might get to sit in the booth he liked, which is marked by a small plaque and some photos of The King.

Beale Street

Yes it’s touristy but how can you go to Memphis and not see Beale Street? As well as the bands in the clubs that line the street there’s usually a band playing for tips in Handy Park most afternoons. Next to the Hard Rock Café you’ll also find Lansky’s clothes store, where Elvis cashed his first royalty check from Sun Records as he didn’t have a bank account.

Blues Hall of Fame

The Blues Hall of Fame was started in 1980 but until May 2015 the Hall of Fame had no hall to call its own. Now it has this $2.5 million area in the lower level of what was a self-storage facility. There are ten themed galleries covering topics like city blues, rural blues, and the harmonica, with many artifacts donated to the museum by blues musicians, their friends and families. They include Lead Belly’s guitar picks, Otis Spann’s electric piano, Albert King’s suit and many guitars owned by the likes of Robert Cray, Albert Collins, and Jimmy Reed.

Graceland

The mansion that Elvis called home for twenty years is a combination of kitsch and homely touches, and gives a sense of Elvis the person as well as Elvis the megastar. He’s also buried here with his mother and father, and his grandmother.

WC Handy Home and Museum

This small place won’t take long to look round but is a must-see if you’re at all interested in WC Handy, the ‘Father of the Blues’. It’s located just off Beale Street, at the corner of Fourth Street.

Memphis Music Hall of Fame

Memphis’s newest music attraction is above Lansky’s and next to the Hard Rock Café on a corner of Beale Street. Its one huge room contains displays on the people inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame such as Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, Jesse Winchester, and Al Green. Among the items on display are two-thirds of Jerry Lee Lewis’s customized 1983 Cadillac El Ballero. The rest is down Beale Street at Jerry Lee Lewis’s Cafe and Honky Tonk.

Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum

This small museum tells a big story. It sets rock and soul music in the context of the time, growing as it did out of a combination of country and blues music. The history’s well told, there are some amazing personal items from musicians, and the audio tour allows you to listen to numerous music tracks and interviews as you wander round.

Stax Museum of American Soul Music

Stax Records may have gone out of business in 1976 but the plot of land on which it stood now contains one of the most interesting of Memphis’s several music museums. It includes an exact replica of the original recording studio and tells the unusual story of Stax, with many original artifacts from its artists. These included Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and the Staples Singers.

Sun Studio

Sam Phillips opened Sun Studio in 1950 and recorded many notable blues artists here, including BB King and Howlin’ Wolf, as well as one of the contenders for the first rock ‘n’ roll record: Rocket 88.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbfnh1oVTk0] Then in August 1953 Elvis Presley walked through the door, looking to make a record. Stars like Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins followed. The studio is still in use, and the public tours are an entertaining and fascinating look at this tiny place that produced million-dollar music.

Where to Stay

The Peabody Hotel

Even one of the city’s best and most historic hotels is a music attraction in its own right, whether you’re staying there or not. In the lobby is where Elvis Presley signed the contract that took him from Sun Studio to RCA Records in Nashville, and you’ll also find a branch of Lansky’s. The original clothing store is on Beale Street, just a few minutes walk away, and it’s where music stars like Elvis, Johnny Cash and BB King bought their clothes. You can do the same in the branch at the Peabody, but as a bonus you get to see some of the store’s collection of signed guitars from the likes of Johnny Cash, Aaron Neville, and Celine Dion.