Genre-spanning keyboardist and songwriter Bobby Emmons, a Corinth native, embarked upon a music career in his teens. As a member of the revered American Sound Studio house band in Memphis, his Hammond organ both anchored and enlivened pop, soul, jazz, and country hits by a striking range of artists: King Curtis, the Box Tops, Dusty Springfield, Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, and John Prine among them. His greatest songwriting success came after moving to Nashville in 1972, including the GRAMMY-nominated “Luckenbach, Texas” recorded by Waylon Jennings with Willie Nelson.

Born on February 19, 1943, Bobby Emmons played piano from childhood, drawing inspiration from the barrelhouse ragtime of Joe “Fingers” Carr and from versatile keyboardist and bandleader, Bill Doggett. Affirmation came at age fourteen when, as a member of the Farmington Future Farmers of America band, Emmons won a statewide competition at the annual FFA convention. The summer before eleventh grade, a visit to Memphis launched him toward a professional career. He sat in with local bands, auditioned for Hi Records producers, and landed a solo club gig before returning to Corinth High School. That year, he met Georgia-born musician Lincoln “Chips” Moman, who invited him to join a touring band. Emmons left school and the pair hit the road, forming a lifelong musical connection.

Emmons moved to Memphis in 1960, where he honed his skills in nightclubs and began to play recording sessions. He soon joined Bill Black’s Combo, a top instrumental group that featured stellar guitarist Reggie Young. Emmons left the combo in 1963 and found regular work for Hi Records and other labels at Memphis’s Royal Studios. Emmons focused on songwriting and began to play Hammond B-3 organ, a staple of the era’s R&B, rock and roll, and soul records. Emmons shines on recordings by Ace Cannon, James Carr, Joe Tex, and Willie Mitchell. He also recorded as a solo artist.

After opening American Sound Studio in 1964, Moman recruited Emmons and other gifted Memphis musicians—including guitarist Young, bassist Tommy Cogbill, drummer Gene Chrisman, pianist Bobby Wood, and bassist Mike Leech—as the in-house backing band. The group quickly crystalized into a hitmaking machine. The loose atmosphere, versatility, and tight grooves attracted major-label artists to the studio. Between 1967 and 1972, the 827 Thomas Street Band, as they became known, appeared on 122 Billboard-charting records. Emmons’s work graces hits such as “The Letter” by the Box Tops, King Curtis’s “Memphis Soul Stew,” Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” “Son of a Preacher Man” by Dusty Springfield, Joe Tex’s “I Gotcha!,” Elvis Presley’s career-resurrecting album, From Elvis in Memphis, and John Prine’s eponymous 1971 debut album.

In 1972, Emmons relocated to Nashville and became a sought-after studio musician there. He furthered his songwriting, often partnering with Moman or Dan Penn, another Memphis music scene veteran.  Tanya Tucker’s recording of “Love Me Like You Used To” reached #2, and George Strait reached Billboard’s #3 spot with “So Much Like My Daddy.”

Emmons and his American Sound Studio bandmates, billed as the “Memphis Boys,” released their own album in 1990, and the same year, they toured with supergroup the Highwaymen. He continued to write and perform, even appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman with Penn in 2014. Bobby Emmons passed away at age 72 on February 23, 2015.