Often remembered as neighborhood rivals, Stax Records and Hi Records built two of the defining bodies of work during the heyday of Memphis soul. Mere blocks apart, Stax’s studio on McLemore Avenue and Royal Studios on South Lauderdale Street, where Hi’s recordings were made, developed distinct house sounds, rosters and institutional identities. Though both were gems nestled in the heart of South Memphis, the studios largely occupied separate institutional worlds. Cross-company collaboration rarely figures into either operation’s history.

Jimmy McCracklin’s Yesterday Is Gone complicates that familiar separation. Released by Stax in 1972, the album was recorded at Royal and produced and arranged by Willie Mitchell and Al Jackson Jr. Its personnel drew heavily from the Hi Rhythm Section, whose work behind Al Green, Syl Johnson and Ann Peebles, at the time amplified the Royal sound around the world. That outfit revolved around brothers Charles, Leroy and Teenie Hodges, with both Howard Grimes and Jackson credited on drums. The Memphis Horns also served both Royal and Stax. Through these overlapping affiliations, Yesterday Is Gone stands as the sole Stax LP recorded within the working musical environment that defined Hi’s sweltering 1970s soul.

At the center of that convergence stood McCracklin, an artist whose career predated the classic eras of both companies. The Arkansas-born pianist, singer and songwriter had spent more than 25 years carrying the blues across labels, regions and changes in Black popular music. By the time he entered Royal, McCracklin had moved from postwar piano blues into sax-driven rhythm and blues, dance records and soul. His composition “Tramp” had even entered the Stax canon through Otis Redding and Carla Thomas before McCracklin recorded an album for the label himself.

The connection between the studios was unusual but not without precedent. More than a decade earlier, Jim Stewart had taken Carla Thomas to Royal to remake “Gee Whiz” with a string section. When Stewart decided that version was too fast, he recorded the song again at McLemore Avenue, producing the master that became Satellite Records’ first major hit before the company adopted the Stax name. The two companies’ paths rarely crossed on record again until McCracklin’s arrival at Stax.

Born James David Walker in Helena, Arkansas, McCracklin spent part of his youth in St. Louis, where pianist Walter Davis became an early influence. After boxing and serving in the Navy during World War II, he moved to California and made his recording debut with “Miss Mattie Left Me,” in 1945.

McCracklin went on to record for companies including Modern, Swing Time, Peacock, Checker, Mercury, Art-Tone, Imperial and Minit. Although closely identified with West Coast blues, his records moved comfortably among piano blues, sax-driven R&B and the evolving language of soul. “The Walk” became his greatest crossover success in 1958, reaching the Top 10 on both the Pop and R&B charts. “Just Got to Know” returned him to the upper reaches of the R&B chart in 1961, while “Every Night, Every Day,” “Think” and “My Answer” carried his direct, conversational writing deeper into the decade.

McCracklin’s arrival at Stax was part of the label’s broader investment in the blues and in established Black artists. Albert King became a foundational member of the roster, while performers working across electric blues, soul-blues and older R&B traditions benefited from Stax’s production and distribution system. By the early 1970s, the company’s ambitions included veterans such as Billy Eckstine and jazz bandleader Chico Hamilton alongside the younger soul artists it had developed.

The musicians surrounding McCracklin reflected how porous the boundaries of Memphis music could be. Jackson had played in Mitchell’s band before becoming the rhythmic center of Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Grimes contributed to Stax’s earliest sessions before helping anchor the Hi Rhythm Section. Teenie Hodges had co-written Sam & Dave’s 1965 Stax single “I Take What I Want” with Isaac Hayes and David Porter.

Together, they gave McCracklin a setting grounded in the blues but fluent in Royal’s restrained rhythms and melodic horns. The studio’s vocal identity was represented by Rhodes, Chalmers & Rhodes, a distinguished backing trio formed by sisters Sandy and Donna Rhodes and Sandy’s husband, saxophonist and arranger Charlie Chalmers. Recording artists in their own right, the three became fixtures of Mitchell’s sessions and supplied background vocals throughout Yesterday Is Gone. Chalmers also arranged the strings on “Would Man Be Satisfied” and the title track. Mitchell engineered the sessions, then shared remix duties with Stax engineering director Dave Purple.

The album opens with two strong midtempo cuts punctuated by shuffling drumbeats. On “Double Dealing,” soulful, legato coos give the arrangement remarkable texture while McCracklin cuts through them with a bluesman’s squall. “Stay Away from That Monkey” quickens the pace with wah-wah guitar and a steady drive that nearly forecasts disco. It also leans closest to the gospel influence within Stax’s contemporary sensibility, largely through backing vocalists who answer McCracklin like a church chorus.

The title track turns inward. Moody and forlorn, “Yesterday Is Gone” relies upon the backing voices to deepen the dreariness of its orchestral arrangement. The effect places it alongside Royal ballads such as Syl Johnson’s “Could I Be Falling in Love” and the sentimental side of Al Green heard on “I Wish You Were Here.” The singers do more than soften McCracklin’s blues delivery. Their responses reinforce the song’s sense of loss, making the past feel present even as McCracklin sings about leaving it behind.

“Would Man Be Satisfied” reaches further into traditional blues than anything preceding it, while “Like My Mamma” picks up the pace without leaving that territory. “I Finally Got You” moves toward a brighter strain of pop-soul songwriting. Fun, flirtatious and slightly cheeky, it sounds like what would have been the album’s clearest candidate for a crossover single. Across these shifts, McCracklin never appears to be trying on unfamiliar styles. The record instead demonstrates how naturally his blues language could move through the wider vocabulary available at Royal.

Yesterday Is Gone expands on the rich musical history McCracklin carried into its sessions, but it never leaves him stranded in the past. Stax and Hi maintained separate identities, yet the people responsible for their sounds had shared stages, sessions and creative relationships for years. The album captures those connections in full, preserving a moment when one bluesman’s long journey passed through both institutions at once.

Please note: “Mamma” is what is currently live on DSPs, but “Mama” is what was originally printed on the LP.

by Jared Boyd