Wex on Wax: Twenty Essential Jerry Wexler Productions

1. Professor Longhair, "Tipitina" (1953)
Wexler met Professor Longhair — the father of New Orleans funk — on his first Atlantic road trip. He was surprised to find the piano man light on material, so he asked Fess to sing something like the 8-bar blues "Tee Nah Nah." The made-to-order invention is now a New Orleans anthem and "has lived on in the liturgy," wrote Wexler.

2. Ray Charles, "I Got a Woman" (1954)
Wexler once said that all he did with Charles in the studio was "turn on the lights" and get out of the way. With "I Got a Woman," Wex and Ahmet Ertegun booked Charles time in an Atlanta radio station, and the budding soul genius emerged with the first example of what would become his signature style: this thinly disguised gospel melody praising a crosstown booty call.

3. Big Joe Turner, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" (1954)
Sex — slyly suggested or overtly celebrated — became an Atlantic trademark with tunes like this evergreen. "One of my favorite images of erotic poetry," Wexler wrote of the line — "You wear those dresses/The sun comes shining through." Penned by staff writer Jesse Stone, that's Wexler and Ertegun belting out the song's refrain.

4. LaVern Baker, "Tweedlee Dee" (1954)
"I lost my maiden with LaVern Baker, speaking musically of course," Wexler wrote of the first artist he produced with no help This was a #14 hit; white pop singer Georgia Gibb's cleaned-up version made #1. So Wexler came up with a gimmick: before boarding a plane, Baker insured herself and made Gibbs the beneficiary. "If my plane crashes you'll need this more than I do," she explained.

5. Champion Jack Dupree, "Junker's Blues" (1958)
This hard look at drug addiction from another New Orleans piano professor was boldly honest for its time. "Back then it took chutzpah to call the album Blues from the Gutter," Wexler said. "The only music we recorded was the music that we liked."

6. The Drifters, "There Goes My Baby" (1959)
Nobody is right all the time: Wexler hated this Lieber and Stoller production, waiting a year before releasing it (it went straight to #1). But more importantly, Wexler had recognized the potential in the L.A. songwriting team. In '57, he lured them to Atlantic as the industry's first independent A&R men.

7. Ray Charles, "What I'd Say" (1959)
Charles left Atlantic this Top 10 — one of the great example of soulful call and response — just as he jumped to the very large ABC Records (one more hit followed, titled ironically, "I'm Moving On.") Charles's departure never sat right with Wexler. "My feeling is we never really had a shot to get into the bidding."

8. Solomon Burke, "If You Need Me" (1963)
Co-produced by Wexler with protege Bert Berns. It was one of Burke's most successful hits, and the label's most needed. "Solomon came along when the British Invasion was gearing up. Burke carried Atlantic by selling a shitload of records — and they were terrific."

9. Booker T. & the MG's, "Green Onions" (1962)
In New York, Wexler "was out of inspiration." In a small Memphis studio, he got his groove back. Atlantic began distributing Stax recordings to the world, laying the foundation for the rise of Sixties soul. The first major yield was this simple but deep-and-funky blues by Stax's biracial house band.

10. Wilson Pickett, "In the Midnight Hour" (1965)
Wexler's first production down south with an Atlantic artist. Wex himself suggested the rhythmic pause that helped make this a monster, busting a move in the studio to show what he meant. "The delayed backbeat thing . . . we used that on a lot of records," Stax guitarist Steve Cropper said.