Bullet Records

Your next stop is located at 421 Broadway and is today the home of Alan Jackson’s “AJ’s Good Time Bar.” The building is a very important part of Nashville music recording history. In 1945, at the end of World War II, Nashville did not have a single recording studio or record label. Radio stations had studios, but there wasn’t an honest to goodness recording studio until 1946 when three WSM engineers built Castle Recording Studio, which no longer exists. That same year, the first record label, Bullet Records, was established. It was independent—not a major label. It began releasing records in early 1946, and they recorded a wide spectrum of music: country, rhythm and blues, black gospel, white gospel, pop.

The first million seller recorded in Nashville was “Near You,” a big band number by Francis Craig. It was number one for seventeen consecutive weeks and became the theme song for Milton Berle on his radio and TV shows. Berle was a comedian and early TV star.

Bullet Records was founded by Jim Bulleit—the correct pronunciation of his name, although many called him Jim Bullet. Heritage Music, a business that sold jukeboxes and records, was located at 423 and 425 Broadway. That business was owned by C.V. Hitchcock—an investor in Bullet Records. The first office for Bullet was on Seventh Avenue North. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, there was a problem getting records pressed. So in 1947, Bullet launched Bullet Plastics to press records. Bullet Records was hot and so was Bullet Plastics—there was no air conditioning.

Ogden Stokes, whose father was involved with both Bullet companies, recalled, “The whole place was dimly lit and hot, regardless of the temperature outside. I always compared it to Dante’s Inferno.” Bulleit later sold the company to Hermitage Music, which became Southern Plastics and is now United Record Pressing. Bullet Records was an important label in the history of the music business in Nashville. They released the first records by Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins—who later became the fathers of Music Row. They recorded stars of the Grand Ole Opry, Wynonie Harris, an early R&B star, and Pee Wee King, a co-writer of the “Tennessee Waltz.”

As you walk down Broadway towards the Cumberland River, you’ll see the Ernest Tubb Record Shop on your right at number 417 - it’s right in the middle of the block. Walk in and take a look at their music collection and the exhibit at the rear of the store. This is our next stop.