Quin Ivy

Who is Quin Ivy?

Quin Ivy is an American former disc jockey turned songwriter and record producer, crucial to the Muscle Shoals scene in the 1960s.

He was born in Oxford, Mississippi, the son of a sharecropper. He started his career as a DJ in Oxford, followed by spells at WMPS in Memphis, WKDA in Nashville and WLAY in Muscle Shoals, before settling in Sheffield, Alabama. There, he established a record store and began writing songs with producer Rick Hall of FAME Recording Studios. Their output includes the singles "I'm Qualified" and "Lollipops, Lace and Lipstick" both recorded by Jimmy Hughes.

In 1965, Ivy opened his Quinvy recording studio, where he produced the Percy Sledge single "When a Man Loves a Woman" which went to number one on the Billboard charts. He set up the Quinvy and South Camp labels before leaving the music business in the 1970s to gain an MBA degree from The University of Mississippi. He then taught accounting at the University of North Alabama until his retirement.