Nashville calls itself “Music City,” and with good reason. It is home to the Grand Ole Opry, the famed Ryman Auditorium and dozens of music-related museums. It is the chosen home of numerous singers and musicians.

Visit the city’s downtown Honky-Tonk Row on almost any night, and you’ll enjoy the live music blaring from bars alongside each side of Broadway.

The two of us recently took in the music scene in Nashville and enjoyed virtually everything about it. We visited the Ryman, called the “Mother Church of Country Music.” We saw the George Jones Museum, the Johnny Cash Museum, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum – not to mention numerous record stores.

However, for us, one iconic place, nondescript compared to all the others stood apart in tribute to the decades of music written and recorded in this city.

RCA Studio B is where Elvis Presley, for 13 years, recorded hits including “It’s Now or Never” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” The latter he sang with the lights turned off.

It is where Roy Orbison’s operatic voice soared with “Crying” and where Dolly Parton in 1973 recorded “Jolene.”

It’s where the Everly Brothers harmonized on “Cathy’s Clown,” where The Browns recorded their classic “The Three Bells” and where Gentleman Jim Reeves’ silky voice produced “He’ll Have to Go.”

Roger Miller, Floyd Cramer, Perry Como, Eddy Arnold, Waylon Jennings, Al Hirt, Duane Eddy, Bobby Goldsboro and Mickey Gilley recorded here. Studio B is called the “Birthplace of a Thousand Hits.”

Studio B dates to the mid-1950s, when RCA decided to compete in the music industry by producing songs with crossover appeal. Producers began replacing fiddles with the lush sound of strings, moving from the hard country sounds that until then had characterized Nashville music.

That required better studios, improved recording systems and different techniques. Thus, RCA drew up plans for a new facility that was to become Studio B.

The new Nashville studio at the corner of 17th Avenue South and Hawkins – now the intersection of Music Square West and Roy Acuff Place – opened in late 1957 with Don Gibson recording “Oh Lonesome Me,” backed by the Jordanaires. Producer Chet Atkins played electric guitar. That song and its flip side, “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” each became chart-toppers, igniting decades hit-making at Studio B.

Often overlooked on recordings are the studio musicians. Muscle Shoals had the Swampers, while Motown featured the Funk Brothers. In Los Angeles in the 1960s and ‘70s, the Wrecking Crew produced Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound.”

In “Music City,” it was the Nashville Cats who gave Studio B its sound with luminaries such as Cramer, Atkins, Jerry Reed and Boots Randolph, along with lesser-known but equally talented musicians including Harold Bradley, Bob Moore and Buddy Harman.

Their music is soaked into the walls of this small studio, which remains open for the public to appreciate. Guided tours depart daily from Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 222 5th Ave. South. Tours are available only with platinum tickets that also offer admission to the Hall of Fame and last about an hour. Tours are offered each hour beginning at 10:30 with the last tour at 2:30. You could easily spend most of a day browsing through the impressive Hall of Fame and touring Studio B.

Considering that it was built in the late 1950s, the studio’s exterior is not particularly surprising. However, the interior is amazingly small, especially given that in early years artists recorded in the same room as the musicians.

Listen to a few of the lush arrangements for Orbison’s early recordings and visualize how many musicians were involved. Now, imagine them playing while pressed into a small space.

After hearing the tour guide relate some of Studio B’s history, and inspecting several original instruments visitors step down the hallway and into the studio.

A 1942 Steinway in the far corner was once played by Jerry Lee Lewis, Floyd Cramer, and Fats Domino.

On the floor, a taped “X” marks the spot where Elvis, Roy, Dolly and the Everlys stood while making their hits. On this spot some of the all-time greats of American music stood as so much musical history was made.

Visiting the studio is a magical experience. If there’s a downside, it’s that we wish we could have lingered longer.

David and Kay Scott are the authors of “Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges” (Globe Pequot). Visit them at www.valdosta.edu/~dlscott/Scott