What does A&M stand for?

[aymnostalgico]

Well now that I have bragging rights of being a new member and I've gotten my feet wet by posting a few, I want to know a little bit more about this company that I have been listening to for over 20 years now without even knowing. Why does A&M have this nostalgic feeling to it and also how did it become so much part of collectors that it ended up like this. I am beginning to feel like this myself. why no other record company have been able to achieve this status? The closes thing I could find would have to be RCA Victor and the little dog with the vitrolla<---is this how you spell that?

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Well, A&M started in 1962 as a partnership between Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, so that's the A and M. A&M was huge in the '60's with acts like the Tijuana Brass and The Baja Marimba Band and Sergio Mendes and Brasil66. Burt Bacharach also recorded for A&M, as well. The best pop acts, in my opinion, were on the label...and the songs they recorded were the soundtrack of the era. We all dig that music, so that's why we gather here. When you get right down to it, it's amazing just how much a part of our lives those songs really were. A&M Records is a pop icon, no question about it. It's a shame that it's been reduced to a shadow of it's former self by corporate restructuring.

Dan

 

[Harry]

Go here:

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765&highlight=

and read my post (several down from the top) quoting the chapter about 1962 and the founding of A&M Records. Fascinating stuff and it gives an excellent perspective about how it all got started.

Harry
...pointing the way, online...

 

[mikeargo]

Thanks, Harry, for pointing the way back to that highly interesting post from last year. What does Jerry Moss mean when he says--

Then, in December of ’62, A&M released its first album, also titled “The Lonely Bull.” Jerry recalls, “Nobody covered the single, but on the album they really came down very hard. In all, there were about 8 or 9 cover versions.”

Is he talking about other bands/artists doing cover versions of various songs from the Lonely Bull album? Or of just "The Lonely Bull" (song)? And who were those artists?

Mike A
NP: "A Quiet Tear"

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I remember one cover of TLB; Billy Vaughn did it, and I thought it was terrible...the song just didn't lend itself to a sax at all...


Dan

 

[Mr Bill]

The Ventures covered "The Lonely Bull" around the same time they did "Telstar." Where's Dave Twogood when we really need him?

--Mr Bill

 

[aymnostalgico]

Well now that I have bragging rights of being a new member and I've gotten my feet wet by posting a few, I want to know a little bit more about this company that I have been listening to for over 20 years now without even knowing. Why does A&M have this nostalgic feeling to it and also how did it become so much part of collectors that it ended up like this. I am beginning to feel like this myself. why no other record company have been able to achieve this status? The closes thing I could find would have to be RCA Victor and the little dog with the vitrolla<---is this how you spell that?

Thanks resolving mycuriosity. I don't know how I didn't figure it out, because I do know some about the A&M history, but moreand more I am becoming interested because of you guys here in the forum. thanks again.

 

[aymnostalgico]

Go here:

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765&highlight=

and read my post (several down from the top) quoting the chapter about 1962 and the founding of A&M Records. Fascinating stuff and it gives an excellent perspective about how it all got started.

Harry
...pointing the way, online...

Thanks Harry, as soon as I get home I will start reading on that link you sent.

 

[Rudy]

I am beginning to feel like this myself. why no other record company have been able to achieve this status? The closes thing I could find would have to be RCA Victor and the little dog with the vitrolla<---is this how you spell that?

Labels back in the 60's, to me, had a distinct "family" sound. A&M was like that. Other favorite labels of mine are RCA, Fantasy and Verve for the same reasons. As recently as the 80's and early 90's (before the big takeover), the jazz label GRP Records parallels A&M in a few ways, and even Windham Hill had its own character while it still existed more or less independently under A&M's wing.

 

[aymnostalgico]

the jazz label GRP Records parallels A&M in a few ways, and even Windham Hill had its own character while it still existed more or less independently under A&M's wing.[/quote]

You know something wingnut, before, when I was 16 or so that I knew A&M as a record company that put records, I thought briefly about the uniqueness of the name and at one point I thought maybe it was owned by Texas A&M University. Isn't that funny?

 

[aymnostalgico]

Labels back in the 60's, to me, had a distinct "family" sound. A&M was like that. Other favorite labels of mine are RCA, Fantasy and Verve for the same reasons.

You know something wingnut, before, when I was 16 or so that I knew A&M as a record company that put records, I thought briefly about the uniqueness of the name and at one point I thought maybe it was owned by Texas A&M University. Isn't that funny?

 

[Mr Bill]

WHen I first found the Michel Colombier LP Wings and read that Vermetty Royster was a graduate of "Texas A&M" my first thought was that Herb and Jerry also ran a music college!

--Mr Bill
who never heard of the "aggies" before that...

 

[Captain Bacardi]

who never heard of the "aggies" before that...

I wish I could still say that!


Capt. Bacardi
...who could tell a bunch of Aggie jokes online... (What's the mating call of an Aggie woman? "I'm soooo drunk!")

 

[aymnostalgico]

WHen I first found the Michel Colombier LP Wings and read that Vermetty Royster was a graduate of "Texas A&M" my first thought was that Herb and Jerry also ran a music college!

--Mr Bill
who never heard of the "aggies" before that...

I didn't know this guy was an artist, Michel Colombier, that is. I know he is a well established studio musician. I have seen him in credits on the most respectable latin albums. Excuse my ignorance. I am beginning to discover new things. More and more I come to realize what talents were in A&M records. I will have to check some Colombier's recordings.