A&M in the 4200s

[Tom Wallace]

Recent AOTWs got me to thinking about A&M during this period…late 1969 to mid-1970 or so. It was an interesting time for the label: the acts that brought it to prominence—the TJB, Mendes, arguably Claudine—were well past their commercial peaks, and the next wave of big successes—Carpenters, Cat Stevens—hadn’t happened yet. Bacharach and Joe Cocker were still going strong, the Sandpipers and Free came through with big hit singles, the “Greatest Hits” series probably sold pretty well, and modest-selling acts like Lee Michaels, Procol Harum, Fairport Convention and the Flying Burrito Brothers had their followings, but how did the label make it through these comparatively lean times?

A&M released a great deal of material that went nowhere commercially during this time: Mort Garson’s 12 zodiac LPs (how much of a financial bath did the label take on those?), Jeffrey Comanor, Churls, Judith Durham, Evie Sands, Waylon Jennings, the flop soundtrack to the flop film “John and Mary.” There was the controversial, withdrawn Spirits & Worm, the never released Milkwood, Children of God and second Joanne Vent LP, etc.

I don’t want to belabor the point, but I think this is a fascinating period for A&M. And of course, I’m approaching this from a strictly commercial viewpoint. Artistically, some fine, wide-ranging music came out during this time, and I enjoy a lot of it (unfortunately, it’s not easy getting my hands on some of the more obscure stuff). It makes me wonder what would’ve happened to A&M had the Carpenters and Cat Stevens not hit it really big in late 1970.

Cheers,

Tom

Now playing: Seemon & Marijke “Son of America” (SP 4309)—case in point, except in the 4300s—very entertaining early-70s earthy/mystical/hippie rock (with a soul instrumental thrown in), illustrious cast of players, produced by Graham Nash, commercial flop.

 

[LPJim]

You're definitely on to something. Even Lee Michaels was one album away from his big hit 5th (4302). "Do You Know What I Mean"
And Supertramp's first album (4274) got no attention until it was rereleased four years later, after their breakthrough CRIME OF THE CENTURY.
Not to mention Carpenters OFFERING (4205), which had to be repackaged before anyone paid attention.
The 4200 series also brought the last A&M BMB effort (4298).
However, it was the start of Gary Wright's solo career (4277 plus 4296) along with that of the Move (4259), which would later evolve into ELO.
Many "seeds" were planted; some would bring a 'harvest' to other labels, however.
JB

 

[Michael Hagerty]

The decline for A&M began in '69. Consider 1968: Herb Alpert's "This Guy's In Love With You" hits #1 and propels "Beat Of The Brass" LP sales. Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 peak at #4 with "The Look Of Love" (no doubt renewing sales of "Look Around"). They hit #6 with "Fool On The Hill", driving the LP of the same name. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart get to #7 with "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite". Sergio's "Scarborough Fair" makes #16 (and sells some more "Fool On The Hill" albums).

Now look at 1969: The highest-charting A&M single that year was Sonny Charles & Checkmates, LTD's "Black Pearl", which topped out at #13 (and was most likely a single hit...not moving that many LPs). That was the only single to crack Billboard's Top 40. Without hit singles, "The Brass Are Comin'", "Warm" and "Crystal Illusions" sold far less than their predecessors.

The year 1970 started slowly. Jimmy Cliff's "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" stopped at #25. Joe Cocker's "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" only made it to #30.

The dry spell ended in the summer of 1970, when the Carpenters' "Close To You" went to #1. Also that summer, Joe Cocker got to #5 with "The Letter", Miguel Rios cracked #14 with "A Song Of Joy", The Sandpipers managed #17 with "Come Saturday Morning" .

And the fall was good, too...Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" at #2, Free's "All Right Now" at #4 and Cocker's "Cry Me A River" at #11. With the exception of Cliff and Rios, the 1970 singles led to good LP sales.

It wasn't until 1972, as a radio station programmer, that I got to know the people at A&M and spent some time at 1416 N. LaBrea...the bad times were long gone by then. But looking at the charts, and realizing that A&M was only 7 years old in 1969, and Herb and Jerry were only 3 years into the mortgage payments for the Chaplin Studios, that must have been a very disappointing and unsettling year.

 

[W.B.]

Although it was later into the SP-4200 series that the Carpenters, in particular, hit their stride. Not just the #1 and #2 singles mentioned, but the LP from which both songs came, Close to You (SP-4271) also hit big. In addition, Cat Stevens' first middling (chartwise) and second breakthrough LP had been encompassed within the series. Talk about leaving the past behind and moving on into the future. . . .

There was also a significance in the graphics department -- or, more specifically, certain label-copy typesetting, viz Columbia Records' custom pressing division which handled A&M as a client. At the onset of this series, in 1968-69, most pressings from all of their plants utilized label copy from Columbia's West Coast factory in Santa Maria, Calif., with fonts from Varitype (as was mostly the norm with California-based record labels, most notably Warner-Reprise, as well as White Whale Records of Turtles fame and, later, ABC-Dunhill). A handful of 45's, and an even fewer number of LP's, had label-copy typesetting local to each pressing plant (i.e. Pitman, N.J., which employed Linotype fonts, and Terre Haute, Ind., which used a different set of Varitype - and some IBM - fonts). But by the end of 1969, as things were beginning to turn around for A&M, the label copy situation with Columbia's pressing plants was standardized to the point where each of the bigger label's three factories would supply its own label copy artwork - that is, Pitman-pressed copies would use its own Linotype fonts on the labels, Terre Haute would utilize its set of typefaces for its pressings, and ditto for Santa Maria. This would be the norm until the end of 1973, when A&M adopted the "silver" label. But more on that era later.

 

[Tom Wallace]

A few responses to the points made in this thread:

JB, you make some excellent points about the planting of seeds during this period. Nice that Supertramp stayed with A&M through the "harvest." I was under the impression that the first LP, SP 4274, wasn't released in the US (but then again, it probably would've had a different catalog number if that was the case, unless it was scheduled for release and then withdrawn). My Summer 1974 catalog only lists SP 4311 (oddly as self-titled, rather than "Indelibly Stamped"--quite a cover, by the way). "Crime of the Century" came out later that year, I believe, and started the ball rolling commercially for Supertramp. I'm thinking SP 4665 was the rerelease of the first LP, coming after "Even in the Quietest Moments."

I was trying to think of artists that left other labels and went to new heights at A&M and could only come up with Styx. In the opposite direction, I thought of Kim Carnes and Matthew Sweet. Billy Squier's band Piper didn't do much on A&M and he went on to a successful, and annoying (oops, editorial comment), solo career. Surely there must be others in both categories.

Michael, cogent run-down of A&M's successes and failures during this period. Must have been fun working with the A&M folks in the early 70s.

W.B., your knowledge of typography is impressive. What's the name of the font for "STEREO" and the catalog number in the logo box on the front covers of A&M LPs through the mid 4200s?

Tom

 

[Rudy]

I was trying to think of artists that left other labels and went to new heights at A&M and could only come up with Styx.

I don't attribute that to the label as I do to the addition of Tommy Shaw. I'm still a Dennis DeYoung fan, but Shaw brought something extra to the mix that Curlewski didn't (Curlewski seemed to be more of the "just a guitar player" school of thinking). If A&M hadn't wisely picked up Styx, I would believe they'd have ended up as labelmates with Journey on Columbia.

But no, at the moment I can't think of other artists. Janet Jackson started off at A&M with a couple of dud albums before Control came out. Burt Bacharach had made an album or two for other labels (Kapp being one) before coming to A&M. Whether or not his albums were large sellers, his success as a recording artist certainly hit a peak with A&M.

The Police, on a mere technicality, would qualify. Their first single was on Miles Copeland's Illegal Records label: "Fallout" b/w "Nothing Achieving" and one other song I can't recall at the moment. This was pre-Andy Summers, with Henri Padovani (sp?) on guitar. Mr. Bill would have to let us know if, at that point, Illegal Records was distributed by A&M or not...since the track "Fallout" does appear on an A&M-distributed IRS Records compilation.

Hmmm...I'm not to well versed on other artists, but did bands/artists like Free, Nazareth, Joe Cocker, Cat Stevens, etc. have other labels before coming to A&M?

The list of artists who recorded for A&M and then later flopped would probably fill an entire page...

A&M also seemed to pick up "also rans". How? When Prince became so popular, and The Time (an offshoot) also rose to popularity, The Time's origianl guitarist, Jesse Johnson, released an A&M album called Jesse Johnson's Revue. Sort of like A&M attempting to grab a few straws of the burgeoning Minneapolis scene at the time. And look how Janet Jackson did with Control and Rhythm Nation having The Time's Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis doing the production duties. After a real dud like her Dream Street album, it would not have surprised me to see her unceremoniously dropped.

Also, have you ever heard of Rosie Vela? Nobody has. But the fact that this model-turned-singer/songwriter had Gary Katz as a producer and Donald Fagen and Walter Becker on assorted instrumental and songwriting duties. Seems like A&M was trying to latch a hook into the Steely Dan phenomenon in any way they could--at that time, Steely Dan was in a state of flux, and only Fagen's solo recording was on Warner Brothers. Methinks it may have been an attempt to lure Steely Dan into the A&M fold, no matter how remotely. For an artist label like A&M, having Steely Dan would have been quite a feather in the cap!

There are a couple of other "also-ran" examples--popular artists where musicians from their band spun off, related artists, etc.

W.B., your knowledge of typography is impressive. What's the name of the font for "STEREO" and the catalog number in the logo box on the front covers of A&M LPs through the mid 4200s?

Don't get him started, or you'll even get the Pantone numbers for all the label colors! (Which reminds me that I did want to ask him about a PMS number, uncoated for the A&M "ochre" label....) IIRC, he also wrote and self-published a Columbia records discography.

-= N =-

 

[Rudy]

Note: I've split off our colors/fonts discussion to this new topic:

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=730

-= N =-

 

[LPJim]

The first Supertramp album (self-titled) was released as SP 4274 only in Canada and the U.K. Fortunately, it wasn't difficult for me to locate a copy. Yes, it was reissued in the late 70s as mentioned before. If that's not enough, the album was renumbered SP 3149, and it came out on CD with that catalog number as well.
That INDELIBLY STAMPED cover art is unique to say the least. I waited until I wasn't living at home anymore to buy that one.
JB