Albums That Defined A&M

[Rudy]

I'm assembling a list of what I feel are "definitive" A&M albums. My criteria:

1. It must be a major A&M artist or, if by a more obscure artist, must be of extremely high caliber or importance.

2. It should be the album that best represents the artist. It may or may not be their most popular, and may or may not artistically be their best. (For instance, I may choose Brasil '66's Fool On The Hill even though I can't stand Grusin's maudlin arrangements...this album just felt like they'd "arrived", and it also had two 'hits' that made them radio aware.)

3. It cannot be a compilation; I have a separate list for those.

4. The album should be representative of the A&M sound, and can be any era from 1962 up through their sellout to Polygram in 1989.

5. The album should be in print on CD, or just recently out of print.

So far my picks are as follows, in no particular order:

1. TJB: Whipped Cream (it put the TJB, Alpert AND A&M on the map)
2. Brasil '66: Fool On The Hill (I may swap it for their first album)
3. Burt Bacharach: Burt Bacharach (best represents his A&M work, although i'm inclined to substitute Butch Cassidy due to it having a hit #1 single)
4. Tamba 4: We And The Sea (the *good* side of CTi)
5. Police: Synchronicity (features A&M's biggest hit single)
6. Janet Jackson: Control (her breakthrough, after two previous A&M flops)
7. Styx: Grand Illusion (arguably one of their best, the prototype for their albums that followed, and A&M biggest arena rock success)
8. Chuck Mangione: Feels So Good (successful crossover with significant chart action)
9. Carpenters: A Song For You (they seemed to really "gel" and strike a nerve with this album)
10. Herb Alpert: Rise (puts Herb back at #1, defines his style)

I'm thinking I need to include albums by Joe Cocker, Cat Stevens, Gino Vannelli, and other 70's and earlier 80's artists to fill in the gaps. For Gino, I would probably pick Brother To Brother, since it had his biggest hits; Powerful People would be a very close second.

The "2nd string" artists like Claudine, Sandpipers, Montez, etc. really don't belong on this list IMHO; their music was part of A&M, but they weren't as important to the image of the label as the primary artists were. I cover their contributions in another list I've been working on--a compilation list I've called the Instant A&M Library.

Anything's open to debate here! I'm not familiar with enough of A&M's artists (beyond my main interests) to make a call either way.

 

[cakeicer]

Jeeze Neil that's a lot of Must be's, I'll have to think about this one for awhile.

 

[jimac51]

I dunno about the Tamba 4 selection.Wes Montgomery's last recordings were on A&M/CTI,starting the label and possibly showing the world what Creed Taylor was after. While criticism for "Day in the Life" as being more pop than jazz,and yeah,it looked like Verve II,the sound and graphics make this the benchmark for the CTI series. A thread on the best A&M jazz album is an area we haven't explored yet-guess we gotta tackle that one some day(my vote-Gerry Mulligan's "Age of Steam"). In the meantime,I'm making a printed copy of your criteria and spending a few important quiet time moments with it in the bathr...er,meditating room. Mac

 

[Rudy]

For other CTi's, I'm thinking of the last Wes Montgomery recording, 'Road Song', and Jobim's 'Wave', either or both replacing the Tamba 4, which I have in mind for another upcoming list (like "overlooked gems"). I also would not rule out a "jazz" list either, which can include CTi, Horizon and standard A&M.

 

[Harry]

Though not a huge fan, I'd have to submit The Captain & Tennille's Love Will Keep Us Together, SP-3405 from 1975. It reached number 2 on the album charts, and spawned two hit singles, "Love Will Keep Us Together", which hit the top of the singles chart at number 1, and "The Way I Want To Touch You" which got to number 4 on the chart.

I suppose the album's popularity may have built off of the soft-rock foundation that was forged by Carpenters in the early part of the '70s, which led to a duality in popular music - with harder rock and soul on one side, and the softer sounds of pop and folk on the other. The Captain and Tennille went on with two further hit albums on A&M, a TV show in '76-'77 on ABC, and then a move to the Casablanca label after that.

By the way, the album was also released to the Spanish market with re-done vocals in that language, perhaps the first full US album to do so (A&M? Other labels? Anyone know for sure?). It was given the title of Por Amor Viviremos, SP-4561.

The CD of Love Will Keep Us Together is available as an import.

Harry
...preparing for yet ANOTHER big snowstorm, online...

 

[Rudy]

The Captain & Tenille's album is a good pick. The title track is one that just about everyone our age can recognize after a few notes. It was similar to Carpenters in a way, but on the other hand, it fit squarely into the pop music of the day (after all, Sedaka was back). I don't know if A&M blew it, or their luck had changed, but they didn't have another #1 hit until they moved to Casablanca. I seem to recall the symbolic Daryl Dragon image of 'throwing the hat into the ocean' in an attempt to change their image.

 

[Tim Neely]

Here are a couple more to add to the list:

Teaser and the Firecat (or Tea for the Tillerman) by Cat Stevens
Even in the Quietest Moments (or Breakfast in America) by Supertramp

The problem is that I can't decide which of the two in each case is most definitive for the artist.

Both of these artists were important to A&M's continuing relevance, and finally gave it a toehold in England after it missed both the first and second British Invasions.

Stevens' success was the first for A&M through a licensing deal with another label (Island UK, which did not yet have an American outpost).

The two Supertramp LPs were culminations of years of nurturing; before Even in the Quietest Moments, the band had had four relatively unsuccessful albums with only one moderate hit single -- a track record that would have gotten them dropped from many other labels, even in the 1970s.

Finally, would you consider Frampton Comes Alive! to be a compilation? If not, I'd add it to the list.

 

[Rudy]

Tim: the Frampton...definitely! Only because just about every rock fan I know owned a copy of it. IIRC, wasn't it his biggest-selling album? A compilation I'd consider more like a greatest hits collection. Live albums take on a life all their own.

I would *almost* lean toward Supertramp's Breakfast In America since it was a huge commercial breakthrough (where they became more of a household name). And to make matters worse, Crime Of The Century was considered an artistic high water mark.

Cat Stevens I know little about--picking one or the other would be a tough call IMHO.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Herb Alpert's "Beat of the Brass" should be considered.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

So far, here's my list:

Herb Alpert & TJB - Whipped Cream & Other Delights
Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen
Police - Synchronicity
Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive!
Gato Barbieri - Caliente
Joan Baez - Diamonds And Rust
Quincy Jones - Smackwater Jack
Rick Wakeman - Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Fool On The Hill
Supertramp - Even In The Quietest Moments
Burt Bacharach - Make It Easy On Yourself

I'm sure there are albums by the Carpenters, Sandpipers, Nazareth, Cat Stevens, Free, etc. that could also qualify, but they're not my cup of tea, so I'll let others list them.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

Should revise my rules a bit, although we haven't hit a problem yet: only one album from a particular artist as a time. I do have Herb twice, but it's almost like two different careers...

 

[Steven J. Gross]

1. Herb Alpert and the TJB- "The Beat of the Brass"
2. Peter Frampton- "Comes Alive"
3. Cat Stevens -"Tea for the Tillerman"
4. Carpenters -"Carpenters"
5. The Police -"Ghost in the Machine"
6. Janet Jackson- "Control"
7. Joe Cocker - "With a Little Help From My Friends"
8. Styx- "Paradise Theater"
9. Nazareth -"Hair of the Dog"
10. Supertramp "Crime of the Century"
All of these are definative, not all my favorites, I could make multiple Top-Ten A&M lists! (unfortunatly, Herb's best (cd) albums are out of print!)
Sub "Whipped Cream" for "Beat" to follow rules.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I think I would swap out the TJB's Whipped Cream and install Going Places instead. WC really is most famous for its cover, while GP has three of the most famous hit songs (Tijuana Taxi, Zorba the Greek, and Spanish Flea); it is the first album to feature the band pictured on the (back) cover; it's the first album supposedly to be played by the actual TJB band; and to me it really contains the definitive TJB sound, while Whipped Cream still had some evolutionary traces in it.

I just went back and read the rules...dammit! I guess GP would not qualify because it's not recently in print. However, import copies are available!

I was going to suggest Supertramp's Crime of the Century, but Breakfast in America is probably the better choice since it contains the Supertramp sound that "everybody" knows.

As for Cat Stevens: It should be Teaser. Not only does it have two hits, but it really crystallized his sound and was his most popular album, I believe.

Burt Bacharach: Easily the self-titled album. It contains his versions of several big hits; and it contains his most adventurous arrangements. The Butch Cassidy soundtrack loses out, for me, because it's such a ripoff (the same song repeated several times, the craggy B.J. Thomas vocal, the overall short running time). It isn't a good representative of the A&M quality.

 

[Rudy]

I really wanted to make the list as a guide to recordings an A&M Corner visitor could pick up if they wanted to hear the cream of the crop. Hence, I wanted to stick to in-print titles, or at least titles that may still be available from Amazon's Marketplace sellers, half.com, eBay, etc., without spending a fortune. IOW, I don't want to send someone off on a wild goose chase trying to get a $400 CD copy of S.R.O.

I'm not adverse to anyone creating their own favorites or best-of lists, though--if anyone has created a list at Amazon ("Listmania"), I'd gladly link to them here. Even if we disagree on titles, or what constitutes "good", I'm always curious and very interested in what others' picks are!

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I have a lot of difficulty deciding which TJB album is definitive...WHIPPED CREAM or GOING PLACES. WC may have been the breakthrough album, but GP has "SPANISH FLEA" and "TIJUANA TAXI", and more people I know seem to remember these two songs as the cream of the TJB crop. So, which do I choose? I'd really have to go with GOING PLACES, I guess...it has the beginnings of the TJB combo sound that became so dominant and was imitated so often...also, no Baja Marimba Band albums are on anybody's lists...WATCH OUT should be..."THE PORTUGUESE WASHERWOMAN" is a landmark song, in my opinion...

This is a hard nut to crack, guys...are 10 albums enough to get the job done?

Dan

 

[Harry]

It's a tough call with Cat Stevens. He was really an Island property that was marketed and packaged by A&M in the States, so it's a grey area as to whether he represents the A&M sound. In last year's updated TV documentary on him, it was pointed out just how close he and Jerry Moss were. And there's no denying the hit status, particularly Teaser And The Firecat with its two big singles. Looking at the Billboard album charts, I see that he released 9 albums on A&M, and 7 of those 9 landed in the top 10. Not too shabby.

As for the Going Places/Whipped Cream issue, I can see points on both sides. GP had more hits, but WC was a breakthrough album, and more readily available. If I had to vote (perhaps another poll?), I'd go with Going Places -- there's not a clunker on it and it represents a real high point for Herb and the TJB in terms of hit status and quality.

And in spite of the low sales figures and relative obscurity, I keep coming back to Roger Nichols & Friends' album. It didn't garner much attention at the time (almost like a best-kept secret), but its cult status today is undeniable. And it's definitely got that A&M sound to it.

Harry
...kicking around a few more ideas, online...

 

[Rudy]

I actually felt Whipped Cream was the best album to represent A&M and Tijuana Brass. Going Places certainly is more solid musically, and I actually do like it a bit more...but think of what Whipped Cream represented: 1) the first major breakthrough for A&M the label; 2) the breakthrough for Herb Alpert and his TJB concept; 3) even the album cover is a cultural icon--everyone's parents had a copy of that album when I was growing up. Going Places may never have happened if Whipped Cream had tanked, and A&M may have been relegated to a small label with an interesting musical catalog. "Mexican Shuffle" may have saved the TJB from being a novelty act, but given the TJB's record-breaking Billboard album chart appearances, Whipped Cream solidly established them as an album-oriented recording act.

There are a lot of good arguments here, and yes, it is a difficult exercise. Helps ME, at least, get the late February creative juices flowing. I'm not specifically looking for the artistic best, the biggest sellers, etc. But rather, albums that are very representative and important to A&M's sound, style and future...albums that made a noticeable impact on the music industry as a whole. Breakthrough albums from (now) major artists are certainly important--I consider something like Synchronicity a major breakthrough due to its consistent lyrical content, its #1 hit which happened to be A&M's longest running #1 ever, and the fact that everything Sting has done since is being compared to it.

As much as I like a lot of the artists and albums, I can't justify including artists like Sandpipers, Claudine, even Baja Marimba Band at times (keep changing my mind on this one), as I feel A&M would have survived and thrived without their presence. (At least with Baja, they did make TV appearances, and while they didn't pioneer anything, they certainly did *add* to the Tijuana Brass environment. In this case, I would pick an album that was the biggest seller, or had the highest charting single.) And as much as l like Nichols album....jeez, I don't know. It's one of the gems in the entire catalog, but would A&M's history been altered if it had never been released? No, hardly. But without Nichols and Paul Williams, there would have been a lot fewer songs for Carpenters!

Or consider my Carpenters pick. Offering would certainly be a far cry from anyone's list of important albums, but while I still think A Song For You is their best album, Close To You is really the one I'm thinking should be in the list in its place, since it not only has their first #1 hit, which put A&M back on top of the singles chart after a drought of a couple of years, it also has a song that is so timeless, just about everyone knows it and associates it with Carpenters: "We've Only Just Begun". If Close To You had been Offering Vol. 2, they could have sank without a trace.

Y'all ready to shoot me yet?

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I'm kinda surprised that nobody has mentioned THE LONELY BULL...without it, there wouldn't even be an A&M...the problem seems to be that A&M evolved as it grew, and became a much different entity at the time it was sold than it started out to be. It was really a kind of "boutique" label for the first couple of years; it became a major player with WHIPPED CREAM... by the time Liza Minelli signed, it was a major player. And, by the time SYNCHRONICITY was released, A&M was firmly established as a megalopolis. There are several identities here, and they chronologically and artistically overlap. It might be wiser to examine each "era" and come up with a list of definitive albums for each, with the album defining that era at the top of the list. Or, how about a list of the 10 best, with recommended listening alternatives under each one? That way, WHIPPED CREAM and GOING PLACES would be on the same list, each in it's proper place, each receiving the proper credit due to it.


Wouldn't it be easier to break things down in "Era order"? I'm a little foggy on just how the breakdown should occur,but it shouldn't be hard to come up with a list...


Just an idea...

Dan

 

[Tim Neely]

Tim: the Frampton...definitely! Only because just about every rock fan I know owned a copy of it. IIRC, wasn't it his biggest-selling album? A compilation I'd consider more like a greatest hits collection. Live albums take on a life all their own.

Frampton Comes Alive! was not only Peter Frampton's biggest-selling album, but one of the biggest-selling albums in A&M history.

 

[LPJim]

There are many directions this type of thread could go. I also believe the arrival of Liza, Pete Jolley, Jimmie Rodgers and the CTI lineup in 67-68 signaled that A&M was more than a vehicle for Herb-related projects. There are other types of music which A&M pioneered:

Dillard & Clark's FANTASTIC EXPEDITION --- bluegrass/rock fusion;
Flying Burrito Bros. GILDED PALACE -- country rock;
Melvin Van Peebles BRER SOUL -- he was rapping in '68, almost 20 years before it was recognized as an art form;
Fairport Convention LIEGE & LIEF ---- English folk/psychedelic rock combination; although it was never a big seller, it's influence is so strong that it was been continuously in print for 33 years as "SP/CD 4257."

Don't forget the A&M/Ode association which brought:
Carole King TAPESTRY ---- a leader in the singer-songwriter movement of the early 70s; and
Cheech & Chong --- inventors of 'hard rock' and drug culture comedy.

JB

 

[Rudy]

Jim: do you think Phil Ochs or Jimmie Rodgers would fit into this kind of list? Other than what you and others have written over the years, I'm not overly familiar with their recordings.

 

[LPJim]

I mentioned Ochs, Rodgers, Jolly, Liza and the CTI roster being added to A&M in 1967-68 as an important signal of growth for the label. What's important here is that well-established artists with a track record of best-selling albums for larger labels elected to leave those labels (ex. Liza exited Capitol, Rodgers left Dot and Ochs left Elektra) to join A&M.

A comparison of the number of artists represented on MILLION DOLLAR SAMPLER (1967) and FAMILY PORTRAIT (1968) emphasizes this point.

Those who heard Ochs' and Rodgers' pre-A&M albums would notice a distinct difference. While on Elektra, Phil sang topical songs accompanied by only his guitar. Production and orchestration was practically non-existent. PLEASURES OF THE HARBOR (SP 4133) was a comparative masterpiece, because A&M put lots of resources into making an "epic" out of the recording. I think it's because A&M believed in plowing its profits from the massive TJB album sales into lesser known but highly influential recordings.

Rodgers' CHILD OF CLAY (SP 4130) represents a more mature phase of his singing & songwriting. Earlier work (on Roulette in the '50s and Dot in the '60s) ranged from 50s rock to country, pop covers and gospel. The first A&M album took a more serious and quiet tone, with a social conscience but more subtle than Ochs' protest style. A&M added extra 'polish' with orchestration and production -- perhaps more thought than other labels put into such things.
JB

 

[stefandaystrom]

I really wanted to make the list as a guide to recordings an A&M Corner visitor could pick up if they wanted to hear the cream of the crop. Hence, I wanted to stick to in-print titles, or at least titles that may still be available from Amazon's Marketplace sellers, half.com, eBay, etc., without spending a fortune. IOW, I don't want to send someone off on a wild goose chase trying to get a $400 CD copy of S.R.O.

Well, therein lies the rub. As we all know, there's NOTHING in print (in the US at least) by the TJB other than the TJB 2/3 of DEFINITIVE HITS (and precious little else, virtually/all compilations too, even as imports). And WHIPPED CREAM has now (relative to its avaiability a year ago) entered the SRO realm in my opinion: $66 for WHIPPED CREAM (last closed eBay sale) with 4 bidders at or above $50 is possibly more of "a fortune" than SRO for $400. After all, a year or so ago, if you spent $$$ for SRO and TBAC each you were done paying $$$ for TJB CDs, the most famous parts of the collection (even if recently out of print) you could pick up for "importish" prices at worst. But they've been out of print long enough now that they seem to be drifting out of the "importish" range, into a sphere where only diehards will tread.

And TJB is far from the only case. I'd quickly nominate ANYTIME... ANYWHERE as Rita Coolidge's breakthrough and multi-hit-producing (and thus possibly "definitive" album (her first few early 70s albums which some people prefer artistically were always low sellers), but wait, I had to pay $$$ for that one too (since it was NEVER issued in the US and long out of print even in Japan). Again, you can only find compilations (can you say MILLENIUM COLLECTION?) or a few post-A&M titles in print.

As to Amazon Marketplace and half.com availability, you have to click through to find the real story. Many of the so-called "available used" CDs of TJB you click through to see details on turn out to me LPs at CD prices (the only GOING PLACES right now and the lowest-priced BEAT OF THE BRASS at Amazon, for example).

And at half.com, people get around the problem of being unable to list CDs with no barcode by creating an even bigger problem, where you have to click through to see WHICH CD they're actually selling!!! It seems like "low price" for FANDANGO there is $124.98, but no, that's actually a copy of "Bullish" (which last went for $47.99, under its own title, at eBay), and below that in the same FANDANGO listing is "good" old leppard69 trying to unload his WHAT NOW MY LOVE (that he bought out on eBay for much less) for $249.99. If it's actually FANDANGO you thought you could buy on half.com, you're outta luck...

So unless you're going to create a list of vinyl to look for (in which case you don't have to worry about "in print", since none of it is!)...

 

[Steven J. Gross]

That is totally true.

 

[Mark-T]

How about adding

Amy Grant- "Age to Age" (or "Heart in Motion"), Sting "Ten Summoner;s Tales"
and
Janet Jackson "Control " ???

Mark

PS- I'd vote for "Close to You" or the Tan Album over "A Song For You"...