🥂 50th Compile Your Own A&M 50th Anniversary Box Set

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Michael Hagerty

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I was thinking on those lines also--one disc per decade, and I'd make sure each one clocked in near 75 minutes each.

The only thing I'd stall on is anything newer than the early 90s. Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation is probably one of the few I have from that era. 2002 and onward? I'd have to leave that disc blank as I probably know nothing about any of the music made during that era.

I'm pretty much in the same boat...in fact, I'm fairly challenged as far as who was on what label from the 80s on.

But here's a revised beginning of a 5-disc set, 75 minutes (give or take) per disc, what I'd do if they asked me, without worrying about licensing deals and trying to give some depth and texture to the compiltation.

I'll let other (probably younger) people do the newer stuff:

Disc 1 (1962-1971)
1. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass: The Lonely Bull
2. Julius Wechter & The Baja Marimba Band: Comin' In The Back Door
3. We Five: You Were On My Mind
4. Sandpipers: Guantanamera
5. Claudine Longet: Meditation
6. Chris Montez: The More I See You
7. Parade: Sunshine Girl
8. Merry-Go-Round: You're A Very Lovely Woman
9. Jimmie Rodgers: Child Of Clay
10.Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade Of Pale
11.Wes Montgomery: Windy
12.Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart: I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight
13.Antonio Carlos Jobim: Wave
14.Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66: The Look Of Love
15.Phil Ochs: Pleasures of the Harbor
16.Herb Alpert: This Guy's In Love With You
17.Shango: Day After Day
18.B.J. Thomas: Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
19.Milton Nascimento: Bridges
20.Sonny Charles & Checkmates, Ltd.: Black Pearl
21.George Benson: Tell It Like It Is
22.Joe Cocker: The Letter
23.Carpenters: (They Long To Be) Close To You
24.Free: All Right Now
25:Cat Stevens: Wild World
26.Lee Michaels: Do You Know What I Mean

Disc 2 (1972-1981)
1. Humble Pie: Hot N' Nasty
2. Michael Murphey: Geronimo's Cadillac
3. Stealer's Wheel: Stuck In The Middle With You
4. Billy Preston: Will It Go Round In Circles
5. Sister Janet Mead: The Lord's Prayer
6. Paul Williams: That's What Friends Are For
7. Joe Cocker: You Are So Beautiful
8. Captain & Tenille: Love Will Keep Us Together
9.Ozark Mountain Daredevils: Jackie Blue
10.Nazareth: Love Hurts
11.Joan Baez: Diamonds and Rust
12.Brothers Johnson: I'll Be Good To You
13.Tubes: Don't Touch Me There
14.Peter Frampton: Show Me The Way
15.Barry DeVorzon & Perry Botkin, Jr.: Nadia's Theme
16.Rita Coolidge: Higher and Higher
17.Pablo Cruise: Whatcha Gonna Do
18.L.T.D.: Back In Love Again
19.Chuck Mangione: Feels So Good
20. Joan Armatrading: Show Some Emotion
21. Supertramp: The Logical Song
22. Herb Alpert: Rise
23. Styx: Babe
24. Ali Thompson: Take A Little Rhythm
25. Lani Hall (f/Herb Alpert): Come What May

Disc 3 (1982-1991)
1. 38 Special: Caught Up In You
2. Human League: Don't You Want Me
3. Joe Jackson: Steppin' Out
4. Police: Every Breath You Take
5. UB40: Red Red Wine
6. Bryan Adams: Heaven
7. Simple Minds: Don't You (Forget About Me)
8. OMD: If You Leave
9. Sting: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
10.Falco: Rock Me Amadeus
11.Jeffrey Osborne: You Should Be Mine (Woo Woo Song)
11.Janet Jackson: When I Think Of You
12.Breathe: Hands To Heaven
13.Chris DeBurgh: Lady In Red
14.Suzanne Vega: Luka
15.John Hiatt: Slow Turning
16.Amy Grant: Baby Baby
17.Extreme: More Than Words

(and to be honest, this is where I run out of gas. Someone else needs to flesh out the remainder of disc 3 and take disc 4 and 5).
 
Definitely not the "younger guy" for the task, but I would suggest a track or two from Sheryl Crow like "All I Wanna Do" and maybe a later track that was a hit. Vanessa Carlton had a monster hit with "A Thousand Miles" in 2002, and Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" from 2008 would probably fit into this later disc. Add some Black-Eyed Peas, which I'm not well versed in, and that's at least a start on the more modern stuff on the label.

Harry
 
There are only a few songs I'd swap out for my own set. I'll have a shot at this later on once things calm down here on the other side of the Interwebz. :D

Nice add on the Parade single. :thumbsup: Maybe the accompanying CD booklet could go into why the album was never released.
 
Yeah, and I forgot Quincy Jones' "Just Once" on Disc 2 (which is probably already too long). Probably sacrifice The Tubes and Barry DeVorzon/Perry Botkin, Jr. to make it work. I know Michael Murphey, Paul Williams and the Herb & Lani could be considered marginal, but Michael shows a side of A&M a lot of people don't think of, Paul Williams was a HUGE part of A&M in the 70s despite the sales figures and "Come What May" is, to me, impossible to ignore.

I also wish I could shoehorn in Burt Bacharach's six-minute "Wives and Lovers" on Disc 1, but there aren't two or three songs on that disc that I'd sacrifice to do it, and Burt's represented by "This Guy's In Love With You", "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" and "Close To You".
 
I think (I hope, anyway) that the first 15 tracks of disc 1 draw a pretty good sketch of A&M's talent in the first 5 years (given that we're overlooking Burt Bacharach and Liza Minelli and have to play some hits).
 
I think (I hope, anyway) that the first 15 tracks of disc 1 draw a pretty good sketch of A&M's talent in the first 5 years (given that we're overlooking Burt Bacharach and Liza Minelli and have to play some hits).

I wish there were a Roger Nichols track on there as that obscure album has grown in stature over the years.

Harry
 
It would be hard to pick a Nichols track that would do them justice. My gut instinct says to go for the "lost opportunity hit" and use "Love So Fine."

I just had a thought about this whole box set idea, while trying to think of ways to pad out the fourth and fifth decades. If you think about it, A&M really reached its peak, output-wise, from about 1964 (when Whipped Cream started selling by the truckload) until the mid 90s. In essence, A&M has only been an imprint of Universal's since 1989, and despite having some artists sustain themselves through the mid 90s, how much has A&M really put out as a label since then? It is a different environment today. When A&M was independent, and especially during the early years, they would release everything they could with the hope of finding the "next big thing." Or to put it another way--throw enough at the wall, and something is bound to stick. As fickle and uptight as labels are today, releasing something they deem "marketable," I would wager that A&M has far fewer new releases per year, dwindling away with each passing year.

In my opinion, over the last 15 years, A&M's real gold lies in its back catalog, through the release of album reissues, anthologies or compilations.

That is one reason why I think we could probably stretch our discs a bit more. The last decade probably had only a few hits, from a dwindling supply of new releases; no sense in using filler just to complete a disc. Or in other words, it may be better to group each disc chronologically by date, but not necessarily stick to 10 years each...although it is a great exercise to be able to be very selective in what is included.
 
Definitely not the "younger guy" for the task, but I would suggest a track or two from Sheryl Crow like "All I Wanna Do" and maybe a later track that was a hit. Vanessa Carlton had a monster hit with "A Thousand Miles" in 2002, and Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" from 2008 would probably fit into this later disc. Add some Black-Eyed Peas, which I'm not well versed in, and that's at least a start on the more modern stuff on the label.

Jonny Lang's "Lie To Me" is a track that got noticed back in the mid 90s.
 
I think (I hope, anyway) that the first 15 tracks of disc 1 draw a pretty good sketch of A&M's talent in the first 5 years (given that we're overlooking Burt Bacharach and Liza Minelli and have to play some hits).

Burt gets in on a technicality: "Raindrops" is actually from a Bacharach soundtrack album. But not having the single, I do not know if it was billed to both Burt and BJ, or only to BJ. For that matter, was the single even released on A&M, or on BJ's label Scepter? Something tells me it was the latter.
 
Burt gets in on a technicality: "Raindrops" is actually from a Bacharach soundtrack album. But not having the single, I do not know if it was billed to both Burt and BJ, or only to BJ. For that matter, was the single even released on A&M, or on BJ's label Scepter? Something tells me it was the latter.

I think all single releases of "Raindrops..." were on Scepter.

That example almost mirrors "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, which DID have an A&M single release in connection with GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM, but I wouldn't really consider it an A&M Record.
 
I think all single releases of "Raindrops..." were on Scepter.

That example almost mirrors "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, which DID have an A&M single release in connection with GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM, but I wouldn't really consider it an A&M Record.

The "Raindrops" single was on Scepter, and was released as a B.J. Thomas solo, with Burt only getting a writer's (and maybe an arranger's) credit.

The reason I'd go for "Raindrops", though, while I wouldn't go for "What A Wonderful World", is Scepter is long gone, most of the B. J. Thomas collections are re-recordings, and the "Butch Cassidy" soundtrack might be the only way to get the original (assuming it is or was on CD), which makes it an A&M record. Louis' original recording is available on several discs (the original was Decca) under whatever imprint Uni's using.

Other things: Yes, I'd add "Love So Fine" to Disc 1. And I think there are probably enough songs in the last two decades to fill 2 CDs. Disc 1 benefits from some 3-minute and shorter records. After 1990, most of the material is going to be 4 or 5 minutes per song, which means you'd only need 15 tracks to hit 75 minutes.
 
Minor complication: The soundtrack and the single of "Raindrops" are two different recordings. B.J. was getting laryngitis when he went to sing it for the soundtrack, but Burt liked the raspiness (not surprising, since he'd offered the song to Bob Dylan before B.J.).

B.J. wasn't wild about it though, went back in the studio 8 weeks later and cut the single (which has the horn solo at the end...the soundtrack doesn't).

So, if you include the A&M version of "Raindrops", you're using the one people heard once or twice or however many times they saw the movie, versus the one they've heard regularly on the radio for the past 43 years.

Tough call. I'd probably drop it...which makes room for "Love So Fine".
 
Minor complication: The soundtrack and the single of "Raindrops" are two different recordings. B.J. was getting laryngitis when he went to sing it for the soundtrack, but Burt liked the raspiness (not surprising, since he'd offered the song to Bob Dylan before B.J.).

B.J. wasn't wild about it though, went back in the studio 8 weeks later and cut the single (which has the horn solo at the end...the soundtrack doesn't).

So, if you include the A&M version of "Raindrops", you're using the one people heard once or twice or however many times they saw the movie, versus the one they've heard regularly on the radio for the past 43 years.

Tough call. I'd probably drop it...which makes room for "Love So Fine".

A point of contention: There are two B.J.Thomas vocal takes of "Raindrops..." on the BUTCH CASSIDY soundtrack. Track 2 sounds to me exactly like the hit version, without the raspy vocal. (It suffers from HAECO-CSG, but that's another matter.) Meanwhile track 6 of the album has B.J.'s laryngitis-ridden vocal at the start and end of "On A Bicycle Built For Joy." Are you confusing these two?

Still, I wouldn't view the B.J.Thomas record as an A&M hit anyway.
 
Harry: I was just working off online information. I don't think I've listened to the "Butch Cassidy" soundtrack in 40 years.

But I agree...it's a Scepter record. It would be like Colgems (if they still existed) including Herb's "Casino Royale" in a Colgems retrospective because, while the single was on A&M, the soundtrack LP was on Colgems.
 
You'd kinda have to put "Taste Of Honey" on disc 1 - the song that took the TJB out of one-hit wonder status and catapulted Herb into a true artist career, plus it won the Grammy for the Record of The Year (which I'm sure had a residual effect on the status of the label overall....
 
You'd kinda have to put "Taste Of Honey" on disc 1 - the song that took the TJB out of one-hit wonder status and catapulted Herb into a true artist career, plus it won the Grammy for the Record of The Year (plus I'm sure that had a residual effect on the status of the label overall....

I gave that some serious thought...and decided that since it was a 50th anniversary compilation for the label as a whole, "The Lonely Bull" (as the first single) and "This Guy's In Love With You" (as the first #1 single) were musts and with "Rise", "Come What May" and most likely "Diamonds" still to come, "Taste of Honey" (which peaked at #7) could sit this one out.

Tough call and I could be way wrong.
 
And imho, "When I Think Of You" wouldn't make sense to represent Janet Jackson - better "What Have You Done For Me Lately" (her first big hit) or "Miss You Much" (perhaps her biggest A&M hit - I think).

I'm getting too much into this.....
 
The Go-Go's need to be in there somewhere.....

and does Carole King "Tapestry" count as A&M?

A 90's volume would definitely include CeCe Peniston's "Finally" and Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do....".
 
And imho, "When I Think Of You" wouldn't make sense to represent Janet Jackson - better "What Have You Done For Me Lately" (her first big hit) or "Miss You Much" (perhaps her biggest A&M hit - I think).

I'm getting too much into this.....

"What Have You Done For Me Lately" peaked at #4, "Nasty" at #3, "Control" at #5.

"When I Think Of You" was Janet's first #1 single...and that's a huge feat for the third single from an album.
 
The Go-Go's need to be in there somewhere.....

and does Carole King "Tapestry" count as A&M?

The Go-Gos were on IRS, which was distributed by A&M. So they weren't technically an A&M act.

Same goes for Carole King and Cheech and Chong. They were on Ode, a label owned by Lou Adler and distributed by A&M. The fact that Lou and Herb go way back and Ode had their offices on the A&M lot from 1970-1975 made it look like a subsidiary, but it wasn't. And in 1975, Ode distribution went to CBS, where it remains today.
 
I gave that some serious thought...and decided that since it was a 50th anniversary compilation for the label as a whole, "The Lonely Bull" (as the first single) and "This Guy's In Love With You" (as the first #1 single) were musts and with "Rise", "Come What May" and most likely "Diamonds" still to come, "Taste of Honey" (which peaked at #7) could sit this one out.

Tough call and I could be way wrong.

I had that same thought also about "A Taste of Honey," as commercially it really kick-started A&M as a label, and it ignited album sales for the TJB.

If I had to pick only two from his entire catalog though, for a set like this, I'd have to stick to the #1 hits.
 
Refined and revised:

Disc 1 (1962-1971)
1. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass: The Lonely Bull
2. Julius Wechter & The Baja Marimba Band: Comin' In The Back Door
3. We Five: You Were On My Mind
4. Sandpipers: Guantanamera
5. Claudine Longet: Meditation
6. Chris Montez: The More I See You
7. Parade: Sunshine Girl
8. Merry-Go-Round: You're A Very Lovely Woman
9. Jimmie Rodgers: Child Of Clay
10.Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade Of Pale
11.Wes Montgomery: Windy
12.Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart: I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight
13.Antonio Carlos Jobim: Wave
14.Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66: The Look Of Love
15.Roger Nichols: Love So Fine
16.Phil Ochs: Pleasures of the Harbor
17.Herb Alpert: This Guy's In Love With You
18.Shango: Day After Day
19.Milton Nascimento: Bridges
20.Sonny Charles & Checkmates, Ltd.: Black Pearl
21.George Benson: Tell It Like It Is
22.Joe Cocker: The Letter
23.Carpenters: (They Long To Be) Close To You
24.Free: All Right Now
25:Cat Stevens: Wild World
26.Lee Michaels: Do You Know What I Mean

Disc 2 (1972-1981)
1. Humble Pie: Hot N' Nasty
2. Michael Murphey: Geronimo's Cadillac
3. Stealer's Wheel: Stuck In The Middle With You
4. Billy Preston: Will It Go Round In Circles
5. Sister Janet Mead: The Lord's Prayer
6. Paul Williams: That's What Friends Are For
7. Joe Cocker: You Are So Beautiful
8. Captain & Tenille: Love Will Keep Us Together
9.Ozark Mountain Daredevils: Jackie Blue
10.Nazareth: Love Hurts
11.Joan Baez: Diamonds and Rust
12.Brothers Johnson: I'll Be Good To You
13.Peter Frampton: Show Me The Way
14.Rita Coolidge: Higher and Higher
15.Pablo Cruise: Whatcha Gonna Do
16.L.T.D.: Back In Love Again
17.Chuck Mangione: Feels So Good
18. Joan Armatrading: Show Some Emotion
19. Supertramp: The Logical Song
20. Herb Alpert: Rise
21. Styx: Babe
22. Ali Thompson: Take A Little Rhythm
23. Lani Hall (f/Herb Alpert): Come What May
24. Quincy Jones (f/James Ingram): Just Once

Disc 3 (1982-1991)
1. 38 Special: Caught Up In You
2. Human League: Don't You Want Me
3. Joe Jackson: Steppin' Out
4. Sergio Mendes: Never Gonna Let You Go
5. Police: Every Breath You Take
6. UB40: Red Red Wine
7. Bryan Adams: Heaven
8. Simple Minds: Don't You (Forget About Me)
9. OMD: If You Leave
10. Sting: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
11.Falco: Rock Me Amadeus
12.Jeffrey Osborne: You Should Be Mine (Woo Woo Song)
13.Janet Jackson: When I Think Of You
14.Breathe: Hands To Heaven
15.Chris DeBurgh: Lady In Red
16.Suzanne Vega: Luka
17.John Hiatt: Slow Turning
18.Herb Alpert (with Janet Jackson and Lisa Keith): Diamonds
19.Amy Grant: Baby Baby
20.Extreme: More Than Words
 
That example almost mirrors "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, which DID have an A&M single release in connection with GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM, but I wouldn't really consider it an A&M Record.

But I agree...it's a Scepter record. It would be like Colgems (if they still existed) including Herb's "Casino Royale" in a Colgems retrospective because, while the single was on A&M, the soundtrack LP was on Colgems.

The Go-Gos were on IRS, which was distributed by A&M. So they weren't technically an A&M act.

Same goes for Carole King and Cheech and Chong. They were on Ode, a label owned by Lou Adler and distributed by A&M. The fact that Lou and Herb go way back and Ode had their offices on the A&M lot from 1970-1975 made it look like a subsidiary, but it wasn't. And in 1975, Ode distribution went to CBS, where it remains today.

I'm almost of the mind that if A&M had a hand in it somehow, then it could be on the box set. But that's probably because I like the songs enough that I don't want to leave them off. :laugh: Kidding aside, the associated labels are also a big part of A&M's history, but I don't how how (or if) they'd be represented on a retrospective set.

As for the tunes like "Raindrops" or the "Casino Royale" theme, there had to have been some sort of licensing deal to have the artist and same recording appear on two different labels. To use "Casino Royale" as the example--why would A&M want to give away rights to its most popular act at the time? And on the flip side, why would Colgems not want to keep a piece of the action and have the theme song appear exclusively on their own label? Remember that the Beatles' soundtrack to A Hard Day's Night appeared on United Artists, and from what I'd read, I don't think the film maker cared if the movie was a flop or not...they knew album sales would make them a windfall, getting a piece of the action that EMI and Capitol were cashing in on at the time.
 
I had that same thought also about "A Taste of Honey," as commercially it really kick-started A&M as a label, and it ignited album sales for the TJB.

If I had to pick only two from his entire catalog though, for a set like this, I'd have to stick to the #1 hits.

And there were only two, "This Guy's In Love With You" and "Rise", both of which are really Herb Alpert solo records and not TJB.

As for the others, "Lonely Bull" not only has historical significance as the first (and the only track on this compilation celebrating A&M's 50th that actually goes back 50 years), but it was the TJB's biggest chart single, peaking at #6.

"Diamonds" (with Janet Jackson and Lisa Keith) peaked at #5.

I can't make a chart case for "Come What May", but I also can't imagine a 5-disc 50th anniversary set that didn't have a Herb & Lani track...and this is just so perfect.
 
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