A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.

History[link]

Beginnings[link]

A&M Records was formed in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. Their first choice for a name was Carnival Records, under which they released two singles before discovering another label had taken the Carnival name first. The company was subsequently renamed A&M, after Alpert's and Moss's initials. From 1966 to 1999, the company's headquarters were on the grounds of the historic Charlie Chaplin Studios at 1416 North La Brea Avenue, near Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, A&M had such acts as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Baja Marimba Band, Burt Bacharach, Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66, We Five, The Carpenters, Chris Montez, Elkie Brooks, Lee Michaels, The Captain and Tennille, Quincy Jones, Stealers Wheel, Marc Benno, Liza Minnelli, Rita Coolidge, Wes Montgomery, Paul Desmond, Cat Stevens, Bobby Tench, Hummingbird, Toni Basil, and Paul Williams. Folk artists Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Gene Clark also recorded for the label during the 1970s. Billy Preston joined the label in 1971, followed by Andre Popp and Herb Ohta in 1973.

In the late 1960s, through direct signing and licensing agreements, A&M added several British artists to its roster, including Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, Humble Pie, Fairport Convention, Free, The Move, and Spooky Tooth. In the 1970s, under its manufacturing and distribution agreement with Ode Records, A&M released albums by Carole King and the comedy duo Cheech & Chong. Other notable acts of the time included Nazareth, Y&T, the Tubes, Styx, Supertramp, Rick Wakeman, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Chuck Mangione, Squeeze, and Peter Frampton. On March 10, 1977, A&M signed the Sex Pistols after the band had been dropped by EMI. However, A&M dropped the band within a week.^[1] A&M sustained its success during the 1980s with a roster of noted acts that included Henry Badowski, Janet Jackson, the Police, Sting, The Brothers Johnson, Falco, Atlantic Starr, the Go-Go's, Chris De Burgh, Bryan Adams, Suzanne Vega, Brenda Russell, Jeffrey Osborne, Oingo Boingo, Human League, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Sharon, Lois & Bram, Annabel Lamb, Jim Diamond, Vital Signs, Joe Jackson, and Scottish rock band Gun.

Within a decade of its inception, A&M became the world's largest independent record company^{[citation needed]}. A&M releases were initially issued in the United Kingdom by EMI's Stateside Records label, and then under its own name by Pye Records until 1967. A&M releases were also issued in Australia through Festival Records until 1989. A&M Records Ltd.^[2] was established in 1970, with distribution handled by other labels with a presence in Europe. A&M Records of Canada Ltd.^[3] was also formed in 1970, and A&M Records of Europe in 1977. In 1979, A&M entered a distribution agreement with RCA Records (which later became BMG) in the USA, and with CBS Records (whose successor Sony Music Entertainment later absorbed BMG) in many other countries.

Over the years, A&M added specialty imprints: Almo International^[4] for middle of the road; Omen Records (1964–1966)^[5] for soul; Horizon Records^[6] for jazz (1974–1978); AyM Discos^[7] for Latin-American; Vendetta Records^[8] for dance music (1988–1990); and Tuff Break Records for hip-hop music (1993–1995).^[9]

The PolyGram years[link]

A&M was bought by PolyGram in 1989. Alpert and Moss continued to manage the label until 1993. The sale to PolyGram stipulated that Alpert and Moss had an integrity clause allowing them to control the label's image through 2009. In 1998, Alpert and Moss sued PolyGram for breach of the integrity clause, eventually settling for an additional $200 million payment.^[10]

In 1991, A&M launched Perspective Records^[11] as a joint venture with producing team Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Jam and Lewis stepped down as CEOs of the imprint in 1997, but they remained on as consultants. In 1999, the label was absorbed into A&M. In the mid-1990s, A&M began distributing its PolyGram sister label Polydor Records in the USA.

During the 1990s, the company continued to release albums by Soundgarden, Extreme, Amy Grant, John Hiatt, Sting, Blues Traveler, Barry White, and Aaron Neville, as well as material from new artists Sheryl Crow, Therapy?, CeCe Peniston, and the Gin Blossoms. The company released the soundtracks Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Three Musketeers, Sabrina, The Living Sea, Demolition Man, and Lethal Weapon 3.

Universal Music Group[link]

In 1998, PolyGram was bought by Seagram and merged with its MCA Records family to create Universal Music. A&M was subsequently merged into Universal Music Group's then newly formed Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group. Its Canadian division was absorbed into Universal Music Canada that time, which included Jann Arden alongside other artists from Canada. Bryan Adams continued to record on that label.

The A&M lot on La Brea Avenue was shut down in January 1999. During the farewell celebration, the company's staff placed a black band over the A&M sign above the main entrance, indicating the death of the company. Most of the company's workforce, some of whom had been with the company for a decade or more, were let go, while many of its artists were dropped. Al Cafaro stated,

"This isn't about Universal or Seagram. The record business is changing fundamentally. Don't think that there are calm seas on the other side of this threshold. If the quake that devoured A&M and Geffen is a 6.0 on the Richter scale, there is a 7.0 coming in this industry. It's a Wall Street world now. Get ready."^[12]

Alpert and Moss sued Universal Music Group in 2000, claiming that they had violated a contractual agreement stating that A&M Records would be allowed to retain its corporate culture^{[citation needed]}. The suit was later settled.

The first multi-platinum A&M Records release under Universal Music Group and Interscope was Sting's 1999 album Brand New Day.

The old A&M studios and executive offices are now the home of Jim Henson Productions, which operates Henson Recording Studios.

A&M catalog albums that did not fit the current pop music format (which also includes rock, rap, and R&B) of their new parent division were transferred to other Universal divisions for management - for example, Verve Records now manages A&M's jazz catalog, not including Herb Alpert's recorded output which Alpert acquired in the settlement with Universal Music and are licensed to Shout! Factory (however, Verve does manage the Horizon Records catalog).^[13]

In February 2007, Interscope-Geffen-A&M partnered with Octone Records to relaunch the A&M label, now headed by James Diener and called A&M/Octone Records with worldwide distribution handled by parent Universal Music Group. The existing Octone roster was transferred to the A&M/Octone label and all new artist signings are made under the A&M/Octone joint venture.^[14]

Subsidiary labels[link]

Former[link]

• 1500 Records (1998–2001)
• ANTRA Records (1998)
• AM:PM (1990–2002, UK imprint for R&B, hip-hop and dance music)
• Breakout Records (1987–1990, UK imprint for R&B and Hip-Hop music)
• CTI Records (1967–1970)
• Cypress Records (1988–1990)
• Dark Horse Records (1974–1976)
• Delos International (1988–1990)
• Denon (1988–1992)
• DV8 Records (1995–1998)
• Flip (1996–1998)
• Gold Mountain Ltd. (1983–1985)
• Heavyweight Records (1998)
• I.R.S. Records (1979–1985)
• Nimbus Records (1987–1990)
• Ode Records (1970–1975)
• Polydor Records (1995–2000)
• Shelter Records (In Great Britain, early 1970s)
• Shoreline Records
• Tabu Records (1991–1993)
• Tuff Break Records (1993–1995)
• TwinTone (1987–1989)
• T.W.Is.M (1996–1998)
• Vendetta Records (1988–1991)
• Windham Hill Records (and its subsidiary labels) (1982–1985)
• Word Records (and its subsidiary labels: Exit, Myrrh, Live Oak) (1985–1990)

Current[link]

• A&M/Octone Records
• A&M Records UK (reactivated as a front-line label by Polydor Records.)
• Tropical Records
• will.i.am music group

See also[link]

• A&M/Octone Records
• A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.
• List of record labels
• Charlie Chaplin Studios
• List of current A&M Records artists
• List of former A&M Records artists

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Interscope Records official website - A&M Records is included within the Interscope site and is part of Interscope-Geffen-A&M
• A&M Records US/UK A&R contact list
• On A&M Records - Search every artist and recording by A&M Records and its affiliated labels
• A&M Corner - Since 1995 the internet's original A&M Records free collector/listener resource

Herb Alpert
Alpert in 1966.
Background information
Birth name	Herbert Alpert
Also known as	Herb Alpert, Dore Alpert
Born	(1935-03-31) March 31, 1935 (age 77)
Origin	Los Angeles, California, US
Genres	Jazz, Latin, funk, pop, R&B
Occupations	Trumpeter, composer, arranger, songwriter, singer, record producer, record executive, painter, sculptor
Instruments	Trumpet, piano, vocals
Years active	1957— (concert touring presently with wife Lani Hall)
Labels	A&M
Associated acts	The Tijuana Brass, Baja Marimba Band
Website	www.herbalpert.com

Herbert "Herb" Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records (a recording label he and business partner Jerry Moss founded and eventually sold to Polygram). The multi-talented Alpert has also created abstract expressionist paintings and sculpture over two decades, which are on occasion publicly exhibited; and he and his wife are substantial US philanthropists through the operation of the Herb Alpert Foundation.

Alpert's musical accomplishments include five number one hits, 28 albums on the Billboard charts, eight Grammy Awards, fourteen Platinum albums and fifteen Gold albums.^[1] As of 1996, Alpert had sold 72 million albums worldwide.^[2][3][4] Alpert is the only recording artist to hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart as both an instrumentalist ("Rise", 1979) and vocalist (" This Guy's in Love With You", 1968).

Early life and career[link]

Alpert was born in Los Angeles, California,^[5] into a Jewish family of Russian and Romanian origins.^[4][6] His father Louis was from Radomyshl (present-day Ukraine) and although a tailor by trade, was also a talented mandolin player. His mother, Tillie, had her roots in Romania on her father's side; she herself taught violin at a young age. His older brother David was a talented young drummer.^[7] Alpert himself began trumpet lessons at the age of eight and played at dances as a teenager. Acquiring an early wire recorder in high school, he experimented on this crude equipment. After graduating from Fairfax High School in 1952, he joined the U.S. Army and frequently performed at military ceremonies. After his service in the Army, Alpert tried his hand at acting, but eventually settled on pursuing a career in music. While attending the University of Southern California in the 1950s, he was a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band for two years. In 1956, he appeared in the uncredited role "Drummer on Mt. Sinai" in the film "Ten Commandments".^[8] In 1962, he had an uncredited part in a scene in "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation" where he played (and performed a solo) in a dance band.

In 1957, Alpert teamed up with Rob Weerts, another burgeoning lyricist, as a songwriter for Keen Records. A number of songs written or co-written by Alpert during the following two years became top twenty hits, including "Baby Talk" by Jan and Dean, "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke, and "Alley-Oop" by The Hollywood Argyles and by Dante and The Evergreens.^[2] In 1960, Alpert began his recording career as a vocalist at RCA Records under the name of Dore Alpert.^[4]

"Tell It to the Birds" was recorded as the first release on the Alpert & Moss label Carnival Records. When Alpert and Moss found that there was prior usage of the Carnival name, their label became A&M Records.

The Tijuana Brass years[link]

Alpert set up a small recording studio in his garage and had been overdubbing a tune called "Twinkle Star", written by Sol Lake, who would eventually write many of the Brass's original tunes. During a visit to Tijuana, Mexico, Alpert happened to hear a mariachi band while attending a bullfight. Following the experience, Alpert recalled that he was inspired to find a way to express musically what he felt while watching the wild responses of the crowd, and hearing the brass musicians introducing each new event with rousing fanfare.^[9] Alpert adapted the trumpet style to the tune, mixed in crowd cheers and other noises for ambience, and renamed the song "The Lonely Bull".^[10] He personally funded the production of the record as a single, and it spread through radio DJs until it caught on and became a Top Ten hit in 1962. He followed up quickly with his debut album, The Lonely Bull by "Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass". Originally the Tijuana Brass was just Alpert overdubbing his own trumpet, slightly out of sync. The title cut reached #6 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart. This was A&M's first album (the original number was 101), although it was recorded at Conway Records.

By the end of 1964, because of a growing demand for live appearances by the Tijuana Brass, Alpert auditioned and hired a team of crack session men. No one in Alpert's band was actually Hispanic. Alpert used to tell his audiences that his group consisted of "Four lasagnas, two bagels, and an American cheese": John Pisano (electric guitar); Lou Pagani (piano); Nick Ceroli (drums); Pat Senatore (bass guitar); Tonni Kalash (trumpet); Herb Alpert (trumpet and vocal); and Bob Edmondson (trombone). The band debuted in 1965 and became one of the highest-paid acts then performing, having put together a complete revue that included choreographed moves and comic routines written by Bill ("Jose Jimenez") Dana.

The Tijuana Brass's success helped spawn other Latin acts, notably Julius Wechter (long-time friend of Alpert's and the marimba player for the Brass) and the Baja Marimba Band, and the profits allowed A&M to begin building a repertoire of artists like Chris Montez and The Sandpipers. Wechter would contribute a number of the Brass' original songs, usually at least one per album, along with those of other Alpert friends, Sol Lake and Ervan "Bud" Coleman.

An album or two would be released each year throughout the 1960s. Alpert's band was featured in several TV specials, each one usually centered on visual interpretations of the songs from their latest album - essentially an early type of music videos later made famous by MTV. The first Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass special, sponsored by the Singer Sewing Machine Company, aired on April 24, 1967 on CBS.

Alpert's style achieved enormous popularity with the national exposure The Clark Gum Company gave to one of his recordings in 1964, a Sol Lake number titled "The Mexican Shuffle" (which was retitled "The Teaberry Shuffle" for the television advertisements). In 1965, Alpert released two albums, Whipped Cream (and Other Delights) and Going Places. Whipped Cream sold over 6 million copies in the United States. The album cover featured model Dolores Erickson wearing only what appeared to be whipped cream. In reality, Erickson was wearing a white blanket over which were scattered artfully-placed daubs of shaving cream—real whipped cream would have melted under the heat of the studio lights (although the cream on her head was real). In concerts, when about to play the song, Alpert would tell the audience, "Sorry, we can't play the cover for you." The art was parodied by several groups including one-time A&M band Soul Asylum and by comedian Pat Cooper for his album Spaghetti Sauce and Other Delights. The singles included the title cut, "Lollipops and Roses", and "A Taste of Honey." The latter won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Going Places produced four more singles: "Tijuana Taxi", "Spanish Flea", "Third Man Theme", and "Zorba the Greek". "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea" would be used in the 1966 Academy Award-winning animated short A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature.

The Brass covered the Bert Kaempfert tune "Happy Trumpeter" retitling it "Magic Trumpet". Alpert's rendition contained a bar that coincided with a Schlitz beer tune, "When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer". ("The Maltese Melody" was another Alpert cover of a Kaempfert original). Another commercial use was a tune called "El Garbanzo", which was featured in Sunoco ads ("They're movin', they're movin', people in the know, they're movin' to Sunoco").

In 1967, the Tijuana Brass performed the title cut to the first movie version of Casino Royale.

Many of the tracks from Whipped Cream and Going Places received a great deal of airplay; they are frequently used as incidental music in The Dating Game on the Game Show Network, notably the tracks Whipped Cream, Spanish Flea and Lollipops and Roses. Despite the popularity of his singles, Alpert's albums outsold and outperformed them on the charts.

Alpert and the Tijuana Brass won six Grammy Awards. Fifteen of their albums won gold discs, and fourteen won platinum discs. In 1966 over 13 million Alpert recordings were sold, outselling the Beatles. That same year, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized that Alpert set a new record by placing five albums simultaneously in the top 20 on the Billboard Pop Album Chart, an accomplishment that has never been repeated. In April of that year, four of those albums were in the Top 10 simultaneously.

Alpert's only number one single during this period (and the first #1 hit for his A&M label) was a solo effort:^[11] "This Guy's in Love with You" (written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David),^[10] featuring a rare vocal. Alpert sang this to his first wife in a 1968 CBS Television special titled Beat of the Brass. The sequence was filmed on the beach in Malibu. The song was not intended to be released, but after it was used in the television special, allegedly thousands of telephone calls to CBS asking about it convinced Alpert to release it as a single, two days after the show aired.^[12] Although Alpert's vocal skills and range were limited, the song's unchallenging technical demands suited him.^[13] The single debuted in May 1968, topped the national chart for four weeks and ranked among the year's biggest hits. Initially regarded by the critical cognoscenti and 'hip' music-lovers of the day as strictly an easy-listening chart hit, Alpert's unusually expressive recording of "This Guy's in Love with You" now enjoys appeal well beyond the so-called mainstream. In 1996 at London's Royal Festival Hall, Noel Gallagher (of British rock band Oasis) performed the song with Burt Bacharach. Former Beatle George Harrison has stated that this was one of his favorite recordings.^{[citation needed]}

Life after the Brass[link]

Alpert disbanded the Tijuana Brass in 1969, then released another album by the group in 1971. In 1973, with some of the original Tijuana Brass members and some new members, he formed a group called Herb Alpert and the T.J.B. This new version of the Brass released two albums in 1974 and 1975 and toured. Alpert reconvened a third version of the Brass in 1984 after being invited to perform for the Olympic Games athletes at the Los Angeles Summer Games. The invitation led to the Bullish album and tour.

In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Alpert enjoyed a successful solo career. He had his biggest instrumental hit, "Rise" (from the album of the same name), which went number one in October 1979 and won a Grammy Award, and was later sampled in the number one 1997 rap song "Hypnotize" by the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. Both "Rise" and "Hypnotize" were written by Alpert's nephew, Randy Badazz Alpert and his friend Andy Armer. "Rise" made Alpert the only artist ever to hit #1 on the Billboard pop singles charts with both a vocal piece and an instrumental piece. Another Randy Badazz / Andy Armer song, "Rotation", hit #30 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart. The song "Route 101" off the Fandango album peaked at number 37 in Billboard in August 1982. In 1987, Alpert branched out successfully to the R&B world with the hit album Keep Your Eye On Me, teaming up with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on "Diamonds" and "Making Love In the Rain" featuring vocals by Janet Jackson and Lisa Keith.

Alpert performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" prior to Super Bowl XXII in San Diego, California in January 1988. It was the last non-vocal rendition of the national anthem at the Super Bowl to date.

From 1962 through 1992 Alpert signed artists to A&M Records and produced records. He discovered the West Coast band We Five. Among the notable artists he worked with personally are Chris Montez, The Carpenters, Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66, Bill Medley, Lani Hall (Alpert's second and current wife), Liza Minnelli and Janet Jackson (featured vocalist on his 1987 hit single "Diamonds"). These working relationships allowed Alpert to place singles in the Top 10 in three different decades (1960s, 1970s, and 1980s).

Alpert and A&M Records partner Jerry Moss both agreed in 1987 to sell A&M to PolyGram Records for a reported $500 million. Both would continue to manage the label until 1993, when they left due to frustrations with PolyGram's constant pressure to force the label to fit into its corporate culture. Alpert and Moss then expanded their Almo Sounds music publishing company to produce records as well, primarily as a vehicle for Alpert's music. Almo Sounds imitates the former company culture embraced by Alpert and Moss when they first started A&M.

Awards and honors[link]

Alpert and Moss received a Grammy Trustees Award in 1997 for their lifetime achievements in the recording industry as executives and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

For his contribution to the recording industry, Alpert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6929 Hollywood Blvd. Moss also has a star on the Walk of Fame. Alpert and Moss were also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006 as non-performer lifetime achievers for their work at A&M.

Alpert was referenced in the second show of the third season of Get Smart where one of the code signals between Maxwell Smart and his contact was "Herb Alpert takes trumpet lessons from Guy Lombardo." Also, a fifth-season episode parodied the entire group as Max and 99 sought to unmask "Herb Talbot and His Tijuana Tin" as KAOS spies.

On 17 September 2010 the TV documentary “Legends: Herb Alpert – Tijuana Brass and Other Delights” premiered on BBC 4.^[14]

Alpert has worked as a Broadway theatre producer, with his production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America winning a Tony Award.

In the 1980s Alpert created The Herb Alpert Foundation and the Alpert Awards in the Arts with The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).^[15] The Foundation supports youth and arts education as well as environmental issues and helps fund the PBS series Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason and later Moyers & Company. Alpert and his wife donated $30 million to University of California, Los Angeles in 2007 to form and endow the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as part of the restructured UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. He gave $24 million, which included $15 million from April 2008, to CalArts for its music curricula, and provided funding for the culture jamming activists The Yes Men.^[16]

He is actively overseeing the reissue of his music library. In 2000, Alpert acquired the rights to his music from Universal Music (current owners of A&M Records) in a legal settlement and began remastering his albums for compact disc reissue. In 2005, Shout! Factory began distributing digitally remastered versions of Alpert's A&M output, including a new album, Lost Treasures, consisting of unreleased material from Alpert's Tijuana Brass years. In the spring of 2006, a remixed version of the Whipped Cream album, entitled Whipped Cream and Other Delights: Re-Whipped was released and climbed to #5 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart. Alpert's 80's catalog, which includes his two most successful solo albums, 1982's Fandango and 1987's Keep Your Eye on Me, are still unavailable on CD. He continues to be a guest artist for artists including Gato Barbieri, Rita Coolidge, Jim Brickman, Brian Culbertson, and David Lanz. Apart from the reissues, the Christmas Album continues to be available every year during the holiday season. On Sérgio Mendes' 2008 album Encanto, Alpert performed trumpet solos backing lead vocals by his wife on the song "Dreamer". It marked the first time Alpert, Mendes and Hall had all performed together on the same song. Most recently, Alpert and his wife (Lani Hall) signed with Concord Records and released a new (live) album in the summer of 2009, Anything Goes, which was Alpert's first release of new material since 1999's Herb Alpert and Colors.^[17] A new studio album by Alpert and Hall, I Feel You, was released in February 2011. Both albums feature tight jazz renditions of pop classics along with a handful of original compositions.

While Alpert continues to play trumpet, he also devotes time to his second career as an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor with group and solo exhibitions around the United States and Europe. The sculpture exhibition “Herb Alpert: Black Totems”, on display at ACE Gallery, Beverly Hills, February through September 2010, brought major media attention to his visual work.^[18]

Personal life[link]

Since 1974, Alpert has been married to recording artist Lani Hall. They have one daughter, actress Aria Alpert.

He was previously married to Sharon Mae Lubin frtom 1956 to 1971, but they divorced. They had two children together: daughter Eden and son Dore.^[4]

Hit singles[link]

Discography[link]

(All albums are on A&M Records and are listed with the original catalog numbers, unless otherwise indicated)

Compositions[link]

Herb Alpert's compositions include:

See also[link]

• 20th century brass instrumentalists
• Herb Alpert: Music for Your Eyes documentary (2003)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
• List of Number 1 Dance Hits (United States)
• List of number-one hits (United States)
• List of trumpeters

References[link]

Books[link]

• Darryl Lyman: Great Jews in Music. J. D. Publishers, Middle Village, N.Y. 1986.
• Stanley Sadie, H. Wiley Hitchcock (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Grove's Dictionaries of Music, New York, N.Y. 1986.
• Colin Larkin: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Third edition. Macmillan, New York, N.Y. 1998.
• Michael Cuscuna, Michel Ruppi: The Blue Note label. A discography. Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. 2001.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Herb Alpert at the Internet Movie Database
• Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass at the Internet Movie Database
• Herb Alpert: Artist & Musician
• The Herb Alpert/Tijuana Brass discography

Jerome S. "Jerry" Moss (born May 8, 1935) is an American recording executive, best known for being the co-founder of A&M Records, along with trumpeter and bandleader Herb Alpert.

After graduating with a degree in English from Brooklyn College and a stint in the Army, Moss began his music career by promoting "16 Candles," a hit for The Crests on Coed Records. In 1960 he moved to California where he teamed up with Alpert, forming Carnival Records in 1962 and running the company from an office in Alpert's garage. Discovering that the name was already taken, they dubbed their new-found company A&M Records.

After the A&M label was purchased by PolyGram, the two men went on to form Almo Sounds in 1994, a new record label which continues to operate.

Moss and Herb Alpert were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 as nonperformers.

Thoroughbred horse racing[link]

Jerry Moss and his wife, Ann, are also longtime horse breeders and owners who received the largest ever first-place purse from the Kentucky Derby in 2005 after the victory of the first horse he had ever entered in that race, Giacomo.

Giacomo was named by Jerry and Ann Moss in honor of a friend of theirs, rock musician Sting, who has a son by the same name. The colt's dam was named Set Them Free, a reference to Sting's song If You Love Somebody Set Them Free.

Like Giacomo, the Mosses have named another runner after a connection to The Police. Zenyatta, a half-sister to the multiple grade I winner Balance, was purchased as a $60,000 yearling at the Keeneland Sales in September 2005.^[1] The Mosses named her after The Police's third album Zenyattà Mondatta.

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

Rick Moranis
Moranis in March 1990 at the 62nd Academy Awards
Born	Frederick Allan Moranis (1953-04-18) April 18, 1953 (age 59) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Actor, comedian, musician
Years active	1976–2006,2008
Spouse	Anne Moranis (deceased)

Frederick Allan "Rick" Moranis (born April 18, 1953) is an American actor. Moranis came to prominence around 1980 in the sketch comedy show Second City Television, and later appeared in several Hollywood films including Strange Brew; Ghostbusters; Spaceballs; Little Shop of Horrors; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; Little Giants; Parenthood; The Flintstones; and My Blue Heaven.He is the widower of his only wife Anne Moranis.

Early life and SCTV[link]

Moranis was born in Toronto, Ontario, and went to high school at the Sir Sandford Fleming Secondary School. He went to elementary school with Geddy Lee, frontman of the rock band Rush.^[1] His career as an entertainer began as a radio disc jockey in the mid-1970s, using the on-air name of "Rick Alan" at three Toronto radio stations.^[1]

In 1980, Moranis was persuaded to join the third-season cast of Second City Television (SCTV) by friend and SCTV writer/performer Dave Thomas.^[2] At the time, Moranis was the only cast member who had not come from a Second City stage troupe. He became famous for his impressions of Woody Allen and George Carlin, among many others.

With SCTV moving to CBC in 1980 (and syndicated to the United States), Moranis and Thomas were challenged to fill two additional minutes with "identifiable Canadian content", and created a sketch called The Great White North featuring the characters Bob and Doug McKenzie. By the time NBC ordered 90-minute programs for the U.S. in 1981 (the fourth season of SCTV overall), there had been such positive feedback from affiliates on the McKenzies that the network requested that the duo have a sketch in every show.^[3]

Bob and Doug became a pop culture phenomenon, which led to a top-selling Great White North album^[4] and the 1983 movie Strange Brew, Moranis' first major film role.

Feature films[link]

After his SCTV work and the Strange Brew movie, Moranis had a busy career in feature films that lasted over a decade, most notably Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and its sequels. He also did the voice-over for a short lived cartoon series on NBC called Gravedale High (1990).

In a 2004 interview, Moranis talked about the kinds of films he enjoyed the most:

On the last couple of movies I made — big-budget Hollywood movies — I really missed being able to create my own material. In the early movies I did, I was brought in to basically rewrite my stuff, whether it was Ghostbusters or Spaceballs. By the time I got to the point where I was "starring" in movies, and I had executives telling me what lines to say, that wasn't for me. I’m really not an actor. I'm a guy who comes out of comedy, and my impetus was always to rewrite the line to make it funnier, not to try to make somebody’s precious words work.^[5]

Retirement[link]

The handprints of Rick Moranis in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

He left the film industry in 1997, six years after the 1991 loss of his wife, Anne, to liver cancer. He later explained that he began to "pull out" of making movies in about '96 or '97. "I'm a single parent and I just found that it was too difficult to manage raising my kids and doing the traveling involved in making movies. So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn't miss it".^[6]

As of 2004^[update], Moranis was on the Advisory Committee for the comedy program at Humber College.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, Moranis released an album titled The Agoraphobic Cowboy, featuring country songs with lyrics which Moranis says follow in the comic tradition of songwriters/singers such as Roger Miller, Kinky Friedman, and Jim Stafford. The album was produced by Tony Scherr, and is distributed through ArtistShare, as well as Moranis' official web site. Commenting on the origins of the songs, he said that in 2003, "out of the blue, I just wrote a bunch of songs. For lack of a better explanation, they’re more country than anything. And I actually demoed four or five of them, and I'm not sure at this point what I’m going to do with them—whether I’m going to fold them into a full-length video or a movie. But, boy, I had a good time doing that".^[5]

On December 8, 2005, The Agoraphobic Cowboy was announced as a nominee for the 2006 Grammy for Best Comedy Album. (A previous album by Moranis was entitled You, Me, The Music, and Me (1989)). On February 3, 2006, Moranis performed Press Pound on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and discussed the development of his music career.

In November 2007, Moranis reunited with Dave Thomas for a 24th anniversary special of Bob and Doug McKenzie, titled Bob and Doug McKenzie's 2-4 Anniversary. The duo shot new footage for this special. Thomas subsequently created a new animated Bob and Doug McKenzie series, Bob & Doug, for his company Animax Entertainment. Moranis declined to voice the role of Bob, which was taken over by Dave Coulier, but remains involved in the series as an executive producer.^[7]

On June 24, 2008, Moranis declined to come out of retirement to join the other cast members of Ghostbusters in the production of a new video game based on the films.^[8] The following year, Ghostbusters' Harold Ramis told Entertainment Weekly of a proposed Ghostbusters 3 that, "Everybody said they'd do it".^[9] But Ramis later stated to Student Life, "Rick won’t do it. Rick has retired from show business. But everyone else says they’ll do it."^[10] In January 2010, a Moviefone columnist suggested, without attribution, that Moranis may come out of retirement to reprise his role as Louis Tully.^[11]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• The Great White North (1981)
• You, Me, the Music and Me (1989)
• The Agoraphobic Cowboy (2005)

Moranis was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award in the Best Comedy Album category.^[12]

Film acting credits[link]

Audio/Video[link]

• Rock Radio Scrapbook 1973, with a RealAudio clip of Rick Allen from June 1973

References[link]