Collection Guide
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A&M Records records
PASC-M.0269
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: A&M Records records
Creator:
A & M Records (Firm)
Identifier/Call Number: PASC-M.0269
Physical Description:
98.0 Linear Feet
(196 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1959-2001
Abstract: The collection consists of sound recordings, manuscript musical arrangements, photographs, correspondence, promotional materials,
posters, gold albums, awards, books, and ephemera from just prior to the founding of A & M Records in 1962 to a few years
after its sale to Polygram in 1989, while Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert were still affiliated with the label.
Physical Location: Portions of the collection stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access
special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Portions of collection unprocessed and currently undescribed. Please contact Special Collections reference (spec-coll@library.ucla.edu)
for more information.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
CONTAINS UNPROCESSED AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Materials will require assessment and may need further processing for safe access.
All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], A&M Records records (Collection PASC-M 269). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert, March 2005.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by UCLA Library Special Collections staff, 2008. Partially reprocessed by Melissa Haley, 2016-2017. Series 1 - 4
are new arrangements of correspondence, business and production records, and photographs. Clothing (Series 11) was processed
by Melissa Haley, 2017.
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existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit
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Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9951521793606533
Founded in 1962 in Los Angeles, California by Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert, A&M Records became America's largest independent
record company. Both men were born in 1935, Alpert in Los Angeles and Moss in New York. The two met in the early 1960s, when
Alpert was writing and recording songs and Moss was an independent record promoter. Their social acquaintance quickly became
a partnership when in 1962 the two formed Carnival Records, based in Alpert's garage. With contributions of $100 from each
man, the company released the single "Tell It to the Birds." After discovering later that year that the Carnival name was
already in use, Alpert and Moss created the company's new name from the initials of their last names.
A&M Records' first release, the single "The Lonely Bull" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, came out in August 1962. It
reached number six on the Billboard charts and sold some 700,000 copies. Other best-selling Tijuana Brass albums followed,
including "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" and "What Now My Love." Led by the success of the Tijuana Brass, A&M revenue
topped $50 million by 1968; by the end of the decade the band had sold some 45 million albums.
A&M's roster featured many of the top pop and rock acts from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including Bryan Adams, Burt Bacharach,
Joan Baez, the Baja Marimba Band, the Captain and Tennille, the Carpenters, Cheech and Chong, Joe Cocker, Peter Frampton,
Lani Hall, Janet Jackson, Joe Jackson, Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, the Neville Brothers, Jeffrey Osborne, the Police, Squeeze,
Cat Stevens, Sting, Styx, Supertramp, and the Tubes, among many others. A number of jazz composers and performers were also
issued by the label, including Gato Barbieri, Quincy Jones and Paul Winter as well as some late recordings by Chet Baker and
Stan Getz.
In 1989 Alpert and Moss sold A&M records to PolyGram Records.
The collection includes commercial and non-commercial sound recordings, commercial and non-commercial video recordings, manuscript
musical arrangements, photographs, correspondence, promotional materials, posters, gold albums, awards, books, and ephemera
from just prior to the company's founding in 1962 to a few years after its sale to Polygram in 1989, while Moss and Alpert
were still affiliated with the label.
The sound recordings include vinyl records (33 1/3, 45, 78 rpm) audiocassettes, 8-tracks, CDs. The video recordings include
VHSs.
The collection has been arranged into the following series:
- Series 1: Correspondence, 1959-1992
- Series 2: Production records, 1965-1988
- Series 3: Business records, 1961-2001
- Series 4: Photographs, 1960s-1980s
- Series 5: Music
- Series 6: Artwork
- Series 7: Posters
- Series 8: Clippings
- Series 9: Awards
- Series 10: Ephemera and artifacts
- Series 11: Clothing
- Series 12: Sound recordings
- Series 13: Video recordings
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Sound recording industry -- United States -- Archives.
Alpert, Herb
Moss, Jerry
A & M Records (Firm) -- Archives