Every Tuesday and Thursday, former Warner Bros. Records executive and industry insider Stan Cornyn ruminates on the past, present, and future of the music business.
Since its beginning moments, Atlantic’s heads had loved the sound of black artists. They signed them, and created their new Atlantic records label to make records just like the records they’d heard on black radio, bought in black record stores, loved more than chicks, and played to death.
Or to put it less reverently, “rhythm and blues” was Atlantic’s total cliché.
Ahmet had even grown adept at creating new songs in that mode. That proved useful to this new label being run by two white guys. (Being a small label, Atlantic hardly got first choice of new songs from the big publishers. Little Atlantic came in maybe next-to-last with publishers when it came to fresh tunes to record, and left-over songs rarely sold.)
So Ahmet (using the spelled-backwards writer name of “Nugetre”) started writing his own R&B tunes for Atlantic’s Clyde McPhatter, Joe Turner, Ben E. King, Ray Charles. And his feel for R&B records made him, as they would say, “hip to the tip.”
Atlantic had moved to floors four and five of a building above Patsy’s Restaurant (234 W. 56th, Mid-town).
Up on Floor Five, Atlantic’s two heads, Ahmet and Herb, held the faith. Hits like hits they’d heard before. Black ones.
Today we celebrate the birthday of the talented musician and actor, Bobby Darin. Here he is singing his classic hit "Beyond the Sea":
Follow R.E.M. through the years with our latest gallery. R.E.M.'s GREEN: 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION is now available from Amazon and iTunes. Check it out.
GREEN. It was R.E.M.'s global breakthrough. To celebrate the album’s 25-year anniversary, we've released GREEN: 25TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION. This two-disc set features the remastered original album, coupled with a disc of live performances taken from the band’s penultimate show from their 130-date Green World Tour. All 21 songs were recorded in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1989, just miles from where the quartet had their very first recording session.
Happy birthday Darius Rucker, better known as the vocalist and guitarist of the band Hootie & the Blowfish. It's "Time" for us to celebrate by watching the video below:
Warner Bros. Records Salutes The Texas Trio’s Musical Legacy With Boxed Set Featuring Original Mixes Of The Band’s First 10 Albums
The 10-Disc Collection Arrives June 11
Back in 1969, Billy F Gibbons, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill joined together in Houston as ZZ TOP. The band that would unassumingly go on to be known as That Little Ol’ Band From Texas soon made rock history with a string of hugely successful record releases and tour dates. Over the next 20 years, the trio went on to critical and commercial acclaim, selling millions of albums and concert tickets around the world, while earning induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and status as one of the only bands to have been awarded an RIAA Diamond (domestic sales of 10 million or more) album.
Warner Bros. Records explores the impressive scope of ZZ TOP’s musical legacy with a boxed set that includes the original mixes for the band’s first 10 albums. ZZ TOP: THE COMPLETE STUDIO ALBUMS (1970-1990) will be available on June 11.
The set, including the albums initially released on the London label as well as the string of Warner Bros. Hits that followed, includes ZZ Tops’ First Album (1971), Rio Grande Mud (1972), Tres Hombres (1973), Fandango! (1975)*, Tejas (1976), Degüello (1979), El Loco (1981), Eliminator (1983), Afterburner (1985) and Recycler (1990). Each album is presented in a wallet sleeve that faithfully reproduces the original artwork, including the gatefold designs used for Tres Hombres and Tejas. The set presents, for the first time on CD, the original mixes for ZZ Tops’ First Album, Rio Grande Mud and Tejas that have long been on the wish lists of the band’s most fervent fans.
