Mr. A & Mr. M: The Story of A&M Records

If you have memories of the A&M logo spinning on vinyl, you'll enjoy this one. I remember dropping the needle on many of my favorite tracks of A&M artists. My parents had all of the Tinajuana Brass albums and I wore them out. I grew up with their artists, seeing Peter Frampton at Day on the Green in Oakland in my early college years. This is a great memory piece with allot if great artists. Its also a statement about how a vision of artistic freedom gave rise to a very successful enterprise.

I grew up with Herb Alpert and saw him and the Tijuana Brass live in concert. I read everything printed on the album covers and figured out that A&M was Alpert & Moss. And yet I still learned much here.

Before going on about the pluses I wanted to mention two omissions in the early days. 1) The original Tijuana Brass was actually the studio musicians named "The Wrecking Crew" and they came up with some of the memorable music cues on the albums, but no mention here! Fortunately there is a wonderful documentary on them to learn more. 2) Julius Wechter and the Baja Marimba Band was one of the early A&M bands I listened to along with Herb and Sergio, not even mentioned. In the honorable mentions at the end.

That said I did find this very interesting. It wasn't until the past decade that I learned that A&M was using the old Charlie Chaplin Studios which made it easy for them to produce music shorts and music videos, many of which are included in this documentary.

I also didn't realize all of the stars of the 1980's what were under the A&M label and the reason why so many artists sought out A&M to be their studio.

I'll wager, like me, that most people don't know the inside scoop on A&M records, despite knowing so much of the great music the label discovered and produced. I hadn't even known that Herb Alpert was Mr. A!

I'm now in my late 50s and so many of the artists I have enjoyed down the years were on the A&M.

This documentary takes on a journey from the very beginning. It's beautifully told and the soundtrack is brilliant. Even now, Alpert & Moss are such good friends. And that conviviality shines through and explains why so many great artists chose to work with A&M.

I highly recommend watching this documentary.

First rate documentary about the record company co-owned by trumpeter Herb Albert that broke major artists such as Carole King, Cat Stevens, Supertramp, The Police, and possibly Herb's favorite The Carpenters. And many, many others.

Mandatory viewing for music fans of the 60's, 70's and 80's.

Marvelous documentary, told easily with words, music & visuals that you'll enjoying reliving if you're a mid-boomer.

Herb Alpert born with talent, grace and apparently the touch of gold.

Enjoy!