A M Records

Hollywood executive and music mogul Gil Friesen has died. He was 75. Friesen, best known for his tenure as president of A&M Records and A&M Films, passed away at his Brentwood home on Thursday. Friends of the executive told Deadline, which first reported the news , that Friesen's death followed a prolonged battle with leukemia. After starting his career at Capitol Records, Friesen became the first general manager of the small privately owned music label. He was instrumental in developing an impressive roster of acts including Sting, Janet Jackson, Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, Amy Grant and Bryan Adams.

A&M Records contacted David Duke's headquarters Wednesday to demand that the Louisiana Republican candidate stop playing Bryan Adams' pop single, "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You," during campaign rallies. The romantic ballad was featured in the hit motion picture "Robin Hood" and dominated the pop charts for seven weeks this summer.

A&M Records spent much of the 1960s, '70s and '80s as one of the leading independent labels in the music business, buoyed by a remarkably consistent string of hits from superstar acts, beginning with label co-founder Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and continuing through the Carpenters, Carole King, Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, Peter Frampton, the Police, Sting, the Go-Go's, Janet Jackson, Bryan Adams and many others. The one thing they had in common: Most weren't superstars when they came to A&M. "We don't sign big names," Gil Friesen, the longtime president of the label founded in 1962 by Alpert and business partner Jerry Moss, told Forbes in 1988.

A&M Records spent much of the 1960s, '70s and '80s as one of the leading independent labels in the music business, buoyed by a remarkably consistent string of hits from superstar acts, beginning with label co-founder Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and continuing through the Carpenters, Carole King, Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, Peter Frampton, the Police, Sting, the Go-Go's, Janet Jackson, Bryan Adams and many others. The one thing they had in common: Most weren't superstars when they came to A&M. "We don't sign big names," Gil Friesen, the longtime president of the label founded in 1962 by Alpert and business partner Jerry Moss, told Forbes in 1988.

The founders of A&M Records will seek $200 million in a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Seagram Co.' Universal Music for allegedly dismantling the label after a merger, their lawyer said. An amended lawsuit, expected to be filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court today by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, will revise a suit brought last June against PolyGram, which bought A&M in 1989 but was itself acquired by Seagram last year.

A management shake-up is expected at troubled A&M Records in the wake of the surprise announcement Monday that Gil Friesen has resigned as president of the Hollywood-based company, sources at A&M say. The rumored housecleaning is seen by some observers as the first evidence yet that the layoffs which hit much of U.S. industry following the merger mania of the 1980s are beginning to affect the once-high-flying record industry.

The notion of American musical heritage used to conjure images of old codgers in coveralls straight from the Appalachians, monitored by troops of earnest musical preservationists. Not to Steve Ralbovsky. The 31-year-old A&M Records senior vice president of artists & repertoire is intent on sharing his belief that American music is a rich and varied living process, more vital and current today than ever.

In a bid to boost its share of the increasingly consolidated record business, Polygram Records is expected to announce today that it will buy Hollywood-based A&M Records. Neither company would comment on the long-rumored deal before today's news conference in New York. However, industry sources said Polygram, a unit of the Dutch conglomerate N. V.

A&M Records shocked the music industry five years ago when it decided to shut down its urban music division, once home to Janet Jackson and other black stars. But the Hollywood label bounced back this week with one of the hottest hip-hop records in the nation: the soundtrack to "The Players Club," a new film by Los Angeles rap star Ice Cube. The album burst onto Billboard magazine's pop chart at No. 10 during its first week out.

Photographer Jim McCrary was on the verge of shooting one of his most famous images when he stopped to ask singer Carole King if the cat sleeping across the room could be part of the tableau. He remembered the results of a Kodak survey that found "after children, the most popular thing people photographed was their own cats," he later said. "I saw a cat, and I wanted to get something good. " When King assured him that her pet was docile, he carried the tabby and its pillow to the window ledge and into the frame.

Jimmy Iovine, one of the most powerful figures in the music industry, has been lining his walls with gold and platinum records for decades, so when he declares that he's found "the next big thing" it's worth lending an ear. This time, though, his passion project has nothing to do with radio hits or album sales -- and that alone says a lot about the state of the recording industry. Iovine is chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, and he has stars such as U2 and Eminem on speed dial and a career that dates to the 1970s, when he was a recording engineer for John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen.

Even with star Danielle Gant out for the second half, Texas A&M had enough to advance to its first regional finals. Patrice Reado scored all 17 of her points in the second half and Texas A&M overcame the loss of Gant to beat Duke, 77-63, on Sunday night at Oklahoma City. Takia Starks added 15 points for second-seeded Texas A&M (29-7), which extended its winning streak to 12 games.

IT might be a 1969 telegram to Australia from a label president unaccustomed to working with openly out-of-control rockers, asking about Joe Cocker's "deportment." Or a letter from a fan irritated that it was not possible, in 1966, to buy tickets in New Jersey for a concert in Queens. A recording studio schedule revealing that crooner Bing Crosby and country rockers the Flying Burrito Brothers were working side by side one March 1970 evening.

The UCLA Library has completed its acquisition of the A&M Records Collection, a compendium of recordings, music manuscripts, photographs, correspondence and other materials from the personal collection of label founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, who donated them to UCLA. The archive is believed to be one of the only such collections installed in a library.

Veteran record executive Ron Fair has been named president of A&M Records. Fair, formerly senior vice president of artists and repertoire at RCA Records, will fill a job that has been vacant since 1999, when A&M was folded into Universal Music Group's Interscope division as part of Universal's merger with PolyGram. At RCA, Fair was credited with signing pop sensation Christina Aguilera.

A&M Records founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss confirmed in a memorandum distributed to employees Friday that they are "having conversations with Polygram regarding future business opportunities." The one-page memo did not disclose the terms under discussion for the company, which was founded by the pair in 1962 in trumpet player Alpert's Fairfax district garage. However, N. V.

In a surprise move, Los Angeles-based A&M Records Inc. said Tuesday that it is ending an eight-year European distribution arrangement with CBS Records International in favor of a new licensing agreement with Polydor International, a unit of West Germany-based Polygram International Holding B.V. A&M is the largest privately owned record company in the United States, with sales of about $80 million in 1983. Its artists include the Police, Supertramp, Joe Jackson and Styx.

The founders of A&M Records will seek $200 million in a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Seagram Co.' Universal Music for allegedly dismantling the label after a merger, their lawyer said. An amended lawsuit, expected to be filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court today by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, will revise a suit brought last June against PolyGram, which bought A&M in 1989 but was itself acquired by Seagram last year.

It's as hard to argue against the business logic of Seagram Co.'s traumatic downsizing of two prized record labels this week as it is to feel good about it. One thing is certain as we effectively say farewell to A&M and Geffen Records, which between them introduced such acts as the Police, the Carpenters, Guns N' Roses and Nirvana: It's almost impossible to think of labels as anything more than pieces in a conglomerate puzzle.