Celebrity

Jerry Moss, Co-Founder Of A&M Records And Rock Hall Of Fame Member, Dies At 88

Published

1 year ago

2023-08-18

Kiara Grace

Jerry Moss, who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert and rose from a Los Angeles garage to the heights of success with singles by Alpert, the Police, the Carpenters, and hundreds of other performers, died at the age of 88.

Moss, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Alpert in 2006, died Wednesday at his home in Bel Air, California, according to a statement provided by his family. Tina, his widow, informed The Associated Press that he died of natural causes.

“They truly don’t make them like him anymore,” the statement says in part, “and we will miss conversations with him about everything under the sun,” as well as “the twinkle in his eyes as he approached every moment ready for the next adventure.”

For more than 25 years, Alpert and Moss ran one of the music industry’s most successful independent companies, publishing chart-topping albums like Alpert’s “Whipped Cream & Other Delights,” Carole King’s “Tapestry,” and Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive!” The Carpenters and Cat Stevens lived there, as did Janet Jackson and Soundgarden, Joe Cocker and Suzanne Vega, and the Go-Gos and Sheryl Crow.

“Every once in a while, a record would come through us, and Herbie would look at me and say, ‘What did we do to deserve this, that this amazing thing is going to come out on our label?'” Moss told the archive and resource center Artist House Music in 2007.

Jerry Moss, who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert, died at the age of 88.

His musical connections led to a wealthy horse racing operation, which he co-owned with his second wife, Ann Holbrook. Nate Duroff, a record producer, loaned Alpert and Moss $35,000 in 1962 to print 350,000 copies of Alpert’s instrumental “The Lonely Bull,” the label’s first significant hit. Duroff persuaded Moss to invest in horses a decade later.

Giacomo, named after A&M musician Sting’s son, won the Kentucky Derby in 2005. Zenyatta, named after the Police song “Zenyatta Mondatta,” finished second in 2008 and 2009 before winning the following year. Moss named another profitable horse, Set Them Free, after a hit tune by Sting.

Moss made one of his final public appearances in January when he was honored with a tribute concert at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles. Among the performances were Frampton, Amy Grant, and Dionne Warwick, who wasn’t an A&M artist but had known Moss since the early 1960s when he helped promote her songs. While Moss did not speak during the event, many others did.

“Herb was the painter, and Jerry was the visionary.” On the red carpet, singer Rita Coolidge observed, “It just changed the face of the record industry.” “A&M made such a difference, and it was where everyone wanted to be.”

Moss’ second wife, Tina Morse, and three children survive him.

Moss, a New York City native and English major at Brooklyn College, had wanted to work in show business since his twenties and had seen how much fun the entertainment industry clients seemed to be having. Following a six-month term in the Army, he got work as a promotion for Coed Records and eventually relocated to Los Angeles, where he met and befriended Alpert, a trumpeter, songwriter, and entrepreneur.

Jerry Moss, who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert, died at the age of 88.

They founded Carnival Records with a $100 investment each and had a local hit with “Tell It to the Birds,” an Alpert ballad issued under the name of his son, Dore Alpert. After discovering that another company called Carnival existed, Alpert and Moss renamed their company A&M, working out of Alpert’s garage and designing the iconic logo with the trumpet across the bottom.

“We had a desk, a piano, a stool for the piano, a couch, a coffee table, and two phone lines.” “And that worked out very well for the two of us because we could go over the songs on the piano and call the distributors,” Moss later told Billboard. “At the time, we also had an answering service. I’d handle all of my own billing.”

For many years, they specialized in “easy listening” acts such as Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Sergio Mendes, and the Sandpipers, a folk-rock trio from Brazil. Moss began adding rock performers, including Cocker, Procol Harum, and Free, after attending the Monterey Pop event in 1967, rock’s first major event.

“Frampton Comes Alive!” was a live double album released in 1976 that sold more than 6 million copies in its first year, catapulting Frampton from mid-level talent to stardom.

“Peter was a huge live star in markets like Detroit and San Francisco, so we suggested he make a live record,” Moss told Rolling Stone in 2002. “What he was doing onstage wasn’t like the records; it was far superior.” I recall being at the mix of ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’ at Electric Lady Studios and being so taken away that I requested a double CD.”

Jerry Moss, who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert, died at the age of 88.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, A&M expanded its catalog by signing the Police, Squeeze, Joe Jackson, and other British New Wave acts, R&B musicians Janet Jackson and Barry White, country rockers 38 Special and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

By the late 1980s, Alpert and Moss were working out of a Hollywood lot where Charlie Chaplin used to make films, but they were struggling to keep up with ever-increasing recording contracts and sold A&M to Polygram for an estimated $500 million. They stayed with the company until they battled with Polygram’s management and left in 1993, with one of their last signings being Sheryl Crow, a singer-songwriter from Kennett, Missouri. (Alpert and Moss eventually sued Polygram for breach of contract and received a $200 million settlement.)

Alpert and Moss owned Almo Records for a few years, releasing music by Garbage, Imogen Heap, and Gillian Welch.

“We wanted people to be happy,” Moss said in 2010 to The New York Times. “You can’t make people do a certain type of music. They generate their best music when they are free to do what they want, not what we want.”

SOURCE – (AP)

Celebrity

Jason Kelce Smashes Football Fan’s Phone

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-11-02

Geoff Brown

Jason Kelce Smashes College Football Fan's Phone

Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce destroyed a Penn State football fan’s phone after the alleged heckler called his brother, Travis Kelce, a fag.

In now-viral footage published on X (previously Twitter) on Saturday, Nov. 2, the retired Philadelphia Eagles great was seen accompanied by football fans outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., for the Penn State-Ohio State game.

As the individual capturing the tape lifted a fist to Jason, 36, and called his name for a fist bump, another man nearby hurled the homophobic slur at the retired Philadelphia Eagles star.

Hey, Kelce. How does it feel that your brother is a queer dating Taylor Swift?” the man questioned, referring to Travis, 34, who has been seeing Swift since 2023. Jason turned around seconds later, snatched the man’s phone, and crushed it to the ground.

“Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason,” the original X user who submitted the video remarked. “Wild scene in State College.”

“Kelce how does it feel that your brother is a f****t for dating Taylor Swift?”

Jason Kelce proceeded to slam this kids phone on the ground.

Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason. Wild scene in State College pic.twitter.com/3PEdZXWhSg

— Chives (@jarrett_daveler) November 2, 2024

Additional footage on X shows Jason smashing the phone on asphalt before picking it up and walking away. The phone’s owner, wearing a Penn State hoodie at the time of the incident, was shown in many videos strolling closely behind Jason and recording him before the conflict occurred.

Another footage published on X, which appears to have been filmed after Jason shattered the man’s phone, showed the hooded Penn State supporter trudging through a mob to pick up his phone off the ground.

“Give me my phone, bro,” he seemed to say to Jason.

The NFL alum seized the gadget first, then stood in front of the man and asked, “Who’s the fag now?” Others appeared to interfere.

The incident occurred while Jason was at Beaver Stadium for an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. The Ohio State Buckeyes won Saturday’s game 20-13 over the Penn State Nittany Lions.

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Celebrity

Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

Published

4 weeks ago

2024-10-30

Kiara Grace

Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion, already has an impressive medal tally, but his surprise proposal to Nina Dobrev deserves a gold medal.

On Wednesday, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram. Dobrev posted photographs of the two hugging under an arch of white roses and showing off her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring.

“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in the caption.

However, the photographs only tell half the tale, as Shaun devised an elaborate plan to surprise Dobrev with his proposal.

Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

According to a Vogue interview published Wednesday, Shaun said he assembled a team of people from the couple’s inner circle and Vogue personnel to trick Dobrev into thinking she had been invited to an intimate dinner party with Anna Wintour.

White claimed that his publicist emailed Dobrev a forged invitation to the event, which was scheduled to take place at the Golden Swan in New York City.

Dobrev accepted the invitation, joking that Shaun made it “look so legitimate.”

He even asked Dobrev’s stylist to outfit her in Chanel for the event.

Dobrev said she recognized what was happening when she entered the venue and saw White standing beneath the flowery arch.

Shaun’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

“I went into shock,” Dobrev admitted, later adding that White “said all the right things” before she agreed.

According to the publication, after Shaun proposed, the couple partied into the early morning hours with close friends and relatives.

“Best night of my life,” Shaun captioned his Instagram story on Wednesday.

The duo first became romantically involved in 2020, and they have since publicly recorded their relationship, globe vacations, and White’s Olympic farewell on social media.

SOURCE | CNN

Celebrity

Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79

Published

4 weeks ago

2024-10-30

Geoff Brown

Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79

Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," has passed away at 79.

Hollywood actress Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has passed away at 79. She died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said publicist Heidi Schaeffer.

Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”

Throughout her career, the performer, often known as Terri, Terry, or Terry Ann, seemed destined for show business from a young age.

Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comic, and her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dancing classes at six and was performing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies by age fourteen.

She was 16 years old when she joined the road crew of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and she began starring in small roles in films as early as 1963.

In an interview from 1988, she described how she landed the role in “West Side Story.” After being rejected at her initial audition, she returned the following day dressed differently and was accepted.

Teri Garr, a comedian

Teri Garr then found steady work as a movie dancer, appearing in the chorus of nine Elvis Presley films, including “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout,” and “Clambake.”

She has also appeared on various television shows, including “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare,” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show “Shindig,” the rock concert performance “T.A.M.I.,” and a cast member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”

Her breakthrough role was as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who offered her the Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant role in Young Frankenstein if she could speak with a German accent.

“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once said.

The film established her as a great comic performer, with New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael calling her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on screen.”

Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land roles in “Oh, God!” with George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s wife), and “Tootsie,” in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and discovers he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career.

A gift for spontaneous humor

Teri Garr, best known for comedy, has shown in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, and The Escape Artist that she can also tackle drama.

She had a gift for spontaneous humor, frequently playing David Letterman’s foil during early guest appearances on N.B.C.’s “Late Night With David Letterman”.

Her appearances grew so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing that rumors of romantic involvement circulated for a while. Years later, Letterman acknowledged those early appearances with helping the program become a success.

During those years, Garr began to experience “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg. It started in 1983 and expanded to her right arm, but she thought she could handle it. By 1999, her symptoms had gotten so bad that she saw a doctor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

After disclosing her diagnosis, Garr became a spokesman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving hilarious remarks at events in the United States and Canada.

Source: AP
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