Jerry Moss, who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert, dead at 88

LOS ANGELES — Jerry Moss, who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert and released hit albums by The Carpenters, The Police and his partner, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 88.

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Moss died at his home in Bel Air, California, The Associated Press reported, citing a statement from his family.

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

A&M was co-founded by Moss in 1962 with trumpeter and bandleader Alpert, the Los Angeles Times reported. Moss and Alpert, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, ran one of the music industry’s most successful independent labels, Billboard reported.

The label rose to prominence behind the music of Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Variety reported. Their worldwide sales are estimated at more than 70 million albums.

Some of the label’s top albums included Alpert’s “Whipped Cream & Other Delights,” Carole King’s “Tapestry” and Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive!”

The Carpenters, Cat Stevens, Janet Jackson, Soundgarden, Joe Cocker, Suzanne Vega, the Go-Gos and Sheryl Crow all released music on the A&M label, according to the music news website.

Among the label’s singles were Alpert’s “A Taste of Honey,” Captain and Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together,” Frampton’s “Show Me the Way” and “Every Breath You Take” by The Police, according to Billboard.

Billy Preston had a pair of No. 1 singles for A&M with “Will It Go Around in Circles” and “Nothing From Nothing” during the mid-1970s, Deadline reported.

“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 Artist House Music in 2007, according to the AP.

Moss shared a Grammy Award with Alpert for Record of the Year in 1966 for co-producing “A Taste of Honey, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Moss was nominated for four other Grammys, and in 1997 he earned the Grammy Trustees Award, which is given to those who “made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording.”

Alpert and Moss sold A&M to Polygram in 1989 for a reported $500 million, the Times reported. They remained at the label but left in 1993 after a dispute with Polygram management, according to the newspaper.

In 1994, the duo formed a new label, Almo Sounds, and released albums by Garbage, Ozomatli and Gillian Welch, the Times reported.

In 2020, Moss and his wife, Tina, gave $25 million to the Music Center, the Times reported. It was the largest gift earmarked for programming in the organization’s history.

“I consider myself a music man, and I would like to celebrate that at this stage of my life,” Moss said at the time.

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