A&M Records is one of the most successful and admired labels in music history. A&M had more than 100 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962, when Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss founded the label, and 1989, when they sold it to PolyGram NV. The label’s first top 10 hit was Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ bullfight-inspired instrumental “The Lonely Bull,” which reached No. 6 in December 1962. Its last in the years Alpert and Moss owned the label was Janet Jackson’s “Miss You Much,” which logged four weeks at No. 1 in October 1989.
As the industry continues to mourn Moss’ death on Wednesday (Aug. 16) at age 88, we give you this list of A&M’s 50 biggest hits in the 27 years that Alpert and Moss owned the label. Carpenters have eight entries on the list, followed by Jackson, with six; Captain & Tennille, with four; Billy Preston and Styx, with three each; and Alpert, The Human League, Breathe and Simple Minds, with two each. (Sting has two if you combined one solo hit and one megahit with The Police.)
The sale to PolyGram NV, announced in October 1989, became effective in January 1990. Alpert and Moss stayed on after the sale, but it wasn’t quite the same. Gil Friesen, who became A&M’s second employee in 1964 and succeeded Moss as president in 1977, resigned in April 1990. Others followed. After the sale, A&M became a little less special, a little more corporate. On June 18, 1993, Alpert and Moss left A&M which now operated as a division of PolyGram. The glory days of the label were when it was an indie – initially the little label that could – that earned the admiration of the industry.
For the record, A&M had more than 40 additional top 10 hits on the Hot 100 after Alpert and Moss relinquished ownership, including No. 1s by Jackson, Amy Grant, Extreme, Bryan Adams, Fergie and Maroon 5.
Methodology: Songs, which peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962, when A&M was founded, and the end of 1989, when Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss sold the label to PolyGram, are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years.
-
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, “If You Leave”
Hot 100 peak: No. 4 (one week)
Date reached peak: May 31, 1986
Notes: This is the first of two songs on this list from John Hughes movies which starred Molly Ringwald. This was from Pretty in Pink. Still to come is a classic from The Breakfast Club. The members of the English electro-pop band wrote this song and co-produced it with Tom Lord-Alge. Incidentally, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark is one of two A&M groups with the initials OMD. Bonus points if you remember Ozark Mountain Daredevils, who reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 1975 with “Jackie Blue.”
-
Suzanne Vega, “Luka”
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (one week)
Date reached peak: Aug. 22, 1987
Notes: Vega wrote this pop-folk rocker, which concerned child abuse. It received Grammy nods for record and song of the year.
-
Carpenters, “Rainy Days and Mondays“
Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: June 19, 1971
Notes: Paul Williams and Roger Nichols, who wrote Carpenters’ 1970 smash “We’ve Only Just Begun,” also wrote this exquisite ballad. How on earth did such a powerful song stall at No. 2? It went up against Carole King’s letter-perfect “It’s Too Late,” which A&M also distributed. For a record company, that is what you call an abundance of riches. “Rainy Days” was one of three million-sellers from the Carpenters album, which received a Grammy nod for album of the year.
-
Peter Frampton, “I’m in You“
Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (three weeks)
Date reached peak: July 30, 1977
Notes: Frampton’s hits from the 1976 blockbuster Frampton Comes Alive!, including “Show Me the Way” and “Baby, I Love Your Way,” are better-remembered, but this was his highest-charting single. Frampton wrote and produced the ballad.
-
Janet Jackson, “Let’s Wait Awhile”
Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (one week)
Date reached peak: March 21, 1987
Notes: This was the fifth top five hit from Jackson’s Control. Remarkably, all five hits made this list. Jackson co-wrote all five hits with her producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who won a Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical, largely for their work on this album. The three writers were joined in writing this ballad by Melanie Andrews.
-
Carpenters, “Sing“
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: April 21, 1973
Notes: Joe Raposo wrote this ditty for Sesame Street. Barbra Streisand had recorded it in a live medley with “Make Your Own Kind of Music.” That medley made the bottom rungs of the Hot 100 in 1972. Karen and Richard turned the song into a smash. This was their hit that they produced. Jack Daugherty was credited as the producer of their previous recordings.
-
Gino Vannelli, “I Just Wanna Stop”
Hot 100 peak: No. 4 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Dec. 9, 1978
Notes: Vannelli co-produced this soft-rock smash with his brothers Joe and Ross. Ross wrote the song.
-
Carpenters, “Please Mr. Postman“
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (one week)
Date reached peak: Jan. 25, 1975
Notes: This reached No. 1 14 years after The Marvelettes’ version topped the Hot 100. It was just the third song to reach No. 1 for two different artists, following a pair of Carole King-Gerry Goffin classics, “Go Away Little Girl” and “The Loco-Motion.” (Six more songs have subsequently achieved the feat.)
-
Carpenters, “Yesterday Once More”
Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (one week)
Date reached peak: July 28, 1973
Notes: This became the second of four top 10 hits written by Richard Carpenter and his lyric-writing partner, John Bettis, following “Goodbye to Love” and preceding “Top of the World” and “Only Yesterday.” Bettis, who went on to write top 10 Hot 100 hits for Michael Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.
-
Joe Jackson, “Steppin’ Out”
Hot 100 peak: No. 6 (four weeks)
Date reached peak: Dec. 11, 1982
Notes: Jackson and David Kershenbaum co-produced this stylish smash, which landed a well-deserved Grammy nod for record of the year. Jackson also wrote the song.
-
Janet Jackson, “Nasty”
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (1 week)
Date reached peak: July 19, 1986
Notes: This sassy smash became Jackson’s highest-charting Hot 100 hit to that point. Even bigger hits were in her future.
-
Janet Jackson, “What Have You Done for Me Lately”
Hot 100 peak: No. 4 (one week)
Date reached peak: May 17, 1986
Notes: This was Jackson’s first top 10 hit on the Hot 100. (Her tally has since risen to 27.)
-
Janet Jackson, “Control“
Hot 100 peak: No. 5 (one week)
Date reached peak: Jan. 24, 1987
Notes: This was the title track from Jackson’s Control album, which received a Grammy nod for album of the year.
-
Styx, “Mr. Roboto”
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: April 16, 1983
Notes: Styx had eight top 10 hits on the Hot 100. Dennis DeYoung was the sole author of seven of them (including this one). He was rewarded with a solo contract, which resulted in a solo top 10 hit, “Desert Moon,” in 1984.
-
Billy Preston, “Space Race“
Hot 100 peak: No. 4 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Nov. 24, 1973
Notes: This was Preston’s second instrumental hit to reach the top 10, following another “space” song, “Outa-Space,” from 1972. Preston and Herb Alpert are the only artists with both vocal and instrumental hits on this list.
-
Carpenters, “Superstar”/“Bless the Beasts and Children”
Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Oct. 16, 1971
Notes: Rita Coolidge sang “Superstar” on Joe Cocker’s 1970 album Mad Dogs and Englishmen, but Carpenters had a smash hit with the Leon Russell/Bonnie Bramlett song the following year. The B-side was the Oscar-nominated title song to a Stanley Kramer film that Karen and Richard sang on the Oscar telecast in April 1972.
-
Breathe, “How Can I Fall?”
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Dec. 3, 1988
Notes: Group members David Glasper and Marcus Lillington wrote all three of Breathe’s top 10 hits – this song, “Hands to Heaven” and “Don’t Tell Me Lies.”
-
The Brothers Johnson, “I’ll Be Good to You”
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (three weeks)
Date reached peak: July 10, 1976
Notes: Carpenters weren’t A&M’s only successful sibling duo.BrothersGeorge and Louis Johnson co-wrote this smash. With Sonora Sam. Quincy Jones, who was then also signed to A&M, produced it. Jones re-recorded the song 13 years later for his album Back on the Black. The new version featured Ray Charles and Chaka Khan. You could say this song has been “good to” Q.
-
Captain & Tennille, “Shop Around”
Hot 100 peak: No. 4 (one week)
Date reached peak: July 10, 1976
Notes: C&T had a lot in common with Carpenters – a melodic pop/adult contemporary sound, a female lead singer and a keyboardist/producer partner. They also seemed to borrow some of Carpenters’ ideas. Fifteen months after Karen and Richard hit No. 1 with their cover of The Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman,” C&T released their own Motown cover – The Miracles’ 1960 smash “Shop Around.”
-
Michael Damian, “Rock On” (Cypress/A&M)
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (one week)
Date reached peak: June 3, 1989
Notes: This was a cover of a song that David Essex wrote and recorded in 1974. Essex’s version had peaked at No. 5. Damian has played Danny Romalotti on the soap opera (sorry, daytime drama) The Young and the Restless off and on since 1981.
-
Sergio Mendes, “Never Gonna Let You Go“
Hot 100 peak: No. 4 (four weeks)
Date reached peak: July 9, 1983
Notes: This Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil song was Mendes’ first and biggest solo hit. Mendes had fronted Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, which had a pair of top 10 hits in 1968 with smartly-arranged covers of Bacharach & David’s “The Look of Love” and Lennon & McCartney’s “The Fool on the Hill.” Alpert married that ensemble’s lead singer, Lani Hall, in 1973. They are about to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
-
Sting, “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free“
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Aug. 3, 1985
Notes: Alpert and Moss probably weren’t thrilled when The Police announced that they were breaking up after their 1983 blockbuster Synchronicity. But they knew that artists have to grow and evolve. Sting wrote this song seemingly to suggest an emotionally healthier approach to relationships than the possessive strain that runs through his most famous song, “Every Breath You Take.”
-
Rita Coolidge, “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher”
Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (one week)
Date reached peak: Sept. 10, 1977
Notes: A languid cover version of an exciting R&B rave-up made famous by Jackie Wilson in 1967? Doesn’t sound like a hit on paper, but it sure was. David Anderle produced this smash, which proved again that a great song can be interpreted in any number of ways.
-
Chris de Burgh, “The Lady in Red“
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: May 23, 1987
Notes: de Burgh both wrote and recorded this romantic ballad, which reached No. 1 in several countries, including Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Norway.
-
Atlantic Starr, “Secret Lovers“
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: March 22, 1986
Notes: Group members (and brothers) David Lewis and Wayne Lewis co-wrote and co-produced this smash, which was the R&B group’s breakthrough hit. Atlantic Starr topped the Hot 100 with “Always” in 1987, but by that time they had moved to another legendary L.A. label, Warner Bros.
-
Go-Go’s, “We Got the Beat“ (I.R.S./A&M)
Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (three weeks)
Date reached peak: April 10, 1982
Notes: Charlotte Caffey wrote this anthem, which helped push the group’s album Beauty and the Beat to a six-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It’s still the only set by a female rock band to top the chart. Go-Go’s were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
-
Simple Minds, “Alive & Kicking“
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Oct. 19, 1985
Notes: The Scottish band wrote this song, which became its second smash hit of 1985. Bob Clearmountain and Jimmy Iovine produced it.
-
Breathe, “Hands to Heaven“
Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Aug. 6, 1988
Notes: This was Breathe’s first and biggest hit. For a time, they seemed likely to become a major group in the pop/adult contemporary vein, but they didn’t sustain.
-
Carpenters, “We’ve Only Just Begun”
Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (four weeks)
Date reached peak: Oct. 31, 1970
Notes: This was the first of three Carpenters hits written by the team of Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. That team also gave Karen and Richard “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “I Won’t Last a Day Without You” (as well as “Let Me Be the One,” a 1971 album track that is peak Carpenters). “We’ve Only Just Begun,” which started life as a bank jingle, received a Grammy nod for song of the year.
-
Styx, “The Best of Times”
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (four weeks)
Date reached peak: March 21, 1981
Notes: This was the biggest hit from Styx’s Paradise Theater album, which topped the Billboard 200 for three weeks in 1981.
-
Janet Jackson, “When I Think of You”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Oct. 11, 1986
Notes: This vibrant smash became Jackson’s first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. She had four more in her years on A&M, including three after Alpert and Moss sold the company. She has had 10 total.
-
The Human League, “Human” (A&M/Virgin)
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (one week)
Date reached peak: Nov. 22, 1986
Notes: Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis co-wrote and co-produced this song, which became the group’s second No. 1. Combined with their work with Janet Jackson, Jam & Lewis were becoming MVPs on the A&M lot.
-
Bryan Adams, “Heaven“
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: June 22, 1985
Notes: Adams and Jim Vallance wrote this song for the 1983 film A Night in Heaven, which starred Christopher Atkins as a college student and Lesley Ann Warren as his professor. The song reached No. 1 in 1985, long after the film had been forgotten. Adams landed three more No. 1 hits for A&M, also all from films – “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” “All for Love” (with Rod Stewart and A&M colleague Sting) and “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” Adams and Bob Clearmountain co-produced “Heaven.”
-
Captain & Tennille, “Lonely Nights (Angel Face)”
Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (three weeks)
Date reached peak: March 27, 1976
Notes: C&T had six top 10 hits on A&M (and one after leaving the label). Neil Sedaka wrote or co-wrote three of them – their 1975 monster hit “Love Will Keep Us Together,” this pop smash and their 1978 hit “You Never Done It Like That.”
-
Captain & Tennille, “Muskrat Love”
Hot 100 peak: No. 4 (five weeks)
Date reached peak: Nov. 20, 1976
Notes: This love-it-or-hate-it tune was the biggest A&M hit from the Alpert & Moss years that didn’t reach No. 1. It came close, logging six weeks in the top five. America had recorded this Willis Alan Ramsey song on their Hat Trick album in 1973.
-
Billy Preston, “Nothing From Nothing“
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (one week)
Date reached peak: Oct. 19, 1974
Notes: Preston landed his second No. 1 with this funky song, which he co-wrote with Bruce Fisher. The two also collaborated on the ballad “You Are So Beautiful,” which became a top five hit in 1975 for another A&M artist, Joe Cocker.
-
UB40, “Red Red Wine“
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (one week)
Date reached peak: Oct. 15, 1988
Notes: The band landed its first No. 1 with this reggae-i“nfused cover, first released in 1984, of Neil Diamond’s 1968 hit. The band’s second No. 1, “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” was also a cover, but by that time (1993) they had signed with Virgin.
-
Herb Alpert, “Rise”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: July 28, 1979
Notes: Alpert landed his second No. 1 hit with this sleek instrumental composed by Andy Armer and Alpert’s nephew, Randy Alpert (then billed as Randy Badazz). “Rise” was famously sampled in The Notorious B.I.G.’s 1997 smash “Hypnotize.”
-
Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)“
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (one week)
Date reached peak: Feb. 23, 1985
Notes: This classic track was featured in the iconic John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club. Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff co-wrote the song. Forsey also produced.
-
Falco, “Rock Me Amadeus”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (three weeks)
Date reached peak: Feb. 8, 1986
Notes: Many A&M acts had decades-long careers. Falco wasn’t one of them. This tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of just two songs that Falco placed on the Hot 100. The other was the follow-up, “Vienna Calling.”
-
Herb Alpert, “This Guy’s in Love With You”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (four weeks)
Date reached peak: June 22, 1968
Notes: This lovely ballad penned by Burt Bacharach and Hal David gave A&M its first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. It was one of Alpert’s first vocal releases, following nearly 20 instrumental hits. The fact that Alpert isn’t a commanding vocalist gave the song extra poignance and vulnerability. He is nakedly expressing his feelings, which reinforced the song’s core message. Alpert & Moss produced the smash. (In a fitting twist, Bacharach & David and Alpert & Moss received trustees awards from the Recording Academy the same year – 1997.)
-
Styx, “Babe“
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Dec. 8, 1979
Notes: This ballad was Styx’s only song to top the Hot 100. Critics pummeled Styx, but fans loved them.
-
Carpenters, “Top of the World”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: Dec. 1, 1973
Notes: This song first appeared on Carpenters’ 1972 album A Song for You, but Karen and Richard didn’t put it out as a single at the time and moved on to their next album, Now & Then, which spawned two million-sellers. Lynn Anderson turned “Top” into a No. 2 hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 1973. By now, Karen and Richard were starting to realize that they had underrated their song and put it out as a single to coincide with their greatest hits album, The Singles 1969-1973. The result was their second No. 1 hit.
-
Billy Preston, “Will It Go Round in Circles”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (two weeks)
Date reached peak: July 7, 1973
Notes: Preston landed his first No. 1 solo hit with this funky smash. He had first topped the chart four years earlier with The Beatles’ “Get Back,” on which he had a featured credit.
-
Captain & Tennille, “Love Will Keep Us Together”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (four weeks)
Date reached peak: June 21, 1975
Notes: This 1975 smash blends the romanticism of Carpenters with the pulse of Elton John – who just happened to be the two hottest singles acts of the 1970s to that point. Is it any wonder it did so well? This was Billboard’s No. 1 hit of 1975 and went on to win the Grammy for record of the year. It also brought a song of the year nod to its songwriters, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield.
-
Carpenters, “(They Long To Be) Close to You”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (four weeks)
Date reached peak: July 25, 1970
Notes: This ballad became A&M’s second No. 1 hit, following Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s in Love With You.” Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote both songs. Alpert had been pitched the song to record himself. He didn’t think the song was right for him – but he had an instinct that it would be perfect for his newly-signed brother and sister duo. Let’s just say the boss was right. “Close to You” received a Grammy nod for record of the year. The duo’s album of the same name was up for album of the year.
-
Carole King, “It’s Too Late”/ “I Feel the Earth Move” (Ode/A&M)
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (five weeks)
Date reached peak: June 19, 1971
Notes: Alpert and Lou Adler were friends and colleagues dating back to the late 1950s – they co-wrote Sam Cooke’s 1960 smash “Wonderful World” – so it was a natural for A&M to distribute Adler’s Ode Records label. That brought in Carole King’s landmark Tapestry album and this double-sided smash. The A side, which King co-wrote with Toni Stern, is one of the best songs ever written about a breakup. At the Grammys in March 1972, King became the first woman to win album of the year (Tapestry), record of the year (It’s Too Late) and song of the year (“You’ve Got a Friend”) in one night.
-
Janet Jackson, “Miss You Much”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (four weeks)
Date reached peak: Oct. 7, 1989
Notes: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis wrote this song, which became Jackson’s second No. 1. She would notch three more No. 1 hits for A&M in 1990-91: “Escapade,” “Black Cat” and “Love Will Never Do (Without You).”
-
The Human League, “Don’t You Want Me” (A&M/Virgin)
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (three weeks)
Date reached peak: July 3, 1982
Notes: This synth-pop smash became the electro-pop trio’s first No. 1 hit. The trio’s Philip Oakey co-wrote the song. Martin Rushent produced.
-
The Police, “Every Breath You Take”
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (eight weeks)
Date reached peak: July 9, 1983
Notes: Is this rock ballad a tender expression of devotion or an alarm-raising song about obsessiveness and possessiveness? Well, both, depending on whether you focus on the music or the lyrics, which is why it’s such an intriguing song. The song brought Sting the Grammy for song of year. The Police’s smash, which the band co-produced with Hugh Padgham, was nominated for record of the year.
Related Images:
