Original subtitles

♪ Alright♪

♪ Here we go again♪

[man] Two guys in a garage in Hollywood.

[man #2] Mr. A was a musician. Mr. M was a businessman.

[Alpert] We just wanted to release a record

and see what would happen.

♪ Give a little bit♪

♪ Give a little bit Of your love to me♪

[man] I remember ordering a million albums.

It was a major success.

♪ Oh, give a little bit♪

♪ Give a little bit Of my love to you♪

[Childs] This was the '60s.

This was the civil rights period of time. This was Vietnam.

♪ There's so much That we need to share♪

♪ So send a smile♪

♪ And show you care♪

[Alpert] And here we were, you know, on Charlie Chaplin's lot.

♪ Give a little bit, Give a little bit♪

-Hello, there. -Hi.

♪ Of my life for you♪

[Hall] It was a really magical place to be.

♪ Give a little bit♪

♪ Give a little bit Of your love to me♪

[Beeson] There was music everywhere.

[Mendes] It was a great environment to make music.

♪ Give a little bit♪

♪ Give a little bit of my life♪

[Friesen] They figured out how to make a fantasy world

in a kind of Disney-esque way that was a record company.

♪ Now's the time that We need to share♪

♪ So find yourself♪

♪ We're on our way back home♪

[woman] I remember the logo on the insides of the records

and just how important those albums were to me.

A&M's secret is, um... well, I can't tell you.

[Alpert] What is that element that will give you goose bumps

when you hear a song on the radio?

♪ Ooh, yeah, come along♪

[Childs] A&M changed the whole format.

Believe in the music. Believe in the artists.

We were the luckiest people,

the artists that got to be on A&M.

[Stevens] A&M were family. You know, it was my home.

[Adler] It was like a mama/papa store looking like a giant.

[man] They were real people.

It wasn't like, you know, some sort of faceless corporation.

This was Mr. A and Mr. M.

♪ Sing it tonight♪

[Hall] Herb and Jerry started A&M on a handshake,

and they ended A&M with a handshake and a hug.

[man] Gentlemen, let me know when you have speed.

[man #2] Alright, do you need a sentence from Jerry

to do that, or we okay?

-We rolling, gentlemen? -Rolling.

[man] Action.

How official.

So, you guys has met, I read, when Herb was in New York,

maybe a little bit, and reconnect out here.

Is that how it goes?

I think this is one of the few times that Jerry and I disagree.

You know, I always remember meeting Jerry in New York.

For some reason, he remembers meeting me in Los Angeles.

[both chuckle]

♪ Na, na, na, na, Na, na, na, na, na♪

♪ Na, na, na, na, Na, na, na, na, na♪

♪ Na, na, wa, wa, wa, wa♪

♪ You turn me on Then you put me down♪

♪ Can't you run♪

Well, Jerry and I met because of Ted Fagan,

who was the head promotion man at Madison Records in New York,

and Ted told me that he was the number one promotion man

in the country at the time.

-That's what I heard. -That's what he said.

-Was that propaganda? -Did Fagan actually say that?

-He actually said that. -Wow.

-Did you pay him to say that? -[man] It's promotion.

I can't believe...

♪ Oh, tell it to the birds Wa, wa, wa, wa♪

In '61 or '62, we used to go out at night,

and he'd take his horn and play in piano bars

up and down La Cienega Boulevard.

♪ Do you really think That that's...♪

And Herbie, all this time, used to make records for RCA.

♪ To a guy who loves you so♪

Late summer of '62, I made the suggestion,

why don't you spend about 400 bucks on your record,

I spent about 400 bucks on my record,

and we'll make two releases and see where we go.

We called it Carnival Records.

And I was working on this record called

"Tell It To the Birds."

♪ Oh, tell it to the birds♪

♪ Wa, wa, wa, wa♪

It became a moderate hit.

You know, we got, I think, $500 for it.

-$750. -$750. [laughs]

What happened to the other $250?

[laughter]

[crowd cheering]

So with that money, we invested in "The Lonely Bull."

♪♪

♪♪

I didn't think at the time we were starting

a record company.

We were just trying to put out a record like so many

other companies were doing at that particular time in 1962.

There were a lot of companies just operating

out of the trunks of their car,

and ours was a little more sophisticated than that.

We were operating out of my garage.

One of the things we used to do together

is go to the bullfights in Tijuana.

I was kind of engrossed with--

There was like a brass band in the stands.

There was something that gave me goose bumps

when I heard this.

And my impression of those afternoons

fell into this recording of "The Lonely Bull."

I was listening to Les Paul,

and he layered his guitar many times over,

and I was thinking, "Oh, that could be fun

to try on the trumpet."

And I had two tape machines, and I went from one tape machine

to the other and start layering the trumpet and, bang,

that was the genesis of the Tijuana Brass sound.

We made the record,

and when it came to sticking a label on it,

we realized there were two other Carnival Records.

So in a rush to get it out,

we just used the initials of our names.

And this became the first A&M record.

"The Lonely Bull," it was A&M 101,

and the record took off.

We were getting calls from all over the world,

all over the country.

It was like a wonder.

In like two, three days, it was happening.

[announcer] The world hangs on the brink

as Russia hesitates.

The record was a major, major success.

And the Cuban Missile Crisis was going on,

and I was still in the Reserves.

[Kennedy] It shall be the policy of this nation to regard

any nuclear missile launched from Cuba

as an attack by the Soviet Union.

And I thought, "Oh, my God,

I got a hit record, and I'm gonna have to go in the Army.

We're going to war. This is happening."

[announcer] Then the first break.

The missiles go home.

Thank God everybody went backwards.

♪♪

Gil Friesen and I were friends.

He was a promotion man for Capitol.

We thought, well, if we could ever get to the point

where we could hire another person,

Gil would be that person.

[Friesen] Herb and Jerry offered me a job

to come do work for them at A&M.

They offered me $250 a week as the general manager.

There were just Herb and Jerry and Jolene Burton,

who was the assistant secretary in those days to Jerry and Herb.

Jerry got the idea to do an album that incorporated

a lot of food titles.

I came up with the idea of, let's do a concept album

of Whipped Cream & Other Delights.

The Whipped Cream & Other Delightsalbum cover

lives in history.

It had a sexual innuendo to it.

♪♪

We had an art director that we used,

a guy named Peter Whorf, and had found this model,

and he had photographed her.

This cover, I remember seeing it in the studio,

and I thought to myself, I said,

"Man, this is maybe pushing it a little bit too much."

It was a beautiful girl with whipped cream, and it worked.

You know, whatever it was, it worked.

Whipped Cream, the album, just took off.

We had put out three Tijuana Brass albums,

and it carried all those first three albums with it,

so that at the end of the year,

we'd sold maybe five or six million albums.

It was a breakthrough not just for the small record label A&M.

It was a breakthrough in the record business.

From that, we got all the major shows--

Andy Williams, Ed Sullivan.

When the door opens for you and it starts raining,

it starts pouring.

It was beautiful.

With Herbie's success, all of a sudden,

we now had the wherewithal to really have a company.

We bought the Charlie Chaplin lot.

We went in there with 33 employees,

and it was like very spacious place, and my father said,

"You think you guys need all this room?" [chuckles]

My name is Victor.

I am the guard here at the entrance to A&M.

[Garcia] It was beautifully self-contained.

We had our own recording studios, our own mix rooms.

And you could ask for no more interesting vibe or heritage

than being located on the Chaplin lot.

We found that there was traces of Charlie Chaplin's

old swimming pool underneath Studio A,

which was really interesting, 'cause Charlie Chaplin's home

was originally right up on Sunset and La Brea.

And the studios were like his backyard.

We never erased the Chaplin footprints.

They were just always there.

There were definitely memories

and ghosts floating around that lot.

It had character. It had open space.

It was an immediate campus.

We hired a lot of people we admired,

salespeople and promotion people and A&R people.

So the lot gave us room to grow.

And room to dream.

♪♪

♪♪

[Childs] In those days-- remember, this was the '60s,

this was the civil rights period of time. This was Vietnam.

[Garcia] We were going through the '60s riots.

There were marches on Washington,

marches on the Sunset Strip.

Summer of Love. All that was going on.

And here we were, you know, on Charlie Chaplin's lot.

When you walked on that lot,

there was Jews, Gentiles, Protestants, Catholics.

It was a multicultural company.

And the fact that there was no other Black executive

that worked for a pop company in the business at that time

showed you what kind of people they were.

[Garcia] Herb and Jerry were on Nixon's "unfriendly" list.

So A&M almost had this kind of reputation

for being a bit off the cuff

and, of course, being very independent.

Tonight, I'm proud to present a new look,

a new sound, a new approach.

That certainly spells Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66.

♪ Are bound to follow, but The root is still that note♪

♪ Now this new one Is the consequence of the one♪

The thing that we established very early on

is that there were all kinds of music that affected us.

We responded to different great people.

And I would say the first major artist we signed

was Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66.

♪ There's so many people who can Talk and talk and talk♪

♪ And just say nothing Or nearly nothing♪

In the summer of '63, the Jobim album was one of

my favorite albums, still is, of all time,

and I loved Brasil '65.

You know, it was just incredible bossa nova music.

♪ I will pour into That one note♪

♪ All the love I feel for you♪

And as luck would have it, I was having breakfast

with our Seattle distributor, and he said,

"Capitol let Sérgio go, and they're doing a new band,

and it's Brasil '66 now.

He's got two new singers,

and they're rehearsing at Geordie Hormel's."

[scatting]

♪♪

We walked in the room and heard this incredible sound.

It was terrific.

It was something we hadn't heard before.

[Mendes] I call it the magic of the encounter,

and I liked them immediately.

It was like, wow, here I'm meeting somebody

that is starting a new company, very fresh.

So it's a great opportunity for me.

[scatting]

♪♪

♪ He will find himself With no show♪

♪ Better play the note You know♪

♪ He will find himself With no show♪

♪ Better play the note you♪

♪ Know♪

And then Herbie said,

"Look, not only will I produce you,

but you'll come on the road with me."

♪♪

At that time, The Tijuana Brass was screaming hot,

and we had them open the show for us.

It was really an amazing experience

because we had been playing in small clubs.

We were playing to maybe 120 people a night,

and all of a sudden, we were in front of 20,000 people.

And then when they returned to L.A., I produced

their first few records, and then, bang, it happened.

It's called Herb Alpert Presents

Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66.

It's on A&M, and it's a tremendous album.

[Mendes] "Mas Que Nada" became my first hit.

The first time a Brazilian song in Portuguese hit the charts.

[Hall] I don't speak Portuguese, but when I heard this music,

I wanted very much to sound authentic.

And so I would write everything phonetically,

and I really worked hard on the accent.

[Mendes] I met Lani Hall in Chicago.

I was putting together a group that became Brasil '66.

Lani was the sound of Brasil '66.

That's really Lani singing all those songs.

Some of today's finest music

is written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney,

the Rodgers and Hart of Carnaby Street.

And this is one of their latest.

♪♪

♪♪

♪ Day after day♪

♪ Alone on a hill♪

♪ The man with the foolish grin Is keeping perfectly still♪

♪ But nobody wants to know him♪

♪ They can see that He's just a fool♪

We were around Herb Alpert a lot

because we opened the show,

and then when we came back from the tour,

he produced the albums.

So all of a sudden, we were becoming friends.

And then, of course, became something that we both

didn't imagine it becoming.

We both fell in love.

♪ Spinning 'round♪

He's just the most wonderful man I know.

I mean, he's, uh--he's bright, he's funny.

Handsome. He's very handsome. [laughs]

And he's very creative. He's an original.

He's a great trumpet player. [laughs]

♪ A thousand voices talking Perfectly loud♪

Lani has this little magical little something.

She doesn't sing anything unless it's coming from a deep place.

♪ Seems to notice♪

♪ But the fool on the hill♪

She's my muse and best friend.

Best thing that ever happened in my life.

♪ In his head, see the world♪

♪ Spinning 'round♪

[cheers and applause]

That's "Alfie."

-The song, not this. -[laughter]

I've never really given this a name.

Although at times I felt like calling it a couple things.

The man who wrote "Alfie" and "What the World Needs Now"

and so many other songs is probably one

of the most important modern composers today.

Mr. Burt Bacharach.

[applause]

I knew Burt Bacharach from the early days.

We worked out of the same office in the Brill Building

in New York.

And he became just absolutely huge

as a songwriter in the early '60s.

It was just one hit after another.

In 1966, I got a phone call from Burt that he'd just done

the soundtrack to Casino Royale,

and would Herbie be interested in doing a song?

Within a matter of a couple of days,

got a dub over to Herbie, Herbie liked it,

we recorded it.

It brought me in contact with Burt again.

[applause]

♪♪

I said, "Well, why don't you just come with us?

We can provide a tremendous home for you.

You can record whatever you like."

I wasn't even looking for a record company.

I mean, I just was a composer making records for other people.

And Jerry said,

"Why don't you take your songs and make an album?"

So he did--came over

and became just a magnificent presence in our lives.

If it hadn't been for him-- you know, I needed a push.

I needed somebody to say, "Why don't you do this?"

Burt Bacharach was a huge addition to our whole culture.

Burt Bacharach.

[applause]

I had the experience.

I'd recorded for a major record company,

and I was listening to a playback

of one of the songs I did, and I wanted a little more bass,

so I went over to the bass pot and lifted it up,

and the engineer slapped my hand,

and he said, "Don't ever touch that board again."

You know, I looked at him, thinking to myself,

"Man, isn't this music business

supposed to revolve around the artist?"

And I said if I ever had a chance to have my own company,

it's gonna revolve around the artist.

And you can't force a musician to play well.

You can't force a writer to write great.

And--But what you can do is you can create the environment

for creative things to take place.

And essentially, I mean, that's what A&M is all about.

The key was we were an artist-friendly label,

and certainly the fact that one of the partners was an artist

was a bit of magic that no one else could claim.

They were behind the artist all the way.

And I think that's what made A&M so important and so different.

Our competition in those days was fierce.

A&M had a certain style-- believe in the music,

believe in the artists.

Every other company was a profit machine

with responsibility to stockholders

and was run strictly as a business.

A&M was the only one that was run with the orientation

of doing right by the artists first and making money second.

One of the exciting things is watching

people develop over a period of time

and watching artists happen, you know?

We realized we were good at what we were doing.

We were gonna come at this business with respect for it

and honor people as they honored us.

If you were that way, you had a better chance,

especially as a smaller company,

to pull an artist in, to seduce them.

It became the formula on how to run a record company

and how to deal with artists.

[Friesen] Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss

are what make all of this work

and what make all of this a very special experience.

The A&M secret is people.

So, that's how we competed.

It was our treatment of people and our essence,

so to speak, that made us different.

And that's what we wanted to be. We wanted to be different.

[guitar playing]

1967, Jerry goes to the Monterey Pop Festival.

We were basically the first rock-and-roll festival

of that size.

♪ Rock me, baby♪

♪ Rock me all night long♪

Jerry was in a different music business.

The nomenclature at the time, I think,

was M.O.R.-- middle-of-the-road music.

But it was not radical.

The Monterey Pop Festival was about as radical

as music was at that point.

We did not have a performer there,

and that bothered me because I saw all this amazing music

and we were not represented.

I came home, and I told Herbie we should do something about it.

That was the pivotal moment for him.

He realized he needed to get into the rock business.

You're in a business

where the future kills the present.

You have to have the next thing in order to keep going.

The future of the label required us to do

what Jerry saw clearly at the Monterey Pop Festival.

So through a bunch of deals in England with Island,

Regal Zonophone, Chrysalis, they got their rock acts.

From that came an outpouring of some amazing music,

and I realized that we had to have our own company

in Great Britain.

We hired four people,

and that was the beginning of A&M UK.

In 1969, we got a tape in the mail,

and it was a song called "Marjorine."

♪ Marjorine, where have you been?♪

♪ Did you meet the Queen, Marjorine?♪

A&M was a small company.

All of a sudden has Joe Cocker, and that's a blip

that goes all the way to the top.

♪ Why did you go?♪

Joe Cocker is an amazing performer.

It was impossible for him

to sing out of time or out of tune.

His voice was just that magnificent.

♪ Searching for me♪

♪ Marjorine♪

And by '69, at Woodstock, we had Joe Cocker.

♪ What would you do♪

♪ If I sang out of tune?♪

♪ Would you stand up And walk out on me?♪

He's the real deal. Nobody could make Joe Cocker up.

Nobody could, in the studio, say,

"Joe, be a little wilder on that vocal."

♪ Oh, baby, I get by♪

♪ With a little help From my friends♪

♪ All I need is my buddies♪

♪ Try with a little help From my friends♪

A&M was just marketing and promoting him

and presenting him to the world.

It was kind of capturing lightning.

♪ Said I'm gonna make it For my friends♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh♪

I didn't really understand rock and roll

until we signed Joe Cocker.

And the Mad Dogs & Englishmen,

they were rehearsing on the A&M sound stage.

I sat on the sound stage

and started listening to this thing that was like, "Wow."

I mean, I was getting goose bumps.

And, you know, Joe was doing his gyrations.

I don't know. He thought he was a guitar player,

whatever it was.

It was great.

♪ Ride, Louise, ride♪

Eh?

♪ Ride, Louise, ride♪

♪ Let me be your guide♪

♪ Take you anyplace You wanna go♪

You think that Joe Cocker is that guy.

Mad Dogs.

He's very shy, and he's very quiet.

♪ And I'll show you All the things♪

It's something about that's deeper

about the persona of the musician that's encompassed

through the music that he expresses.

Here's the person, here's the music,

and there's something else about that person.

If you really look hard, you'll see something

come through, and that's like a secret.

The really fun part was to see somebody just explode.

It's those moments when you know that

there was something historically happening.

[cheers and applause]

Joe was really hot.

And then they decided to go on the road with this big group.

♪ Give me a ticket For an aeroplane♪

♪ I ain't got time To take no fast train♪

One of A&M's first movies, Mad Dogs and Englishmen,

directed by Pierre Adidge, an A&M film.

This was a big project for A&M,

a big way of exposing Joe Cocker,

a big way of putting their foot into the film business.

♪ Listen to me, mister♪

♪ Don't you hear me ravin'♪

♪ For my baby once more?♪

♪ Anyway♪

Joe was the kind of guy that he really worked

and worked hard.

♪ I'm gonna find my way♪

It took a toll.

-[man] Joe Cocker. -[woman] I can't believe it.

It surprised me so much...

[chuckles]

Joe really had a problem with taking certain additives

in those days, you know?

[man] Jerry Moss was saying that to get you back on the road

at first, it was more or less a hard thing to do.

There was a lot of people sitting down having a talk

about a loss of sessions.

Was it a hard decision to make to go back after

such a long period of being off?

They got these worries that I was turning into an alcoholic.

And they, you know, asked me to go into

this hospital and get a check-out.

And when the tour was over, he just slipped into the inkwell

or went back to England, and he was nowhere around.

♪ Yeah, baby♪

The Mad Dogs and Englishmen album became a huge hit

for us in 1970.

♪ I've got some whiskey♪

[audience cheering]

Joe Cocker had had his apogee,

and then there's this continuation of a career

that could've gone south.

♪ Have some cocaine♪

[audience cheering]

But you hear Joe's voice, and it's like no one has that voice,

and no one's had that voice since him.

♪ I'm gonna keep moving, Darling♪

♪ Till I'm back In your arms again♪

♪♪

♪♪

Let's talk about the good old days.

In those days, we listened to music all day, all night.

It was a thing about album covers.

It was a toy.

My job was to create things for kids to collect.

The product we make, it's art.

You don't sell it the same way you sell packaged goods.

[Young] We didn't need marketing and strategies.

We just had, "I know when I listen to this,

someone's gonna like it."

[Ayeroff] Words like "tonnage," which were loosely used

all through the industry, were banned at A&M.

We were not allowed to call a big ship on a record tonnage.

This wasn't appropriate.

This isn't the way you talk about art.

I remember getting a call, I was in the office at the time,

from our distributor in St. Louis,

ordering 104,000 albums.

I said, "Are you kidding?"

He says, "No, and you got to get 'em to me quickly."

I said, "You must really like this album."

He said, "I never heard it."

But he said--this is something that's stuck in my head,

and it'll stay there forever.

He said, "I'm selling a lot of tonnage."

You know, it's the first time I thought of music as weight.

[laughs]

Hi. I'm Roland Young, graphics director of A&M Records.

Everything you see coming out of here

is my responsibility.

After Monterey Pop, we were so impressed

with what we'd seen up there

that we took on the whole art department.

We didn't have any artists up there,

but we picked up their art department.

Herb, Jerry, Gil, and I, we were in our 30s!

Not knowing, but because of not knowing, it was the start

of something that we've never done before.

And Gil had the instinct.

Gil was one of the first guys in the record business really

to think about the advertising and album covers

being an extension of what the artist did

and not just a marketing tool.

The amount of attention

that A&M gave to its album covers,

it will never be repeated again.

Every artist had a personality,

and what you tried to do was to absorb that.

We were influenced by the music.

But it also had to be incorporating the person.

You were really following the artist.

♪♪

♪ My lady D'Arbanville♪

♪ Why do you sleep so still?♪

I grew up in the West End London,

which is kind of like Broadway, so music and entertainment

were surrounding me, and neon lights and everything.

So it was a natural kind of step for me.

And music was just a fast track to expressing myself.

♪ My lady D'Arbanville♪

Cat Stevens, he's a very magical artist.

This is a guy who you sat down, and he did his album covers,

and he worked with Roland.

He loved Roland Young.

And I would sit and watch.

♪ Why do you breathe so low?♪

All the albums were designed by me,

drawn by me or painted or photographed by me.

I was always in the art department.

He wanted to be a graphic designer at one time.

Thank God he decided to become a musician instead.

♪ I loved you, my lady♪

[Stevens] A&M was family.

You know, it was my home in a way

because it was such a nice team.

Jerry, you know, was always, you know,

"Hey, you know, whatever you want to do, it's up to you."

I thought, "Wow, you know, fantastic."

♪ This rose will never die I loved you♪

They just let you do what you naturally want to do,

you know, as far as music is concerned.

They're not hung up with the business end of it.

It's just the independent-- I mean, people who have

good ideas are now coming to the front, which is great.

You don't have to go through the big mill.

♪ La, la, la, la, la, la♪

♪ La, la, la, la, la, la, la, La, la, la, la, la♪

Cat Stevens had his peak of success with us

with Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat.

Those two albums each sold five million each

in the first year, and then just kept on going.

♪ Ooh, baby, baby, It's a wild world♪

[woman] You set yourself a really hectic schedule,

a whole world tour.

Doesn't this worry you that maybe it's a bit

too much to take on?

You know, that four months almost of solid touring,

that it might sort of weaken you somewhat?

No.

♪♪

Did you touch him, did you?

-Yes! -What was it like?

Beautiful!

Fame creates a kind of separation

between you and yourself,

and you're creating an image

which has to be bigger than life.

I mean, I toured with Jimi Hendrix, you know,

and you can imagine what kind of lifestyle we adapted to.

He was an artist who was out there.

You know, it was sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

[Stevens] And then you find out, you know, a few years later,

Jimi Hendrix dies, and you say,

"Well, hang on. I don't want to do that."

There is something very heavy

about being as big a star as Cat Stevens.

Around 1977, there was the sense

that Cat Stevens was running too fast.

I was trying to look after my future,

but one of the big questions was, you know,

"Well, what is the future?"

♪ Well, if you want to Sing out, sing out♪

And that's where I started looking deeper into my life

and my identity and where I was going.

♪ 'Cause there's A million things to be♪

My music was based, most of it, on my real life

and what I was searching for, and that resounded so strongly

with so much of my generation.

♪ You can do what you want♪

♪ The opportunity's on♪

It became important to them,

so important to them as it was to me.

I do realize that, let's say the public,

when people listen to me,

really get involved in what I'm saying,

and they associate a musician or a lyricist or a poet

can be like someone that you trust,

and you follow their instincts, and you follow their ideas.

♪ Now, I've been happy lately♪

♪ Thinking about The good things to come♪

♪ And I believe it could be♪

For the majority of my kind of musical years,

I was searching for my identity.

♪ Dreaming about The world as one♪

So therefore I had to go through a great learning curve,

which didn't end for many, many, many years.

♪ I was on the edge Of darkness♪

Before I actually found out a little bit more about who I was.

♪ Well, peace train Take this country♪

♪ Come take me home again♪

There's another major part

which Jerry of A&M played in my life,

and that was when I went over to his beach house

one afternoon for lunch.

I went for a swim, and that was the day

I discovered that I was human.

So, we were at the beach house,

and we were talking with his manager

and noticed that Steve was having some little difficulty

in the water.

I was not able to stay afloat.

It was a point in time where I'd lost all my energy.

And I could see the house on the beach.

And I could not get any closer.

This was gonna be death.

That moment, I didn't have any hesitation

in finding out what I believed.

I called out to God, and I made a promise.

This wave came and pushed me forward

as if the tide had turned.

And it's a miraculous thing I can't explain,

because suddenly I was back,

you know, and my life had been handed back to me.

He came back in a little shaken,

but we, you know, dried him off, and he was fine.

Now, supposedly, he had an epiphany in the water

and went home that night and had a meeting with his brother,

who gave him a copy of the Koran,

and he took that as a sign to do what he had to do.

Jerry was very understanding when I came to the point

where I said, "You know what, I want to just take a break."

I think he understood my creative energy

was no longer the same as it was before,

so I needed that break.

We didn't know it was gonna be 27 years,

but, you know, that was a surprise.

♪ Oh, it's not time To make a change♪

♪ Just relax, take it easy♪

♪ You're still young♪

♪ That's your fault♪

♪ There's so much You have to know♪

I realized in the end that it's what you do in this world

is what you take with you,

is, you know, your belief and your good deeds.

And I certainly hadn't piled up enough of those,

as far as I was concerned.

♪ To become♪

♪ When you found something♪

I think my fans, when I left, some of them understood

because I'd--by God, I'd said it in my songs that,

you know, I'm on the road to find it.

You know, if I find out, well, come on.

Time to--you know, to get off this machine

and, you know, start living.

♪ How can I try to explain♪

But I think the big problem was that the media took

a rather aggressive approach to my freedom of choice,

and it was because of that, more than anything,

I found impossible to live with.

And so I just had to cut myself off

because I couldn't endure that.

♪ There's a way, and I know That I have to go away♪

♪ I know♪

That epiphany is what set him off

on a spiritual journey that has probably satisfied him

a lot more than his actual career did in music.

Some people burn out.

You know, they just fall out of the bottom.

He kind of flew out of the top.

Cat Stevens had a voice that compelled you

to listen to a lyric, which is what I think

a voice is all about.

It certainly happened with The Carpenters.

We got this tape, and I forget whether the tape

was flung over the gate, but the tape made its way to Herb.

♪ Talking to myself And feeling old♪

I put on this tape, you know, not expecting anything.

Had my eyes closed, and this voice came out.

It felt like this chick was sitting right next to me.

♪ Hanging around♪

♪ Nothing to do but frown♪

♪ Rainy days and Mondays Always get me down♪

Karen had a presence in her voice

that was just extraordinary.

♪ What I got they Used to call the blues♪

And the sound was beautiful.

There was this passion.

It was this type of music

that came right through The Carpenters.

It was love.

♪ Walking around♪

♪ Some kind of lonely cloud♪

♪ Rainy days and Mondays Always get me down♪

Herbie heard the tape,

we signed the contract, we took a picture,

and that was pretty much it.

When we finally did get into A&M records,

it took Herb Alpert, who was a musician,

and he saw what he liked musically in it

and didn't stop to think whether it would sell or not.

He just took us because he dug it.

♪ Go while the going is good ♪

♪ Knowing when to leave may be The smartest thing♪

Herbie said, "This is the kind of music

I'm proud to have on A&M.

♪ Foolish as it seems♪

Guiding in our philosophy was figuring out artists

that had something new to say,

that were artists instead of entertainers or performers.

And most other labels were concerned

with finding the next Bob Dylan.

♪ I'm sure that no one can tell When our wishes and hopes♪

So when Herb signed the Carpenters,

he wasn't signing the next anything.

♪ Sail when the wind Starts to blow♪

♪ But like a fool, I don't know♪

♪ When to♪

♪ Leave♪

The one thing you noticed was that Karen

was the band's drummer.

If you'd ask Karen, I said, "What's your strength?

What are you really, really, really, really good at?"

She'd say, "I'm really a good drummer."

I mean, this girl with this magical voice

thought she was a drummer, you know.

If you play drums, you're doing four things

simultaneously anyway.

Then you add a vocal into that,

and she was all of 19, and she could do all of this.

The Carpenters, "Close to You," take one.

I call Hal David, and I asked him a question.

I said, "Man, is there a song you find yourself

whistling in the shower?"

Well, three days later, he sent me "Close To You."

♪ Why do birds suddenly appear♪

And, you know, luck be have it, I gave it to The Carpenters,

and, bang, that was the song.

♪ And just like me♪

[Carpenter] I remember saying, "To me, this is either gonna go

to number one, or it's never going to see the light of day."

♪ On the day that you were born, The angels got together♪

♪ And decided to create A dream come true♪

It debuted at 56, then went to 37, 14, then 7,

then 3, then 1, and it stayed there for a month.

♪ That is why All the girls in town♪

♪ Follow you♪

♪ All around♪

♪ Just like me♪

♪ They long to be♪

♪ Close to you♪

Once "Close To You" clicked, one person wrote,

"The Carpenters didn't just hit, they exploded."

We were headliners within a year and a half.

Richard Carpenter was very instrumental

in the success of The Carpenters.

He understood a good song.

He knew how to get the best out of Karen.

He was very good at creating, you know,

these vocal backgrounds that he wrote.

So it was the combination of the two.

It was The Carpenters.

♪ We go on hurting each other♪

♪ We go on Hurting each other♪

♪ Making each other cry Hurting each other♪

It's just an easy listening sound that appeals to all ages,

not necessarily everybody, but to all ages.

♪ Can't we stop Hurting each other?♪

♪ Gotta stop Hurting each other♪

♪ Making each other cry♪

[applause]

How about this? Fourteen gold records,

20 million sales, and they keep singing

"We've Only Just Begun."

[laughter]

Once the records hit, Richard and Karen

became everybody's favorite musical act.

♪ We've only just begun♪

♪ To live♪

♪ White lace and promises♪

♪ A kiss for luck, And we're on our way♪

♪ We've only begun♪

♪ Before the rising sun♪

♪ We fly♪

♪ So many roads to choose♪

♪ We'll start out walkin' And learn to run♪

Lou Adler-- dear friend of mine--

we started together in the business in 1956, I think.

Lou, at the time, wrote poetry.

I put some music to his poetry,

and we went into Specialty Records.

This was like 1957, I think.

Sonny Bono was the A&R man.

And Sonny listened to our material and says,

he says, "I'm serious,

I think you guys ought to get out of the business.

I mean, you guys don't have it."

-[laughs] -That was encouraging.

Everybody admired Lou, and it was time for him

to take his label Ode Records somewhere.

And we made a distribution deal.

I couldn't deal with the corporate system.

I was much more independent feeling.

That's why the A&M fit was so good.

Lou brought us Mary Clayton, Peggy Lipton, and Carole King.

The Tapestryalbum was recorded in Studio B at A&M.

Lou did a very clever thing.

He recorded Carole King like it was a demo.

He didn't overproduce it.

It was very simple, just relying on great songs.

♪ Tonight, you're mine Completely♪

She'd come to the office at A&M,

and we'd go over the songs.

She'd play them on piano.

♪ So sweetly♪

Lou Adler, when I was making Tapestry,

had the ability to just quietly make a suggestion,

"Why don't you layer your voice?"

And with each new layer, I heard new parts.

♪ But will you love me Tomorrow?♪

♪ Is this a lasting♪

The drift and the buzz and everything

came from the A&M lot.

The buzz was this is a special record.

♪ Tonight with words unspoken♪

Tapestryhappens, and the next thing you know,

she's the biggest artist in the world.

Literally sells millions and millions and millions of albums.

♪ Only one♪

You know, my time at A&M

was like chapter headings in a great book.

You know, you get to the end of one chapter,

and there's a great story that ends that chapter,

and Tapestrywas one of those great stories.

There was always a chapter to read, to experience at A&M.

We were able to start the '70s with three major artists--

The Carpenters, Cat Stevens, and Carole King.

And we were feeling pretty good as a label.

We were feeling real good.

As a matter of fact, people offered us a lot of money

to sell the label and do all that thing.

But we enjoyed doing what we were doing and...

and making these records.

This was fun. This was really great fun.

We were at the right place at the right time,

and we walked right through the door,

and it was-- it was pretty beautiful.

♪♪

♪ Peace Train sounding louder♪

♪ Glide on the Peace Train♪

♪ Ooh, ah, ee, ah, ooh♪

♪ Come on now, Peace Train♪

♪ Yes, Peace Train holy roller♪

♪ Everyone jump up on The Peace Train♪

♪ Ooh, ah, ee, ah, ooh♪

♪ Come on now, Peace Train♪

♪ Get your bags together♪

♪ Go bring your Good friends, too♪

♪ 'Cause it's getting nearer♪

♪ It soon will be with you♪

♪ Now come and join the living♪

♪ It's not so far from you♪

♪ And it's getting nearer♪

♪ Soon it will all be true♪

♪ Oh, Peace Train Sounding louder♪

♪ Glide on the Peace Train♪

♪ Ooh, ah, ee, ah, ooh♪

♪ Come on now, Peace Train♪

♪ Peace Train♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh♪

♪ Now I've been crying lately♪

♪ Thinkin' about The world as it is♪

♪ Why must we go on hating?♪

♪ Why can't we live in bliss?♪

♪ 'Cause out on The edge of darkness♪

♪ There rides a Peace Train♪

♪ Oh, Peace Train Take this country♪

♪ Come take me home again♪

♪ Oh, Peace Train Sounding louder♪

♪ Glide on the Peace Train♪

♪ Ooh, ah, ee, ah, ooh♪

♪ Come on now, Peace Train♪

♪ Yes, Peace Train holy roller♪

♪ Everyone jump up on The Peace Train♪

♪ Ooh, ah, ee, ah, ooh♪

♪ Come on, come on, come on♪