Jerry Moss

Oh, I did go back.

I mean, I kept an apartment in Brooklyn, and I kept it a, a, a place at, um, uh, on Barham Boulevard at The Oakwood, which was owned by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, I learned.

The Oakwood Corporate Apartments were owned by them?

That's what I had heard.

A&M, by the way, was a, a great label, really an artist-driven label with great people working, and really very, you know, very righteous in so many ways.

I mean, they were run b- you know, by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, you know.

Uh, a musician ran the label.

I mean, come on.

David Geffen, Senator George McGovern, [laughs] which is really random, but he was just the presidential nominee in '72, so I'm sure that was a visual joke that would've resonated for the audience at the time.

Uh, Bette Midler, Jerry Moss, who was the other half of A&M Records with Herb Alpert, then Winslow, Peter Fonda, and Dick Clark.

So an odd assortment of people.

And A&M Records, by the way, was sort of crucial to this film because, uh, De Palma went to A&M and said, "I wanna do a musical, who do you got?" And that's how he got connected to Paul Williams originally.

Producer Phil Ramone arranged a playback at A&R Studios in New York, and one of the men flown in to hear it was Derek Green, A&M Records' Senior Vice President for International Operations and the executive running the label's British division.

Jerry Moss, one of A&M's founders, trusted Green's judgment enough to bring him across the Atlantic specifically to evaluate Karen's record.

Also in the room was Russell Javers, guitarist in Billy Joel's band and one of the musicians who had spent months recording Karen's album.

Javers had watched her become comfortable with the New York musicians, had seen her laughing with the band and making musical decisions for herself, and knew how proud she was of what they had made.

Javers remembered watching the excitement slowly leave the room and later described the atmosphere as brutal.

Derek Green remembered a third version.

He said that while Karen and Phil were celebrating, he and Jerry Moss exchanged a look that told them both the same thing.

Commercially, they thought they had a serious problem.

He was still worried that the groupie-centered subject matter was too controversial for a Carpenter's record, you know, for the fans.

But A&M co-founder Jerry Moss, he pushed it.

You know, he said, Richard, you gotta put it out.

Moss' instincts were dead on as they usually were.

A&M had practical reasons to consider a Karen Carpenter record as well.

Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss knew Richard was in no condition to make a new Carpenter's album.

Karen, meanwhile, possessed one of the most recognizable voices in the world and was desperate to do something.

The label saw little downside.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so there was two guys from Alamo Sounds there, which was Herb Albert and Jerry Moss, who'd been A&M.

They had...

The Herb Albert.

have

been getting on by that well i met

jerry moss um which was the m of a and m so alvar moss um and he was getting on a bit but uh just just uh you know didn't really have too much to do with him just shook his hand and smiled you know i was uh i was like a field of wheat unplanted to him i would imagine

yes

And people told me a story the day I was signed.

that Jerry Moss, who together with Herbal Book, had A&M, and that he was in the publishing company.

And somebody said, we've just signed Kim Carnes.

And I flew a plane, like a little biplane, over A&M Records with a banner saying, Kim Carnes loves A&M.

There were always artists recording.

And as a writer, actually, when I left A&M Records to go to EMI, I owed A&M one more album.

And I went to Jerry Moss and said, I have an incredible opportunity to be the first artist on EMI America.

And they made me a promise that until they break me, they won't sign another artist.