Baby Franklin Seals
H. Franklin "Baby" Seals was an American vaudeville performer and pianist, whose successful 1912 song "Baby Seals' Blues" was one of the first published blues compositions, predating W. C. Handy's "The Memphis Blues" by several months. An African-American, Seals was born in Mobile, around 1880, he first came to public attention in 1909 as the pianist at the Lyric Theatre in Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1910 his ragtime "coon song" "Shake, Rattle & Roll" was published by Louis Grunewald & Co. in New Orleans. The same year, he directed and performed in shows in Houston and Galveston, where he partnered "Baby" Floyd Fisher, described as a "dainty little singing and dancing soubrette". Seals and Fisher were married, performed together as a duo, in 1911 appeared in shows in New York and Philadelphia, demonstrating their wide appeal."Baby Seals' Blues" was published in St. Louis, Missouri in August 1912, with words and music credited to Baby F. Seals, stating that it was featured by Seals and Fisher, “that Klassy Kooney Komedy Pair".
The sheet music stipulated that it was to be played "very slow". The lyrics are similar to those in recorded blues: "I got the blues, can't be satisfied today/ I got them bad, want to lay down and die/ Woke up this morning'bout half past four/ Somebody knocking at my door/ I went out to see what it was about / They told me that my honey gal was gone/ I said, bub that's bad news/ So sing for me them blues."The song was arranged by Artie Matthews, seems to have sold well. It entered the repertoire of other vaudeville performers, including both Jelly Roll Morton and the yodeler Charles Anderson, who recorded the tune in 1923 as "Sing'Em Blues". By late 1912, the tune had been arranged for performance by bands, by 1913 Seals was being noted as a "famous blues writer", it was advertised in the Indianapolis Freeman, with whom Seals corresponded, establishing himself as a spokesman for Southern performers. During 1912, Seals and Fisher performed in Nashville, before a series of engagements in Jacksonville, Mobile and Birmingham.
They performed with S. H. Dudley's company along the east coast and in Harlem, but by 1915 Seals was working as a solo act, he died in Anniston, Alabama, in December 1915, of unknown causes
Backing vocalist
Backing vocalists or backup singers are singers who provide vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. In some cases, a backing vocalist may sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used in a broad range of popular music, traditional music and world music styles. Solo artists may employ professional backing vocalists in studio recording sessions as well as during concerts. In many rock and metal bands, the musicians doing backing vocals play instruments, such as guitar, electric bass, drums, or keyboards. In Latin or Afro-Cuban groups, backing singers may play percussion instruments or shakers while singing. In some pop and hip-hop groups and in musical theater, the backing singers may be required to perform elaborately choreographed dance routines while they sing through headset microphones; the style of singing used by backing singers varies according to the type of song and the genre of music the band plays.
In pop and country songs, backing vocalists may perform vocal harmony parts to support the lead vocalist. In hardcore punk or rockabilly, other band members who play instruments may sing or shout backing vocals during the chorus section of the songs. Alternative terms for backing vocalists include backing singers, backing vocals, additional vocals or in the United States and Canada, backup singers or sometimes background singers or harmony vocalists. While some bands use performers whose sole on-stage role is performing backing vocals, it is common for backing singers to have other roles. Two notable examples of band members who sang back-up are The Beatles; the Beach Boys were well known for their close vocal harmonies with all five members singing at once such as "In My Room" and "Surfer Girl". All five members would sing lead, although most Brian Wilson or Mike Love would sing lead with guitarists Carl Wilson and Al Jardine and drummer Dennis Wilson singing background harmonies; the Beatles were known for their close style of vocal harmonies – all Beatles members sang both lead and backing vocals at some point John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who supported each other with harmonies with fellow Beatle George Harrison joining in.
Ringo Starr, while not as prominent in the role of backing singer as his three bandmates due to his distinctive voice, can be heard singing backing vocals in such tracks as "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and "Carry That Weight". Examples of three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison include "Nowhere Man", "Because", "Day Tripper", "This Boy"; the members of Crosby, Nash & Young and Bee Gees all each wrote songs and sang back-up or lead vocals and played various instruments on their albums and various collaborations with each other. Former guitarist John Frusciante and current guitarist Josh Klinghoffer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers sing nearly all backing vocals singing some parts without accompaniment from lead vocalist Anthony Kiedis; the band's bassist Flea filled in for additional vocals. Frusciante sang one song by himself during concerts. Another example is "No Frontiers" by The Corrs, sung by Sharon and Caroline. Other backing vocalists include rhythm guitarist Sebastien Lefebvre & bass guitarist David Desrosiers of pop punk band Simple Plan, guitarist John Petrucci of Dream Theater, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett & bass guitarist Robert Trujillo of Metallica, guitarists Zacky Vengeance & Synyster Gates and of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold.
In the recording studio, some lead singers record their own backing vocals by overdubbing with a multitrack recording system. A multitrack recording system enables the record producer to add many layers of recordings over top of each other. Using a multitrack system, a lead vocalist can record his or her own backing vocals, record the lead vocal part over top; some lead vocalists prefer this approach because the sound of their own harmonies will blend well with their main vocal. One famous example is Freddie Mercury of Queen singing the first part of "Bohemian Rhapsody" himself by overdubbing. Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, Tom DeLonge of Angels and Airwaves, Wednesday 13 in his own band and Murderdolls, Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran and Brad Delp of Boston recorded lead and backing vocals for their albums. With the exception of a few songs on each album, Dan Fogelberg, Eddie Rabbitt, David Bowie and Richard Marx sing all of the background vocals for their songs. Robert Smith of the Cure not only sings his own backing vocals in the studio, but doesn't perform with backing vocalists when playing live.
Many metalcore and some post-hardcore bands, such as As I Lay Dying, Haste the Day and Silverstein feature a main vocalist who performs using harsh vocals, whilst the backing vocalist sings harmonies during choruses to create a contrast. Some bands, such as Hawthorne Heights and Finch have the backing singers do harsh vocals to highlight specific lyrics. Pop and R&B vocalists such as Diana Ross, Ariana Grande, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Beyoncé Knowles, Faith Evans, D'Angelo, Mary J. Blige and Amerie have become known for not only recording their own backing vocals, but for arranging their own multi-tracked vocals and developing complex harmonies and arrangements; when they perform live, they may have backing vocalists. Some bands use backing vocals in order to contrast with the lead singer who may be performing an unusual vocal technique. For example, Brian "Head" Welch, the lead guitarist of the band Korn, performed backin
Music genre
A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Academics have argued that categorizing music by genre is inaccurate and outdated. Music can be divided into different genres in many different ways; the artistic nature of music means that these classifications are subjective and controversial, some genres may overlap. There are varying academic definitions of the term genre itself. In his book Form in Tonal Music, Douglass M. Green distinguishes between form, he lists madrigal, canzona and dance as examples of genres from the Renaissance period. To further clarify the meaning of genre, Green writes, "Beethoven's Op. 61 and Mendelssohn's Op. 64 are identical in genre – both are violin concertos – but different in form. However, Mozart's Rondo for Piano, K. 511, the Agnus Dei from his Mass, K. 317 are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form."
Some, like Peter van der Merwe, treat the terms genre and style as the same, saying that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language." Others, such as Allan F. Moore, state that genre and style are two separate terms, that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can differentiate between genres. A music genre or subgenre may be defined by the musical techniques, the style, the cultural context, the content and spirit of the themes. Geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a music genre, though a single geographical category will include a wide variety of subgenres. Timothy Laurie argues that since the early 1980s, "genre has graduated from being a subset of popular music studies to being an ubiquitous framework for constituting and evaluating musical research objects". Among the criteria used to classify musical genres are the trichotomy of art and traditional musics. Alternatively, music can be divided on three variables: arousal and depth.
Arousal reflects the energy level of the music. These three variables help explain why many people like similar songs from different traditionally segregated genres. Musicologists have sometimes classified music according to a trichotomic distinction such as Philip Tagg's "axiomatic triangle consisting of'folk','art' and'popular' musics", he explains that each of these three is distinguishable from the others according to certain criteria. The term art music refers to classical traditions, including both contemporary and historical classical music forms. Art music exists in many parts of the world, it emphasizes formal styles that invite technical and detailed deconstruction and criticism, demand focused attention from the listener. In Western practice, art music is considered a written musical tradition, preserved in some form of music notation rather than being transmitted orally, by rote, or in recordings, as popular and traditional music are. Most western art music has been written down using the standard forms of music notation that evolved in Europe, beginning well before the Renaissance and reaching its maturity in the Romantic period.
The identity of a "work" or "piece" of art music is defined by the notated version rather than by a particular performance, is associated with the composer rather than the performer. This is so in the case of western classical music. Art music may include certain forms of jazz, though some feel that jazz is a form of popular music. Sacred Christian music forms an important part of the classical music tradition and repertoire, but can be considered to have an identity of its own; the term popular music refers to any musical style accessible to the general public and disseminated by the mass media. Musicologist and popular music specialist Philip Tagg defined the notion in the light of sociocultural and economical aspects: Popular music, unlike art music, is conceived for mass distribution to large and socioculturally heterogeneous groups of listeners and distributed in non-written form, only possible in an industrial monetary economy where it becomes a commodity and in capitalist societies, subject to the laws of'free' enterprise... it should ideally sell as much as possible.
Popular music is found on most commercial and public service radio stations, in most commercial music retailers and department stores, in movie and television soundtracks. It is noted on the Billboard charts and, in addition to singer-songwriters and composers, it involves music producers more than other genres do; the distinction between classical and popular music has sometimes been blurred in marginal areas such as minimalist music and light classics. Background music for films/movies draws on both traditions. In this respect, music is like fiction, which draws a distinction between literary fiction and popular fiction, not always precise. Country music known as country and western, hillbilly music, is a genre of popular music that originated in the southern United States in the early 1920s; the polka is a Czech dance and genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the early 1950s, developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and particular
Ragtime
Ragtime – spelled rag-time or rag time – is a musical style that enjoyed its peak popularity between 1895 and 1919. Its cardinal trait is "ragged" rhythm; the style has its origins in African-American communities in cities such as St. Louis. Ben Harney, a Kentucky native, has been credited with introducing the music to the mainstream public, his first ragtime composition, "You've Been a Good Old Wagon But You Done Broke Down", helped popularize the style. The composition was published in 1896, a few months after Hogan's "La Pas Ma La". Ragtime was a modification of the march style popularized by John Philip Sousa, with additional polyrhythms coming from African music. Ragtime composer Scott Joplin became famous through the publication of the "Maple Leaf Rag" and a string of ragtime hits such as "The Entertainer", although he was forgotten by all but a small, dedicated community of ragtime aficionados until the major ragtime revival in the early 1970s. For at least 12 years after its publication, "Maple Leaf Rag" influenced subsequent ragtime composers with its melody lines, harmonic progressions or metric patterns.
Ragtime fell out of favor as jazz claimed the public's imagination after 1917, but there have been numerous revivals since the music has been re-discovered. First in the early 1940s, many jazz bands began to include ragtime in their repertoire and put out ragtime recordings on 78 rpm records. A more significant revival occurred in the 1950s as a wider variety of ragtime genres of the past were made available on records, new rags were composed and recorded. In 1971 Joshua Rifkin brought out a compilation of Joplin's work, nominated for a Grammy Award. In 1973 The New England Ragtime Ensemble recorded The Red Back Book, a compilation of some of Joplin's rags in period orchestrations edited by conservatory president Gunther Schuller; this won a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance of the year and was named Top Classical Album of 1974 by Billboard magazine. The movie The Sting brought ragtime to a wide audience with its soundtrack of Joplin tunes; the film's rendering of "The Entertainer", adapted and orchestrated by Marvin Hamlisch, was a Top 5 hit in 1975.
Ragtime – with Joplin's work at the forefront – has been cited as an American equivalent of the minuets of Mozart, the mazurkas of Chopin, or the waltzes of Brahms. Ragtime influenced classical composers including Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky. Ragtime originated in African American music in the late 19th century and descended from the jigs and march music played by African American bands, referred to as "jig piano" or "piano thumping". By the start of the 20th century, it became popular throughout North America and was listened and danced to, written by people of many different subcultures. A distinctly American musical style, ragtime may be considered a synthesis of African syncopation and European classical music the marches made popular by John Philip Sousa; some early piano rags are entitled marches, "jig" and "rag" were used interchangeably in the mid-1890s. Ragtime was preceded by its close relative the cakewalk. In 1895, black entertainer Ernest Hogan composed two of the earliest sheet music rags, one of which sold a million copies.
The other composition was called "La Pas Ma La," and it was a hit. As black musician Tom Fletcher said, Hogan was the "first to put on paper the kind of rhythm, being played by non-reading musicians." While the song's success helped introduce the country to ragtime rhythms, its use of racial slurs created a number of derogatory imitation tunes, known as "coon songs" because of their use of racist and stereotypical images of blacks. In Hogan's years, he admitted shame and a sense of "race betrayal" from the song, while expressing pride in helping bring ragtime to a larger audience; the emergence of mature ragtime is dated to 1897, the year in which several important early rags were published. In 1899, Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" was published and became a great hit and demonstrated more depth and sophistication than earlier ragtime. Ragtime was one of the main influences on the early development of jazz; some artists, such as Jelly Roll Morton, were present and performed both ragtime and jazz styles during the period the two styles overlapped.
He incorporated the Spanish Tinge in his performances, which gave a habanera or tango rhythm to his music. Jazz surpassed ragtime in mainstream popularity in the early 1920s, although ragtime compositions continue to be written up to the present, periodic revivals of popular interest in ragtime occurred in the 1950s and the 1970s; the heyday of ragtime occurred before sound recording was available. Like classical music, unlike jazz, classical ragtime had and has a written tradition, being distributed in sheet music rather than through recordings or by imitation of live performances. Ragtime music was distributed via piano rolls for player pianos. A folk ragtime tradition existed before and during the period of classical ragtime, manifesting itself through string bands and mandolin clubs and the like. A form known as novelty piano emerged. Where traditional ragtime depended on amateur pianists and sheet music sales, the novelty rag took advantage of new advances in piano-roll technology and the phonograph record to permit a m
Billy Williamson (guitarist)
William F. Williamson was the American steel guitar player for Bill Haley and His Saddlemen, its successor group Bill Haley & His Comets, from 1949 to 1963. A founding member of both the Saddlemen and the Comets, Williamson acted as the band's emcee and comic relief during live concerts, he was with the band when they recorded "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954 and appeared with the band when they performed the song on the Milton Berle Show and the Ed Sullivan Show in 1955. Williamson had the distinction of being the only Comet allowed to record lead vocal tracks during Haley's tenure at Decca Records (such as the song "Hide and Seek" on their 1956 album and Roll Stage Show and "B. B. Betty" on the 1958 Bill Haley's Chicks album, he shared a number of songwriting credits with Haley. His wife, Catherine Cafra, was credited as co-writer of a number of songs recorded by Haley, including the 1958 hit, "Skinny Minnie." He appeared in the rock and roll movies Rock Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Rock in 1956, "Hier bin ich - hier bleib' ich" in 1959, Jóvenes y rebeldes and Besito a Papa in 1961.
Williamson left the Comets in early 1963 and never played another note, declining invitations to join Comets reunion groups that formed after Haley's death in 1981. He died at the age of 71 in 1996. In 2012, Williamson was inducted as a member of the Comets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by a special committee, aimed to correct the previous mistake of not inducting the band with Bill Haley in 1987. In 1958, he co-wrote the hit "Week End" with Franny Beecher and Rudy Pompilli, which reached no.35 on the Billboard pop chart when released as a single on East West Records by The Kingsmen, a group made up of The Comets, as East West 115. He co-wrote the follow-up single as well, "The Catwalk", with Franny Beecher released on East West as East West 120, his other compositions included "Shaky", "Two Shadows", "Birth Of The Boogie", "Pat-a-Cake", "A Rockin' Little Tune", "The Beak Speaks", "Whistlin' and Walkin' Twist", "Happy Twist", "Tacos de Twist", "Hot to Trot", "Caroline's Pony". He co-wrote the song "Teenage Love Affair" for the Cook Brothers, who released it as a single on Arcade Records in 1960.
He co-wrote the songs "Wee Willie Brown" and "You Were Mean Baby" for Lou Graham which were released as a Coral single in 1958. Jim Dawson, Rock Around the Clock: The Record That Started the Rock Revolution! John W. Haley and John von Hoelle and Glory John Swenson, Bill Haley Billy Williamson on IMDb
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or "the King". Presley was born in Tupelo and relocated to Memphis, with his family when he was 13 years old, his music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, he became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll.
His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years with some of his most commercially successful work, he held few concerts however, guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug abuse compromised his health, he died in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.
Presley is the best-selling solo artist in the history of recorded music. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country and gospel, he won three competitive Grammys, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love Presley in the two-room shotgun house built by his father, Vernon Elvis Presley, in preparation for the birth. Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before stillborn. Presley became close to both parents and formed an close bond with his mother; the family attended an Assembly of God church. On his mother's side Presley's ancestry was Scots-Irish, with some French Norman. Gladys and the rest of the family believed that her great-great-grandmother, Morning Dove White, was Cherokee. Vernon's forebears were of Scottish origin. Gladys was regarded by friends as the dominant member of the small family.
Vernon moved from one odd job to the evincing little ambition. The family relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by his landowner and sometime employer, he was jailed for eight months, while Elvis moved in with relatives. In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his teachers regarded him as "average", he was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, was his first public performance; the ten-year-old Presley was dressed as a cowboy. He recalled placing fifth. A few months Presley received his first guitar for his birthday. Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, I watched people, I learned to play a little bit.
But I would never sing in public. I was shy about it."In September 1946, Presley entered a new school, for sixth grade. The following year, he began bringing his guitar to school on a daily basis, he played and sang during lunchtime, was teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. By the family was living in a Black neighborhood. Presley was a devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO, he was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, one of Presley's classmates and took him into the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques; when his protégé was twelve years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was succeeded in performing the following week. In November 1948, the family moved to Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Lauderdale Courts. Enrolled at L. C. Humes Hig
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegun (, Turkish spelling: Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish-American businessman and philanthropist. Ertegun was best known as the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records and for discovering and championing many leading rhythm and blues and rock musicians, he wrote classic blues and pop songs. In addition he served as the chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum, located in Cleveland, Ohio. Ertegun has been described as "one of the most significant figures in the modern recording industry." In 2017 he was inducted into Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in recognition of his work in the music business. He was a significant figure in fostering ties between the U. S. and Turkey, his birthplace. He served as the chairman of the American Turkish Society for over 20 years until his death, he co-founded the New York Cosmos soccer team of the original North American Soccer League. Ahmet was born in 1923 in Turkey to an aristocratic Turkish family, his mother, Hayrünnisa, was an accomplished musician who played stringed instruments.
She bought the popular records of the day, to which his brother, Nesuhi listened. His older brother Nesuhi introduced him to jazz music, taking him at the age of nine to see the Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway orchestras in London. In 1935, Ahmet and his family moved to Washington, D. C. with his father, Munir Ertegun, appointed as the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to the United States. When Ahmet was 14, his mother bought him a record-cutting machine, which he used to compose and add lyrics to instrumental records. Ertegun's love for music pulled him into the heart of Washington, DC's black district where he would see such top acts as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. Although he attended Landon School, an affluent all-male private school in Bethesda, Ahmet would joke "I got my real education at Howard"—Howard University being a black college. Despite his affluent upbringing, Ertegun began to see a different world from his affluent peers. Ertegun would say: "I began to discover a little bit about the situation of black people in America and experienced immediate empathy with the victims of such senseless discrimination, although Turks were never slaves, they were regarded as enemies within Europe because of their Muslim beliefs."The brothers frequented Milt Gabler's Commodore Music Shop, assembled a large collection of over 15,000 jazz and blues 78s, became acquainted with musicians such as Ellington, Lena Horne and Jelly Roll Morton.
Ahmet and Nesuhi staged concerts by Lester Young, Sidney Bechet and other jazz giants at the Jewish Community Center. In this period of racial segregation, it was the only place that would allow an ethnically mixed audience and mixed band, they traveled to New Orleans and to Harlem to listen to music and develop a keen awareness of developing musical tastes. Ertegun graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis in 1944. In November of the same year, Munir Ertegun died. In 1946 President Harry Truman ordered the battleship USS Missouri to return his body to Turkey as a demonstration of friendship between the US and Turkey; this act served as a show of support to counter the Soviet Union's potential political demands on Turkey. At the time of his father's death, Ahmet was taking graduate courses in Medieval philosophy at Georgetown University. Soon afterward, the family returned to Turkey to stay. Ahmet and Nesuhi stayed in the United States. While Nesuhi moved to Los Angeles, Ahmet stayed in Washington and decided to get into the record business as a temporary measure to help him through college.
In 1946 Ertegun became friends with Herb Abramson, a dental student and A&R man for National Records, they decided to start a new independent record label for gospel, R&B music. Financed by family dentist Dr. Vahdi Sabit, they formed Atlantic Records in September 1947 in New York City; the first recording sessions took place that November. In 1949, after 22 unsuccessful record releases, including the first recordings by Professor Longhair, Atlantic had its first major hit with Stick McGhee's "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee"; the company expanded through the 1950s, with Jerry Wexler and Ertegun's brother Nesuhi on board as partners. Hit artists that recorded on Atlantic included Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, The Clovers, The Drifters, The Coasters and Ray Charles. Like the Erteguns, many independent record executives were from immigrant backgrounds, including the Bihari and the Chess brothers; the Ertegun brothers brought a jazz sensibility into R&B combining blues and jazz styles from around the country.
Atlantic helped challenge the primacy of the major labels of the time by discovering and nurturing new talent. It became the premier rhythm and blues label in a few years and, with the help of innovative engineer/producer Tom Dowd, set new standards in producing high-quality recordings. Atlantic was among the first labels to record in stereo, in 1957 was the first record company to utilize an 8-track tape machine. Ertegun himself wrote a number of classic blues songs, including "Chains of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen", under the pseudonym "A. Nugetre"; the songs were given expression first by Big Joe Turner and continued in B. B. King's repertoire. "Chains of Love" was a popular hit for Pat Boone. He wrote the Ray Charles hit "Mess Around", with lyrics that drew on "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie", he was listed as "Nuggy" in the credits before changing to "A. Nugetre". Ertegun was part of the shouting choral group on Turner's "Shake and Roll", along with Wexler and songwriter
