Early Years
In the early 1960s Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss kept running into each other at Martoni's, a Los Angeles restaurant frequented by the music industry, and what began as a social acquaintance quickly turned into a partnership.
The two formed Carnival Records with contributions of $100 each and released the single "Tell It to the Birds" in 1962. Alpert chose the stage name "Dore" because he liked the name of the record company, for which he and Lou Adler had worked, as well as from screenwriter and producer Dore Schary; he also named his son Dore. Featuring a vocal by Alpert, this single was bought by Dot Records for $750.
Later that year Alpert and Moss discovered that the Carnival name was already in use, so they created the company’s new name from their initials.
A&M Records' first release was a smash: the single "The Lonely Bull," which came out in August 1962, reached number six on the Billboard charts and sold some seven hundred thousand copies. Written by Sol Lake, it began as an instrumental entitled "Twinkle Star."
