Ahmet Ertegun - Early Career

Early Career

In 1946, Ahmet Ertegun became friends with Herb Abramson, a dental student and A&R man for National Records, and they decided to start a new independent record label for gospel, jazz, and R&B music. Financed by family dentist Dr. Vahdi Sabit, they formed Atlantic Records in September 1947 in New York City, and 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, later, Nesuhi Ertegun on board as partners, and with hit artists including Ruth Brown, Joe Turner, The Clovers, The Drifters, The Coasters, and Ray Charles.

Many independent record executives, like the Erteguns, were from immigrant backgrounds, including the Bihari brothers and the Chess brothers. The Ertegun brothers brought a jazz sensibility (and many jazz artists) into R&B, successfully combining blues and jazz styles from around the country. Atlantic helped challenge the primacy of the major labels of the time by discovering, developing, and nurturing new talent. It became the premier rhythm and blues label in a few short years, and, with the help of innovative engineer/producer Tom Dowd, set new standards in producing high quality recordings. In 1957, Atlantic was among the first labels to record in stereo, and, in 1958, introduced 4-track and later, 8 tracks of taped multitrack recording.

Ahmet himself wrote a number of classic blues songs, including "Chains of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen", under the pseudonym A. Nugetre (Ertegun backwards). The songs were given expression first by Big Joe Turner and continued in B.B. King's repertoire. He also wrote the Ray Charles hit "Mess Around", with lyrics that drew heavily on Pinetop Smith. Ahmet was part of the shouting choral group on Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll", along with Wexler and songwriter Jesse Stone. He was credited on a Holland compilation "Buddy Holly, The Singles" of writing the Buddy Holly song "Ting A Ling" recorded on July 22, 1956.