Herb Abramson

Herb Abramson was a record company executive and producer. He was born in 1916 in Brooklyn , New York City and initially studied to be a dentist. But he landed a job with National Records producing such performers as The Ravens , Billy Eckstein and Joe Turner . Herb founded his first record company, Jubilee Records in 1946 with Jerry Blaine. Herb aspired to record jazz, R&B and Gospel recordings. Blaine was having success recording Jewish novelty records which Abramson wanted no part of so he sold his interest in Jubilee to Blaine. Herb and his wife Miriam were close friends with Ahmet Ertegun who were all jazz buffs and together they founded Atlantic Records in 1947. Herb was president of Atlantic and Ahmet was vice-president. Both Herb and Ahmet handled the creative end of the business and Miriam handled the business end. In 1953, Herb was drafted into the Army which put him out of touch with the company which was enjoying great success with him away. Jerry Wexler joined Atlantic as a partner in Herb's absence and Herb still retained the title of president of the company. When Herb returned from the Army in 1955, he found Atlantic a changed company. Ahmet's brother Nesuhi had joined Atlantic in 1955 as a partner and was enjoying great success in jazz LPs. Ahmet and Jerry were recording R&B hits which crossed over into pop. Complicating things was his faltering marriage to Miriam which would end in divorce. To give Herb something to do, Atco Records was formed in 1955 as a division of Atlantic which Herb would run on his own. This did not solve Herb's problems completely, despite's Atco's success with such artists as The Coasters . One of Herb's artists, Bobby Darin , was going hitless. But Darin endeared himself with Ahmet and Jerry with his musical talent. When Herb announced that he was dropping Darin, Ahmet objected and decided to record three tracks with Darin. Two of them, "Splish Splash" and "Queen Of The Hop" became the breakthrough hits for Darin. Ahmet's success with Bobby Darin after Herb's repeated failures was the last straw for Herb who left Atlantic Records in 1958 selling his stake in the company to now ex-wife Miriam Bienstock (who married music publisher Freddie Bienstock) and Neshui Ertegun . Ahmet Ertegun became president of the company. Herb would start new record labels including Triumph, Blaze and Festival. His most successful post-Atlantic recording was "Hi Heeled Sneakers" by Tommy Tucker . But he did not enjoy anywhere near the success that he had with Atlantic Records. In 1998, he received the Pioneer Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation . He died in Henderson, Nevada, USA in 1999.¹