Rockers We’ve Lost In 2012: A&M Records President Gil Friesen

Legendary A&M Records executive Gil Friesen passed away Thursday Dec. 13, at the age of 75. He had suffered from leukemia. Friesen, along with Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, helped make A&M Records into a major force in the music industry. He assisted the development of such acts as Supertramp, Peter Frampton, the Police, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Joe Cocker, Nils Lofgren, and Bryan Adams to name but just a few.

Friesen became president of A&M in 1977 and remained with the company until it was sold to Polygram in 1990. “A&M always prided itself on being independent," he said in 2006, "and artists and managers recognized there was something about that quality, that characteristic, that uniqueness, that independence, that was attractive to them. It made them less vulnerable to big business.”