A Man of Wealth and Taste

By the time Ahmet Ertegun signed the Rolling Stones to his Atlantic Records label in April 1971, the imprint had already launched superstars including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Led Zeppelin, and fractious hippie supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young onto the global stage. When Ertegun died five years ago at 83, the world lost another member of the vanishing species known as the Record Man. The honorific refers to the group of executives (which included Islandâ??s Chris Blackwell, Electraâ??s Jac Holzman, and Mo Ostin of Warner Bros.) who helped define the culture of their time by making decisions based on personal musical instincts rather than fiscal pragmatism.