Jerry Wexler Career Highlights

Career highlights of music industry legend Jerry Wexler, who died Aug. 15, 2008, at the age of 91:

Jan. 10, 1917 — Born in in the Bronx

1949 — Becomes staff journalist at Billboard magazine, where he christened black popular music “rhythm and blues”

1951 — Joins music publishing arm of MGM Records, Big Three

1953 — Named a partner in Atlantic Records

1965 — Signs a distribution deal for Memphis-based Satellite Records — later known as Stax

1967 — Releases Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You,” recorded at Muscle Shoals. Alabama

1975 — Leaves Atlantic Records

1978 — Produces Etta James’ “Deep in the Night”

1979 — Named VP of A&R for Warner Bros. Records

1979 — Produces Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train Coming” and Dire Straits’ “Communique”

1990 — Releases Linda Ronstadt’s “What’s New,” an album of standards

1993 — Publishes his autobiography “Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in American Music” (Knopf)

Sources: Billboard magazine, Atlantic Records