Jerry Wexler

Jerry Wexler helped shape American popular music as a journalist, record executive, and producer. Rhythm and the Blues recounts that career with music writer David Ritz, moving from Wexler’s early work at Billboard to his long association with Atlantic Records. Knopf published the memoir in 1993. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame credits Wexler with coining the term “rhythm and blues” while reporting and with changing recording practice through direct studio work. At Atlantic he collaborated with performers including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett, while later projects connected him with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and Dire Straits. His work also helped link Atlantic with the recording communities around Stax and Muscle Shoals. Rhythm and the Blues is therefore both a personal account and an insider history of production, artist development, and the record business across several decades.