

He convinced the family dentist, Vahdi Sabit, to invest $10,000 and hired Herb Abramson, a dentistry student.Ībramson had worked as a part-time A&R manager/producer for Al Green at the jazz label National Records, signing Big Joe Turner and Billy Eckstine. Ahmet ostensibly stayed in Washington to undertake post-graduate music studies at Georgetown University but immersed himself in the Washington music scene and entered the record business, which was enjoying a resurgence after wartime restrictions on the shellac used in manufacture. The brothers were fans of jazz and rhythm & blues, amassing a collection of over 15,000 78 RPM records.

In 1944, brothers Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegun remained in the United States when their mother and sister returned to Turkey after the death of their father Munir Ertegun, Turkey's first ambassador to the U.S. Ahmet Ertegun served as founding chairman until his death on December 14, 2006, at age 83. Craig Kallman is the chairman of Atlantic. In 2004, Atlantic and its sister label Elektra were merged into the Atlantic Records Group. In 1967, Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music with releases by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Led Zeppelin, and Yes.

Its position was greatly improved by its distribution deal with Stax. Over the course of two decades, starting from the release of its first recordings in January 1948, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American labels, specializing in jazz, R&B, and soul by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Ruth Brown and Otis Redding. Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson.
