Barney Ales

Baldassare 'Barney' Ales (born May 13, 1934 in Detroit, Michigan, died April 17th, 2020 in Mailbu, California) was an American label executive, label owner, producer, and songwriter, and former president of Motown Records. He was a promotion manager for Capitol Records and branch manager for Warner Bros. Records in Detroit, and worked at Aurora Distributors when he was lured to Motown to head up the sales department. He left Motown in 1972 and founded the Detroit record label Prodigal. He later returned to Motown and became president of the label from 1975 until 1979. He co-wrote the book "Motown: The Sound of Young America" with author Adam White (6) about his tenure at the legendary soul label.