The Memphian's birthday is being honored with a limited-edition bottle of Jack Daniel's Old No. 7, a recognition of the brand's first salesman who "helped build the famous whiskey to worldwide fame."

The signature square bottle forgoes its signature black label with a simple message printed in the whiskey brand's signature font: "Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Brand proudly honors Angelo Lucchesi on his ninetieth birthday."

The story of Lucchesi's 57-year career with the brand is printed on the back of the bottle and on a small tag that hangs around the bottle's neck.

Lucchesi befriended the four sons of Daniel's nephew and master distiller, Lem Motlow, when Lucchesi was 24 in 1945, he said, before beginning work with the company in 1953.

"I asked them for a job and they hadn't hired anyone yet (for the sales position), and I said, 'Make me the first man," Lucchesi said from his Memphis home Wednesday afternoon.

The brand wasn't the worldwide success it is today, Lucchesi said, and joked that in his early days of selling in Kentucky and Chicago "I'd drink more than we sold then. You couldn't hardly give it away."

Later on, Lucchesi got some help from a famous Jack Daniel's fan, Frank Sinatra, whose nickname for Lucchesi was "Kid."

Lucchesi always made sure the singer's local Palm Springs, Calif., store stayed stocked with the whiskey, Sinatra's favorite.

But the brand eventually took off, of course, now selling roughly 11 million cases per year. Much of that success, the company said, is attributable to Lucchesi.

"Angelo Lucchesi is one of the great treasures of our company," said Tim Rutledge, vice president and director for Jack Daniel's Americas. "He has been building friends for Jack Daniel's for over 50 years."

The first 750-milliliter bottles of Lucchesi's whiskey went on sale at the beginning of November. It is available at the Lynchburg, Tenn., distillery's gift shop, stores across Tennessee and several other states across the country.