Walter Yetnikoff
Encyclopedia
Walter Yetnikoff is a former music executive.
Yetnikoff has retired and gone on to write his memoirs, "Howling at the Moon" (published in 2004). During his career at CBS, he influenced the careers of Michael Jackson
, Bruce Springsteen
, Barbra Streisand
and Clive Davis
.
, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After earning his law degree at Columbia University
, he joined the Rosenman & Colin law firm, which represented CBS Records. He then joined the CBS Records law department and rose to become head of the department. When Clive Davis
was sacked by CBS for financial impropriety, Yetnikoff was promoted to head CBS Records.
Renowned for his "colorful" personality and his abrasive/abusive management style, Yetnikoff was a key protagonist of the 1990 book Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business, Fredric Dannen's landmark exposé of the shady dealings by major American record labels in the 1970s and 1980s. The book focused on the practice of payola
; the record companies' controversial connections with "The Network", a loose grouping of so-called "Indies" (independent record promoters) who were, by the 1980s, being paid tens of millions of dollars annually by major record labels to promote new releases to American radio stations and who could reputedly make or break a new record.
In the book, Dannen recounted Yetnikoff's rise to power at CBS, his "war" with hated corporate rival Warner Music Group
, then owned by Warner Communications
, its head Steven J. Ross and his escalating conflict with CBS Records Deputy President Dick Asher -- who came to oppose the use of "Indie" promoters — which culminated in Yetnikoff's controversial sacking of Asher in April 1983. According to Dannen, Yetnikoff strongly favored the use of "Indies," and in the early 1980s he opposed a plan by the RIAA to investigate the use of "Indie" promoters after a series of NBC News
reports revealed apparent links between prominent "Indie" promoter Fred DiSipio, and members of the Gambino crime family
, including notorious New York Mob boss John Gotti
.
The book also examined Yetnikoff's intimate links with other major industry figures, including music industry "Godfather" Morris Levy
, prominent music industry lawyer Allen Grubman, Michael Jackson
's one-time manager Frank Dileo
and former artist manager Tommy Mottola
, whom Yetnikoff appointed to a senior post at CBS Records after its sale to the Sony Corporation in 1988.
Yetnikoff renewed his public feud with Ross in 1989 when Yetnikoff interfered in Sony's negotiation with Ross and Time Warner
in signing Jon Peters
and Peter Gruber to co-head Sony's newly acquired subsidiary Columbia Pictures
(Now known as Sony Pictures Entertainment
). At the time, Guber and Peters both had contracts with Time Warner's Warner Bros.
unit. As a result, Sony's U.S. head Michael P. Schuloff, embarrassed by Yetnikoff's abusive behavior, quietly settled with Ross and Time Warner over Guber and Peters, who became co-heads of its movie unit.
After leaving Sony Music in 1990, Yetnikoff put together an independent label Velvel Records, which debuted in 1995. The label released many records, including The Kinks
catalog. It was sold to Koch Records in 1999 and Yetnikoff was no longer involved with the label. Subsequently he co-founded Commotion Records an independent label focusing on soundtrack CDs.
His autobiography Howling at the Moon, co-written with David Ritz
, was published in 2004. Yetnikoff recounted in the book how Vincent E. Puma had helped him recover from his addictions to alcohol and drugs. The Jewish Yetnikoff noted that he viewed Father Puma as a mentor, saying "It'd be easier for the Pope to convert to Islam than for me to turn Catholic, but that didn't stop me from hanging out with a priest who understood the need for redemption."
Yetnikoff is featured in the book Hit And Run about Sony's purchase of Columbia Pictures
in 1990 and hiring, on Yetnikoff's recommendation, Peter Guber
and Jon Peters
to run the studio. Yetnikoff is also featured in the books The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood by Thomas R. King, and Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age by Steve Knopper. He is rumored to be the inspiration for Walter Fox, the record-label boss played by Rip Torn
in the film One Trick Pony written by and starring Paul Simon
.
Yetnikoff has retired and gone on to write his memoirs, "Howling at the Moon" (published in 2004). During his career at CBS, he influenced the careers of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
and Clive Davis
Clive Davis
Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...
.
Career
Yetnikoff was born in Brooklyn and graduated magna cum laude from Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After earning his law degree at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, he joined the Rosenman & Colin law firm, which represented CBS Records. He then joined the CBS Records law department and rose to become head of the department. When Clive Davis
Clive Davis
Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...
was sacked by CBS for financial impropriety, Yetnikoff was promoted to head CBS Records.
Renowned for his "colorful" personality and his abrasive/abusive management style, Yetnikoff was a key protagonist of the 1990 book Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business, Fredric Dannen's landmark exposé of the shady dealings by major American record labels in the 1970s and 1980s. The book focused on the practice of payola
Payola
Payola, in the American music industry, is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. Under U.S...
; the record companies' controversial connections with "The Network", a loose grouping of so-called "Indies" (independent record promoters) who were, by the 1980s, being paid tens of millions of dollars annually by major record labels to promote new releases to American radio stations and who could reputedly make or break a new record.
In the book, Dannen recounted Yetnikoff's rise to power at CBS, his "war" with hated corporate rival Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
, then owned by Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
, its head Steven J. Ross and his escalating conflict with CBS Records Deputy President Dick Asher -- who came to oppose the use of "Indie" promoters — which culminated in Yetnikoff's controversial sacking of Asher in April 1983. According to Dannen, Yetnikoff strongly favored the use of "Indies," and in the early 1980s he opposed a plan by the RIAA to investigate the use of "Indie" promoters after a series of NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
reports revealed apparent links between prominent "Indie" promoter Fred DiSipio, and members of the Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family
The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
, including notorious New York Mob boss John Gotti
John Gotti
John Joseph Gotti, Jr was an American mobster who became the Boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. Gotti grew up in poverty. He and his brothers turned to a life of crime at an early age...
.
The book also examined Yetnikoff's intimate links with other major industry figures, including music industry "Godfather" Morris Levy
Morris Levy
Morris Levy was an American music industry executive, best known as the founder and owner of Roulette Records...
, prominent music industry lawyer Allen Grubman, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's one-time manager Frank Dileo
Frank DiLeo
Frank Michael DiLeo was an American music industry executive and actor, known for his portrayal of gangster Tuddy Cicero in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. For five years in the late 1980s, and again in 2009, he was Michael Jackson's manager.-Career:Frank DiLeo graduated from Central Catholic High...
and former artist manager Tommy Mottola
Tommy Mottola
Thomas Daniel "Tommy" Mottola is an American music executive, co-owner of Casablanca Records in a joint venture with the Universal Music Group. He is the ex-husband of Mariah Carey and is married to Mexican singer Thalía...
, whom Yetnikoff appointed to a senior post at CBS Records after its sale to the Sony Corporation in 1988.
Yetnikoff renewed his public feud with Ross in 1989 when Yetnikoff interfered in Sony's negotiation with Ross and Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
in signing Jon Peters
Jon Peters
Jon Peters is an American movie producer.-Early life:Peters was born John H. Peters in Van Nuys, California, the son of Helen , a receptionist, and Jack Peters, a cook...
and Peter Gruber to co-head Sony's newly acquired subsidiary Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
(Now known as Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
). At the time, Guber and Peters both had contracts with Time Warner's Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
unit. As a result, Sony's U.S. head Michael P. Schuloff, embarrassed by Yetnikoff's abusive behavior, quietly settled with Ross and Time Warner over Guber and Peters, who became co-heads of its movie unit.
After leaving Sony Music in 1990, Yetnikoff put together an independent label Velvel Records, which debuted in 1995. The label released many records, including The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
catalog. It was sold to Koch Records in 1999 and Yetnikoff was no longer involved with the label. Subsequently he co-founded Commotion Records an independent label focusing on soundtrack CDs.
His autobiography Howling at the Moon, co-written with David Ritz
David Ritz
David Ritz is an American author, most of whose books are biographies of soul music and R&B legends such as Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Janet Jackson. On four occasions, his co-authored autobiographies of musicians have been awarded the Ralph J...
, was published in 2004. Yetnikoff recounted in the book how Vincent E. Puma had helped him recover from his addictions to alcohol and drugs. The Jewish Yetnikoff noted that he viewed Father Puma as a mentor, saying "It'd be easier for the Pope to convert to Islam than for me to turn Catholic, but that didn't stop me from hanging out with a priest who understood the need for redemption."
Yetnikoff is featured in the book Hit And Run about Sony's purchase of Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
in 1990 and hiring, on Yetnikoff's recommendation, Peter Guber
Peter Guber
Howard Peter Guber is an American film producer and executive and Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment...
and Jon Peters
Jon Peters
Jon Peters is an American movie producer.-Early life:Peters was born John H. Peters in Van Nuys, California, the son of Helen , a receptionist, and Jack Peters, a cook...
to run the studio. Yetnikoff is also featured in the books The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood by Thomas R. King, and Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age by Steve Knopper. He is rumored to be the inspiration for Walter Fox, the record-label boss played by Rip Torn
Rip Torn
Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn, Jr. , is an American actor of stage, screen and television.Torn received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1983 film Cross Creek. His work includes the role of Artie, the producer, on The Larry Sanders Show, for which he was nominated...
in the film One Trick Pony written by and starring Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
.
External links
- Sex, Drugs and Ego: A Music Mogul's Swath of Destruction; A Deposed President of CBS Records Chronicles His Debauchery and Detox, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, March 4, 2004 (retrieved January 28, 2010)