Allen Klein Dead

Allen Klein Dead and for those Baby Boomers who are clueless, he was the music manager for the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Unless you lived in a cave I know you recognize those headline musicians.

Allen Klein, 77, died Saturday, July 4th, 2009, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Such a hard disease to die from. Allens’ family must have lost him many years before his death, as that is what Alzheimer’s does. It robs you of your mind and loved ones.

Allen Klein Dead but not before he built his empire, Allen Klein & Co. in the late 1950s. His company label then emerged into ABKCO Music & Records in New York. The independent label holds the copyrights to music by legendary greats such as The Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, the Animals, the Kinks, Chubby Checker, Bobby Womack and hundreds of others, too numerous to mention.

Allen Klein represented dozens of great artists, including Sam Cooke, the Animals, Bobby Darin and Herman’s Hermits. He was a legendary and changed the music industry when he represented Sam Cooke in negotiations with RCA, winning the artist control of his own master recordings.

Known for a tenacious and often blunt style in negotiations, he would kick ass and take names. Klein’s greatest coups were inking contracts with the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, even though both relationships ended in legal battles.

Ask Phil Spector who Allen Klein was, they did business together. They were the golden boys at the hay day of rock and roll.

Allen Klein Dead from Alzheimer’s, a disease that would have been a worse fate than any other for him. His mind was steel trap, he was sharp as a tack and he was ruthless for his clients.

Klein produced a trilogy of spaghetti westerns starring and written by Tony Anthony…was also involved with Alejandro Jodorowsky films. Allen Klein’s life time credits are huge, he was a force to be reckoned with.

ABKCO built up a catalog of copyrights to more than 2,000 songs, including much of the Stones’ 1960s catalog. Klein retained ownership of those titles even after splitting with the Stones.

In 1969, John Lennon persuaded his fellow Beatles, that Allen Klein should take over the group’s business affairs, but Paul McCartney resisted the move and some music historians say the appointment hastened the Beatles’ split. I am sure that there are Baby Boomer music buffs out there with the answer on that.

Allen Klein later fell from grace with Lennon and was thought to be the target of the former Beatles’ 1974 song titled “Steel and Glass.”

Quoting Klein in Playboy magazine, in 1971, “The music business is about 99 percent no-talent losers who can’t stand a winner in their midst.” OUCH, Allen…

In 1971, Klein worked with Ringo Starr to organize the “Concert for Bangladesh” at Madison Square Garden, one of the first major “benefit concerts” of the rock era. The Beatles and Klein were always ahead of the game…

Later, in his career, Klein agreed to license a sample of a Rolling Stones song to the British group the “Verve” for their hit single “Bittersweet Symphony.” But after the song was released, ABKCO successfully argued in court that the Verve had used too much of the sample and won 100 percent of the song’s royalties.

Klein is survived by his wife Betty, their three children and four grandchildren and for Baby Boomers in NY, the services will be held in New York on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009.

BBAC sends it condolences and thoughts to his family, friends and fans. R.I.P. Allen Klein. I am one Baby Boomer who did not forget you.

For the full story of “Allen Klein Dead ,” go to CNN News.