The precocious sentence “Something like that would no longer be possible today” is occasionally used when stories and legends from the classical music industry are circulated; So the era before the (initially illegal) file sharing service Napster. A legendary success story when showbiz still functioned analogously.
Seymour Stein, whose record company Sire Records got Madonna’s career on track and also “breaks” early US punk rockers like the Ramones or the border crossers from the Talking Heads worldwide, died on January 31 in Los Angeles. After a long illness with cancer, as his daughter Mandy confirmed over the weekend. Stein lived to be 80 years old.
Initially launched as a hobbyist project, his creation was later distributed worldwide by the major label Warner Music. Stein himself acts eccentrically and always with “thumbs in the wind”, like a classic indie entrepreneur.
Soundtrack of an era
From the US scene, he also promotes artists as diverse as The Replacements, Lou Reed and Ice-T. The trade magazine “Hollywood Reporter” wrote in farewell: “A tastefully put together mixtape with Sire releases from the 1980s and 1990s sounds like the soundtrack of an era”. Gary Kurfirst, the late manager of New York wave pioneers Talking Heads, said of the label boss’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005: “Seymour’s taste in music is always a few years ahead of everyone’s”. Undeniably, Stein was one of the greatest “Artist & Repertoire Managers” (A&R) in modern music history.
Sire was already attracting attention in the 1960s: with albums by Fleetwood Mac, who were still blues rockers back then, and the Dutch art rock band Focus (“Hocus Pocus”). Towards the end of the decade, Stein threw himself into the NYC punk scene with verve, signing many local heroes, and later new wave bands from the UK and Australia. He marketed acts from UK labels such as Rough Trade, Beggars Banquet and Creation.
Seymour Stein made Madonna big
However, his most spectacular “homegrown” is Madonna, who started out as a disco it girl in Manhattan clubland. Stein signed her in 1983. The singer became a superstar with Sire, where she had three number one albums, 10 top one singles and a total of 23 top 10 hits before founding her own label Maverick in 1992.
In a statement on Sunday evening, daughter Mandy Stein is quoted as saying:
“I grew up surrounded by music. I didn’t have the most conventional upbringing, but I wouldn’t change my life or my relationship with my father for the world. He was a loving and caring grandfather who enjoyed every moment with his three granddaughters. He gave me the ultimate soundtrack and his fine sense of offbeat humor. I am eternally grateful for every minute our family spent with him and that the music he brought to the world has positively impacted the lives of so many people.”
Career start with “Billboard”
Born in Brooklyn in 1942, Seymour Steinbigle entered the American music biz as a teenager. At the age of 13, he joined the trade publication Billboard, where he obsessively hand-copied the magazine’s old charts. Under the aegis of chart director Tom Noonan and editor Paul Ackerman, he wrote his first reviews as a teenager.
After graduating from high school, Stein goes to college briefly – and soon returns to “Billboard”.
He moves into the label business at King Records, home of James Brown and other top R&B and country stars. Back in New York, he joins Red Bird Records, an indie company run by label impresario George Goldner and hit songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who also wrote various songs for the young Elvis.
He later founded Sire Records with producer and songwriter Richard Gottehrer. The name is an anagram of the first two letters of the first names of the founders, who are moving into the legendary Brill Building in the heart of Manhattan’s music biz.
The first few years are commercially rather meager. A collaboration with English label Blue Horizon Records enabled the company to release some of Fleetwood Mac’s early blues songs in the United States. Early albums by British bands like Renaissance and Barclay James Harvest did get some radio hits. The Troubles of the Plains. 1973’s “Jodel Hit” by Dutch band Focus After graduating high school, Stein dabbled in college before returning full-time to “Billboard.” Through a collaboration with Syd Nathan, the general manager of King Records in Cincinnati, he switched to the label business. After spending two summers as an intern at the label, he joined the company in 1961.
Seymour Stein and the Ramones
After the departure of his label partner, Stein arranged a Ramones show in New York at the end of 1975 on the recommendation of his wife. Although he has a fever of 40 degrees that evening, he is blown away by the energy and the image of the quartet. The band’s 1976 self-titled debut album peaked at number 111, but it was a breakthrough for punk rock in America. The group, later managed by Linda Stein, released eleven successful studio albums on Sire before disbanding in the early 1990s.
A visit to the punk mecca CBGB in New York’s Bowery, where the Ramones performed in primal beings, leads to another encounter. On the trail of Brooklyn band The Shirts, Stein stumbles upon a trio of ADHD design students. As Talking Heads, they become one of Sire’s most popular acts, releasing nine platinum and gold albums in the US in their eleven years of existence
Sire is distributed by Warner Bros. from 1977 and taken over by this company in 1978. In the years that followed, Sire stylishly signed the music of a variety of high-profile punk and post-punk groups from the United States and abroad. This period included the Replacements (and later their frontman Paul Westerberg), Echo & the Bunnymen, Madness, the Undertones, the Smiths (and lead singer Morrissey), Everything But the Girl, Aztec Camera, Erasure, the Flamin’ Groovies, My Bloody Valentine and Ride.
However, the deal with Madonna is undefeated after Stein heard a demo of “Everybody” while recovering from major heart surgery. The rest is platinum album history.
Artistic diversity is reflected in a wide array of artists, including former Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson, Canadian country-pop singer KD Lang, Seal, Illinois alt-country band Uncle Tupelo and her rock successor Wilco, the Israeli singer Ofra Haza. Sire also publishes the late work of ex-Velvet Underground boss Lou Reed.
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