Allen Klein
From Freepedia
Allen Klein (born December 18, 1931) is a business manager. He is best known for his management of rock and roll performers in the 1960's. In recent years, Allen Klein has fallen into ill-health.
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The Accountant
Allen Klein was born on 18th December 1931, the son of Budapest butchers. His mother died before he reached the age of one. As a teenager he worked several jobs while attending evening classes. He excelled at mental arithmetic and graduated from Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey in 1956. He did book-keeping for several show-business people and audited record companies. In 1957 he began his own business, a partnership with his wife Betty. A couple of years later, while attending a wedding he met singer Bobby Darin. He made a bold suggestion - that he could bring in $100,000 from Darin's record company. Darin let Klein look at his accounts and received the cheque, exactly as promised. This "no win, no fee" approached became his trademark. Record industry insiders began to fear his blunt-speaking tenacity, and celebrities began to recommend him.
Sam Cooke
Following the death of his son in 1962, Sam Cooke started to take control of all aspects of his career. He demanded his own record company. Allen Klein became his business manager, a role which never previously existed, someone who would take the artists side in negotiations with the recording industry. He secured an unprecedented agreement, with Cooke receiving all his master tapes, site fees, gate revenues for concerts and 10 percent of all records sold and back royalties. It is now accepted that Elvis Presley was exploited by his manager Colonel Parker, and that The Beatles had a formidable business manager in Brian Epstein, but Sam Cooke was there first. Allen Klein made over a million dollars per year. Cooke's death in 1964 forced Klein to look elsewhere.
Cameo Parkway
Cameo Records was formed in 1956 and Parkway, a subsidiary, was formed in 1958. They were based in Philadelphia and specialised in pop music for the teen market. They had run out of hits by 1964 but struggled on until 1967 when Klein bought them, together with rights to music by The Animals, Herman's Hermits and Donovan and recordings produced by Mickie Most. Cameo Parkway was shut down by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for stock fraud, and Klein served a short sentence in a federal prison for securities fraud and insider trading in late 1967 and early 1968.
The Rolling Stones
Andrew Loog Oldham was losing his battle with drugs in 1965. Allen Klein then took over from him as business manager of the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger was an accountant by training and praised the quality of Klein's work to Paul McCartney. By accident John Lennon bumped into Allen Klein on the set of the film "The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" (1969).
The Beatles
Since the death of Epstein, The Beatles had been without a manager. While Paul favoured Lee Eastman (father of Linda) as their new manager, John convinced George and Ringo that Klein should take over instead. Paul McCartney agreed to pose for photographs with Klein as a show of unity, pretending to sign a new contract, but he never put his signature on the paper. The Apple label was struggling, and Klein offered to work for a percentage of only their increased business. In 1969 he re-negotiated their contract with EMI, granting them the highest royalties ever paid to an artist at that time; 69 cents per $6-7 album. He oversaw the issuing of the single "Something/Come Together". His contacts enabled him to recruit Phil Spector for the album and film "Let It Be". At press conferences he was notorious for his profanities. He was parodied by John Belushi as "Ron Decline" in the TV film "The Rutles".
The Beatles on their own
Klein helped George Harrison organise the "Concert for Bangladesh". It was here that his reputation started to unravel because the charity money became tied up in escrow and did not reach UNICEF for years. Klein agreed with George that Yoko Ono should not be in the concert and this started to create friction. He helped John organise his 1973 film Imagine. After several suits and countersuits Klein made his final financial settlement with the Beatles in 1977.
The Stones again
Klein acquired the rights to all of the Rolling Stones recordings of the 60s and a couple of recordings of the 70s. Klein's ABKCO (Allen and Betty Klein and Company) label released the rarest of all Stones album "Songs of the Rolling Stones" (1975). By the late 1990s some of the 60's albums were becoming hard to acquire on CD. Finally in 2002, Allen's son, Jody Klein oversaw a re-mastering of the 60's albums, to much acclaim.
Klein bought the rights to music produced by Phil Spector in the 1980s, such as the Philles Records and Phil Spector International catalogues.
Alejandro Jodorowsky Films
In 2005 Chilean cult-director Alejandro Jodorowsky was still unable to derive profits from two of his early movies, El Topo and Holy Mountain, because Allen Klein continued to retain the legal rights, which he allegedly refused to sell or otherwise license for distribution. Reportedly, Klein originally acquired them on the advice of John Lennon, who was said to be a big fan of the movies. Jodorowsky's has called the situation "cultural murder" and there is no record of any comment by Klein's office. Jodorowsky claims he needs the income from these movies (which are available on the bootleg market) to finance future projects.
