Seymour Stein, the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame member who was the co-founder of Sire Information, the previous vice chairman at Warner Bros. Information and who, a few years in the past, started his storied profession within the business at Billboard, has died, a supply confirms.
His daughter, filmmaker Mandy Stein, instructed The Hollywood Reporter her father died Sunday morning (April 2) in Los Angeles from most cancers.
In an announcement, his daughter stated, “I grew up surrounded by music. I didn’t have essentially the most typical upbringing, however I wouldn’t change my life and my relationship with my dad for something, and he was a loving and caring grandfather who took pleasure in each second together with his three granddaughters. He gave me the last word soundtrack, in addition to his depraved humorousness. I’m past grateful for each minute our household spent with him, and that the music he delivered to the world impacted so many individuals’s lives in a optimistic manner.”
Stein signed such music legends as Madonna and The Ramones at Sire. However when he was simply a youngster, he started working as an assistant to Tommy Noonan, then head of charts at Billboard, the place Stein sat in on conferences to resolve which new data to assessment and helped to compile the then just-launched Scorching 100.
“I used to be simply 16, working at Billboard after college. From the time I used to be 9 years outdated, I knew I wished to be within the music enterprise,” he stated in an interview printed in 2015.
“I take a look at my education as, partly, my early years at Billboard,” he instructed the journal. “[Former editor] Paul Ackerman invited me to attend these music assessment periods on Wednesday nights and even supplied me with a due-bill to remain at one of many accommodations near the Billboard places of work… that manner I may stand up and take the subway to Lafayette Excessive College in Brooklyn.”
Stein’s tenure at Billboard lasted till 1961, after which he took his first label job, working for Syd Nathan and King Information in Cincinnati earlier than transferring again to New York with a stint at Purple Fowl Information, owned and run by George Goldner and the songwriting/manufacturing group of Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber.
Stein co-founded Sire with Richard Gottehrer in 1967 as an impartial document label, however joined forces with Warner 9 years later, in 1976. Stein as soon as instructed Billboard the primary artist he signed was “Steven Tallarico, who later grew to become Steve Tyler from Aerosmith. He was in a bunch referred to as Chain Response” on the time.
The legendary roster at Sire included Madonna, The Ramones, The Smiths, Speaking Heads, The Pretenders, The Treatment, Depeche Mode, Ice-T and lots of, many extra.
Of first bringing Madonna to Sire, Stein stated, “I signed her as a result of I believed in Mark Kamins, who I believed was the best DJ, and he wished to be a producer. So I gave him some cash to convey me an artist and the third or fourth factor he introduced me was Madonna. And sure, I used to be very concerned to start with. Then I spotted, ‘This girl is smarter than all of us. Simply get out of her manner.’”
In 2005, Stein was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame, within the lifetime-achievement class.
In 2012, he was honored as Billboard‘s first recipient of the Icon Award, which acknowledges the lifetime achievements of business executives and was introduced to him on the annual MIDEM business gathering in Cannes, France.
In 2016, he was given the Richmond Hitmaker Award on the Songwriters Corridor of Fame ceremony, and in 2018, he acquired the Recording Academy’s prestigious Trustees Award.
Stein penned the autobiography Siren Track, which was printed in 2018 by St. Martin’s Press.
Tributes are flowing in for the late music business nice. “Legendary document man. Signed me to Sire Information in 1984 and acquired me my Purple 355 from forty eighth Avenue to seal the deal,” writes Johnny Marr, guitarist with the Smiths. “Labored with The Drifters, Rolling Stones & Shangri-Las. Found Speaking Heads, Ramones & Madonna. Effectively performed Seymour & thanks my good friend.”
