Is Allen Klein yet another famous person to add to the list of celebrity deaths?
Allen Klein, a music executive who managed the business affairs of Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones and, for a short time, the Beatles, and who was both admired and feared for his reputation as a fierce negotiator, died on Saturday in Manhattan, where he lived. He was 77. The cause was complications from Alzheimer’s disease, said Bob Merlis, a spokesman for Mr. Klein’s company, Abkco Music and Records. Mr. Klein rose from humble origins to become a powerful figure in the music business. Born in Newark, he spent much of his childhood in an orphanage, and graduated from Upsala College in East Orange, N.J., with a degree in accounting and a keen appreciation of the value of a dollar. At the invitation of one of his college friends, Don Kirshner — who would go on to become a successful music publisher and record executive — Mr. Klein began to work in the music business. He gained a reputation early on as an effective sleuth who could root through record companies’ books on behalf of artists a
Tough-guy Beatles manager, Allen Klein, dies Music manager Allen Klein, a no-holds-barred businessman who bulldozed his way into and out of deals with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, died Saturday in New York after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease, a spokesman said. He was 77. During a career spanning more than 50 years, Klein enjoyed a reputation as a savvy gangster-like figure. But he also earned grudging respect for bullying labels into giving rich deals to his clients – the Animals, the Dave Clark Five and Herman’s Hermits. He became most famous – and later infamous – for signing on the Rolling Stones and then the Beatles. Both arrangements eventually spurred lawsuits, with some Beatles fans blaming Klein for contributing to the tensions that broke up the group. Klein once said John Lennon hired him to protect his interest in the Beatles because Lennon and wife Yoko Ono wanted “a real shark – someone to keep the other sharks away.” Read more:
