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Seymour Stein, the music executive who launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and the Ramones and introduced The Cure, Depeche Mode and The Smiths to America, has died at the age of 80.
Stein died Sunday morning in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer, a family spokesperson confirmed to Variety.
As co-founder of the label Sire Records, Stein nurtured talents ranging from pop to punk to new wave, including Madonna, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Depeche Mode, Ramones, Pretenders, Smith, Cure, The Replacements, and Aphex Twin. . etc. Stein became known as the King of Pop in his ’80s and continued to travel the globe in search of new talent well into his ’70s.
Born Seymour Steinbigle in Brooklyn in 1942, Stein entered the music business at age 13, writing reviews for Billboard magazine. In 1961, he left the company to work for King Records, the label home to major R&B and country artists, including James Brown. He then headed to New York, where he worked for Red Bird Records, and in 1966 he co-founded Sire Records with producer and songwriter Richard Gottehrer in Manhattan.
Sire’s first releases included early blues tracks by Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack. Chicken Shack was a band led by singer Christine Perfect who joined Fleetwood Her Mac when he married bassist John McVie.
Gotteler left the label in 1974 to concentrate on producing, while Stein sought talent in New York clubs. At the urging of his wife Linda, he saw his 1975 Ramones rehearsal. Sire released his self-titled debut album the following year, followed by his next ten albums, with Stein’s wife Linda becoming manager. Supporting the Ramones One of his acts, Talking, he also signed a small band called The Heads to Sire, making him one of the label’s most popular acts, and in 11 years he’s sold nine platinum records. Released his album and Gold his album.
Sire was acquired by Warner Bros. in 1978. Over the next two decades, the label would go on to include The Replacements, Echo & The Bunnymen, Madness, Undertones, The Smiths, lead singer Morrissey, Brian Wilson, kd Lang, Seal, Wilco, Ice-T, Lou Reed, Everything But The Girl, My Bloody Valentine and Australian band The Saints.
But Stein’s biggest commercial success was Madonna. After Madonna heard an Everybody demo while recovering from her open-heart surgery, she contracted Sire to summon her to her hospital bed.
“She was kind of a club kid in cheesy punky gear and looking ridiculously out of place in the cardiology ward,” Stein wrote in her 2018 memoir Siren Song: My Life in Music. I’m here. “She wasn’t even interested in hearing me explain how much I liked her demo,” she said, looking at the back of my head with Madonna’s eyes.
‘What?
“Hey, tell me how to get a record deal in this city!” She fought back, sounding deflated. “Don’t worry, you have a deal,” I assured her.
Stein signed the singer to a $45,000 contract for three singles, with an option for an album. Madonna went on to sell over 64 million albums of hers in the United States alone before launching her own imprint in 1992, with three No 1 albums, 10 No 1 singles and 23 Top 10 singles. Left 10 hits with Sire.
Stein signed to more alternative acts in his later years, including Regina Spector, Tegan, and Sarah. In 1998, Scottish rock his band Belle and Sebastian released Seymour His Stein, a song about his decision not to sign the group.
In his memoirs, Stein revealed that he had known he was gay since he was a teenager, but cultural pressure from his Jewish background forced him to marry women while secretly meeting men. I started dating. He told her then-girlfriend, Linda, that he was gay to her, and she “was in a state of silent shock for about ten minutes…and she broke down crying.” Later that year they married and had two daughters.
“I somehow knew it was going to make a rock and roll king and queen combo,” he wrote of his marriage to Linda.
Stein and Linda divorced amicably in the late 1970s. In 2007, Linda was murdered by her personal assistant and sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder. Her daughter Samantha died of brain cancer in 2013.
Stein called himself “the world’s most absentee father” in his memoir, and said in an interview with The Times: I could have been a better husband, but I had no choice. Music is the main thing in my life and this came first. “
He is survived by a daughter, film director Mandy Stein, three grandchildren, and a sister, Ann Wiederkehl.
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