Allen klein bio

Allen Klein, the youngest of four children was born in Newark, NJ in As a teenager, he worked at several jobs while attending evening classes including one at Essex County News where he learned about distribution. Following a stint in the US Army, he clerked for the Manhattan accounting firm of Prager and Fenton and, through a friendship with publisher Don Kirshner, soon was involved in the music business.

James knew that Klein would soon eliminate his perks, so he quickly offered to sell Northern Songs to ATV, run by entertainment mogul Lew Grade, rather than allow Lennon and McCartney an opportunity to buy back publishing rights to their own songs. Klein worked feverishly to pull together a consortium which would beat Grade's offer, but ultimately his efforts were derailed by infighting between McCartney and Lennon themselves.

In September , while Klein was in the midst of renegotiating the Beatles' unsatisfactory recording agreements with EMI, Lennon told him of his plans to quit the group. It was agreed that this was the wrong time to either make or announce such a move. EMI was loath to re-negotiate, but their American subsidiary, Capitol Records, was so impressed by Abbey Road that they agreed to vastly improved royalty terms.

McCartney joined his bandmates in endorsing the deal Klein had secured. Abbey Road proved to be the Beatles' last true collaboration, but Klein recognised an opportunity in the band's shelved January album and related documentary project, both titled Get Back, to get another album release out of the splintered group while also fulfilling their obligation to provide one more film to United Artists, the studio that had previously released both A Hard Day's Night and Help!

Phil Spector, the producer famous for his "wall of sound" recordings with artists such as the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers, was eager to sign on as producer for the album, which was eventually titled Let It Be. McCartney did not approve of Spector, but the other Beatles did. This proved to be McCartney and Klein's last face-to-face meeting.

Unhappy with production decisions on the Let It Be album and the other Beatles' decision to hire Klein as their manager, McCartney went public with his plans to leave the Beatles in April He wanted to be released from his partnership with Lennon, Starr, and Harrison, who had in recent months proved a steady three-to-one majority against McCartney's proposals.

The Eastmans convinced McCartney to file suit against his former bandmates for dissolution of the Beatles' partnership, which he did on December 31, The judge ruled in McCartney's favor in March He decided that the combined financial affairs of the former Beatles should be placed in the care of a receiver until mutually acceptable terms for their break-up could be found.

Klein thereby retained a position in the post-breakup solo careers of Harrison, Starr, and Lennon, but was no longer in charge of their affairs as a partnership. Solo Beatles For the first few years after the Beatles' contentious break-up, George Harrison was widely seen as the most accomplished and artistically successful former Beatle.

In the spring of , Harrison learned from his friend and mentor, Ravi Shankar, about the desperate people of Bangladesh, who had been devastated both by military violence and a vicious cyclone. Harrison immediately set about organizing an event which would take place in Madison Square Garden within just five weeks—the Concert for Bangladesh—from which a live album could raise further funds for the Bangladeshi refugees.

Allen klein bio

Both Harrison and John Lennon soon became disenchanted with Klein. By mid , Harrison was incensed at the outcome of Klein's handling of the Bangladesh relief effort. Lennon also felt betrayed by Klein's lack of support for his and Yoko Ono's increasingly politically focused work, which was typified by the couple's album Some Time in New York City.

In early Lennon, Harrison and Starr served notice that they would not be renewing Klein's management contract when it expired in March. Early the following month, Lennon told an interviewer: "Let's say possibly Paul's suspicions were right … and the timing was right. They then sued him in the London courts, citing excessive commission fees, the mishandling of the Concert for Bangladesh, his misrepresentation of their individual financial standings, and his failure to ensure that the roster of artists at Apple Records prospered under his control.

While the suits were ongoing, Klein made a play for the US portion of Harrison's publishing company, Harrisongs, in late , without success. He also attempted to influence the outcome of Lennon's arrangement with music publisher Morris Levy regarding an alleged copyright infringement of the Chuck Berry song "You Can't Catch Me" in Lennon's Beatles composition "Come Together".

Lennon's song "Steel and Glass" from the album Walls and Bridges was his thinly veiled dig at Klein. Klein's lawsuit against the Beatles was settled out of court in January , with Ono representing the former bandmates. Harrison had been sued for copyright infringement in because of the alleged similarity of his song "My Sweet Lord" to "He's So Fine", which had been recorded by the Chiffons in and was owned by Bright Tunes Music.

The case was still pending in ; as an alternate strategy to access Harrison's US publishing, Klein now purchased Bright Tunes and thus became the plaintiff in the lawsuit against Harrison. The judge ruled that Harrison had infringed on Bright Tunes' copyright, and the ruling was upheld on appeal. Films and theater The multi-Academy Award-winning film Marty, an independently produced movie that undercut the Hollywood studio system, provided a business template which Allen Klein closely studied and later adapted to the recording industry.

In the late s Klein shared an office with press agent Bernie Kamber, who represented Burt Lancaster, one of Marty's producers. Klein absorbed much from Kamber on how the producers had structured their business model, a paradigm whose strength derived from the fact that artists, not film studios or record labels, drove marketplace success and that intense preparation and canny negotiation could lavishly reward artists and their representatives.

In Klein did accountancy work for an independent film, Force of Impulse, where he formed lasting relationships that he would turn to for many film projects of his own. In Klein produced a film called Without Each Other. He took it to the Cannes Film Festival and later claimed that it had won the "Best American Picture Award" there, though no such award actually existed.

A distributor never materialized, but Klein's enthusiasm for film persisted. Starting in Klein produced four films in the Spaghetti Western genre, a lean-and-mean style of cowboy movie with taciturn heroes and explosive violence. Klein utilized actor Tony Anthony, whom he'd met on Force of Impulse, in all four. Klein, who had tried to purchase MGM in the mid '60s became involved with a lawsuit against MGM with each accusing the other of not performing on their contracts with each other.

Inspired by Lennon's enthusiasm, Klein bought the film and put it in American release. He then produced and financed Jodorowsky's next film, The Holy Mountain, an allegorical journey with psychedelic overtones. Tools Tools. In other projects. Wikidata item. Allen Klein. Early life [ change change source ]. Career [ change change source ]. Sources [ change change source ].

Legacy [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Accessed December 19, The Guardian. Retrieved January 16, The Independent. Archived from the original on July 9, Retrieved October 20, The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, Archived from the original on March 3, Retrieved January 21, Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on February 3, Retrieved February 4, The Daily Telegraph.

Retrieved October 21, August 21, Archived from the original on April 1, Until Band on the Run , that ex-Fab had been widely assumed to be George. By mid, Harrison, his music, and his humanitarian concerns were universally acclaimed Dizionario del western all'italiana. Mondadori, ISBN Retrieved January 22, Omnibus Press. Retrieved July 14, Sources [ edit ].

Badman, Keith London: Omnibus Press. Beatles, The The Beatles Anthology. Clayson, Alan George Harrison. London: Sanctuary. Coleman, Ray Doggett, Peter Goodman, Fred Inglis, Ian The Words and Music of George Harrison. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. McMillian, John Beatles vs. Rej, Bent The Rolling Stones: In the Beginning. Rodriguez, Robert Fab Four FAQ 2.

Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books. Soocher, Stan External links [ edit ]. The Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones singles.