Controversial Biz Manager of Beatles & Stones Dies
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If you were looking for a music business personality to contrast with troubled but beloved Michael Jackson, you couldn't find one more stark than the decidedly not beloved Allen Klein, who passed away July 4 in New York after a battle with Alzheimer's. He was 77.
On the plus side, Klein was a hard-knuckled accountant who often managed to get huge gobs of cash away from record companies for star clients like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Sam Cooke. On the minus side, he often wound up in court opposite his ex clients, ending up with huge gobs of their cash.
For instance, the Stones ultimately had to part with the rights to all their pre-1970 hits in order to sever ties with former manager Klein. "Sympathy for Devil"? The Stones don't have much. Nor "Satisfaction," for that matter.
Before things went sour, however, Mick Jagger introduced Klein to the Beatles. John Lennon, reportedly at Yoko Ono's suggestion, wanted Klein to help clean up the band's late-'60s financial mess. George Harrison and Ringo Starr came on board, but Paul McCartney never did, which became one of the huge rifts that ultimately broke up the Fab Four. (Curiously, this schism in the group later enabled Michael Jackson to secure the Beatles' copyrights.)
The ultimate mover and shaker, Klein also had deals with the Animals, the Kinks, Herman's Hermits and Pete Townshend, among many others.
But it wasn't just the gods of classic rock who got in trouble by getting into business with Klein and his ABKCO Records. Case in point: Brit rockers the Verve sampled an orchestration from the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" (controlled by Klein) for their late '90s hit "Bittersweet Symphony." They had signed a licensing agreement with Klein, but the dogged litigator later said the band had sampled too much of the original orchestration and won 100 percent of their royalties, subsequently licensing the tune to Nike for a multimillion-dollar ad campaign.
A "Bittersweet Symphony," indeed. On the other hand, it sounds like perfect music for Klein's funeral. After all, he owns the rights.
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