The music mogul who helped sign the likes of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney during his tenure as the president of the CBS Records has passed away at the age of 88.
- August 11, 2021
AceShowbiz - Music mogul Walter Yetnikoff has died just days before his 88th birthday.
The former president and CEO of CBS Records passed away on Sunday (08Aug21).
Born in New York, Yetnikoff graduated from Brooklyn College in 1953 and entered Columbia Law School, where he was editor of the Columbia Law Review. After earning a law degree, he served in the U.S. Army and then became an intern at law firm Rosenman, Colin, Kaye, Petschek and Freund, which represented CBS and its chief executive, William S. Paley.
He became a staff attorney at CBS and helped form CBS/Sony in the late 1960s before becoming president and CEO of CBS Records in 1975.
Under his leadership, the label signed deals with James Taylor, the Beach Boys, Michael Jackson, and Paul McCartney.
He also helped steer Barbra Streisand, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan's career fortunes, while becoming friends with the likes of Mick Jagger and Billy Joel.
Walter earned a reputation as one of the music business' fairest bosses, who always had his artists' best interests at heart, although he famously distanced himself from many of his top artists towards the end of his tenure at CBS in 1990, due to a series of fights with managers and fellow executives.
Springsteen and Jackson were among those who voiced concerns about his behaviour, with both reconsidering their contracts with the label as a result.
Yetnikoff and Springsteen fell out over the former lawyer's claims he wrote and produced many of The Boss' "Born in the U.S.A." album tracks and wasn't given credit.
He became a writer in his later years and published a memoir, "Howling at the Moon: The Odyssey of a Monstrous Music Mogul in an Age of Excess", in 2004.
