RIP Seymour Stein

   Seymour Stein was one of the Last Great Record Men, a club that is slowly fading away.  It's a Record club that may seem foreign to younger music fans today.  Because there was a time when we knew the names running the music label.  It was mostly a men's club.  Although I knew that Sugar Hill Records was run by Sylvia Robinson.  Also, Sylvia Rhone ran EastWest and Elektra in the late 80's and 90's.  Stax Records' co-founder was Estelle Axton, sister of the more well-known Jim Stewart. Vivian Carter was a co-founder of Vee-Jay records. Of these women the only one still alive is Sylvia Rhone. 

  The list of living legendary Record Men consists of Island Records' Chris Blackwell.  Columbia, Arista, RCA's Clive Davis.  Motown's Berry Gordy. A&M's Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss.  Philadelphia International's Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff.  And I might as well include Quincy Jones' Qwest Records which ran from 1980-2000. 

  Many of those are 70 years and older.  And it does feel like we are losing two or three year.  In 2022, Warner Brothers' Mo Ostin and Stax's Jim Stewart passed away.  Now come Seymour Stein.

  Stein was hooked on the music biz from his teenage years.  Helping put together Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart in 1958.  Working at King Records.  The interesting thing about Sire Records is that it was not an overnight success like Clive Davis' Arista.  It wasn't until the mid-70's with the signings of the Ramones, Talking Heads, Pretenders that it began to make its mark.  But it was the signing of Madonna in the early 80's that gave Sire its biggest moneymaker.  Stein was also a co-founder of the Rock Hall, which inducted him in 2005.  

  But the heyday of this exclusive men's club is slowly coming to an end.  Every death like that of Seymour Stein reminds of an era now fading into music history. 

  The Great Record Men are