The Top 20 Music Managers of All Time

Music Managers: Top 20

Here’s the top 20 music managers (with some of the best-known artists they’ve managed in parentheses) as determined by an aggregation of multiple lists. See other lists of Acts/Music Makers by Categories. 1. Andrew Loog Oldham (The Rolling Stones) 2. Brian Epstein (The Beatles) 3. Colonel Tom Parker (Elvis Presley) 4. Peter Grant (Led Zeppelin) 5. Malcolm McLaren (Sex Pistols) 6. Don Arden (Black Sabbath) 7. Allen Klein (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones) 8. Don Kirshner (The Monkees, Kansas) 9. Albert Grossman (Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Band) 10. Kit Lambert (The Who) 11. Robert Stigwood (The Bee Gees) 12. Lou Pearlman (Backstreet Boys, N’ Sync) 13. Tony Defries (David Bowie) 14. Irving Azoff (Eagles) 15. Chris Stamp (The Who, Jimi Hendrix) 16. Simon Fuller (Spice Girls) 17. Jon Landau (Bruce Springsteen) 18. Dee Anthony (Tony Bennett, Peter Frampton) 19. Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber) 20. Joseph Jackson (The Jackson 5) Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Lists of Acts/Music Makers by Categories First posted 5/20/2017; last updated 1/26/2022.

Today in Music (1969): The Archies top the chart with “Sugar Sugar”

Sugar, Sugar The Archies

Writer(s): Jeff Barry, Andy Kim (see lyrics here) Released: May 24, 1969 First Charted: July 19, 1969 Peak: 14 US, 14 CB, 143 HR, 22 AC, 18 UK, 13 CN, 5 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 1.02 UK, 6.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 142.46 video, 442.26 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: John I. Goldwater created the Archies comic strip in 1942. In 1968, Filmation Studios created a Saturday morning cartoon based on the strip. Don Kirshner, who’d helmed the Monkees, was hired to supervise music for the series. He hired Jeff Barry, who’d produced “I’m a Believer” for the Monkees, to write songs. Along with Ellie Greenwich, Barry wrote hits such as the Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron,” the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” the Dixie Cups’ “Chapel of Love,” the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack,” and Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy Diddy.” Co-writer Andy Kim would land a #1 in 1974 with “Rock Me Gently.” To perform the song, Kirshner assembled a group of studio musicians. Ron Dante sang lead with accompanying vocals from Kim and Toni White. While working with Kirshner’s Aldon Music, Dante sang demos on multiple songs written by legendary songwriting teams like Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, and Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield. He tried to launch a solo career in 1968 with no success. When Kirshner asked Dante to sing anonymously for scale on the Archies’ records, Dante agreed. FB The actual performers on the song were kept a secret. As Wine said, it was a trivia question for years about “what group never appeared together, never went on the road together, never interviewed together…and had #1 song?” SF In fact, it went to #1 in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, and the UK. It spent more weeks (22) on the Billboard charts in 1969 than any other song SF and was named song of the year by the magazine. Dante ended up having two simultaneous top-5 hits with “Sugar Sugar” and “Tracy” by the Cuff Links. He also went on to produce Barry Manilow’s 1975 #1 hit “Mandy” and Pat Benatar’s 1979 top-40 hit “Heartbreaker.” Meanwhile, critics weren’t particularly kind to “Sugar Sugar” although Dante and Barry defended the bubblegum sound as having a large audience. The song gained some credibility when Wilson Pickett covered it in 1970 and took it to #25. FB Resources: FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 258. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 12/9/2020; last updated 5/17/2025.

Today in Music (1966): The Monkees’ hit #1 with “I’m a Believer”

I’m a Believer The Monkees

Writer(s): Neil Diamond (see lyrics here) Released: November 12, 1966 First Charted: December 3, 1966 Peak: 17 US, 18 CB, 13 GR, 15 HR, 14 UK, 12 CN, 11 AU, 5 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.4 UK, 10.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 4.0 radio, 21.28 video, 439.40 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Jeff Barry discovered Neil Diamond singing in a coffee house in Greenwich Village. FB They became two of the biggest talents for the hit-making machine known as the Brill Building. Diamond became one of the most successful singer/songwriters, ranking #3 all-time on the adult contemporary charts and in the top 25 for the pop charts. However, his biggest success came via a made-for-television group. That group, the Monkees, were modeled after the playful spirit of the Beatles’ movies. DJ While they fought to play their own songs, producers limited the Monkees to singing and brought in session musicians for the instruments. SF The show, which aired from 1966 to 1968, propelled the Monkees to the top of the charts with debut single “Last Train to Clarksville.” When publisher Don Kirshner was seeking a million-selling follow-up, he turned to Barry and Elle Greenwich, Diamond’s producers, after hearing Diamond’s top 10 hit “Cherry Cherry” on the radio. FB Kirshner picked out several songs Diamond was prepping for his next album, among them “I’m a Believer.” The head of Diamond’s record company couldn’t believe he’d give away potential number ones, but, as Diamond says, “I couldn’t have cared less because I had to pay the rent.” SF After all, Diamond intended to give the song to country artist Eddy Arnold. KL The song featured session guitarist Al Gorgoni, who had also played on Diamond’s “Cherry Cherry.” He would go on to play on two more of the most celebrated songs of the rock era – Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl.” RC The Monkees heavily promoted “I’m a Believer” through their TV series, racking up one million in advance sales. RC It went on top the BillboardHot 100 for 7 weeks and be the biggest hit of 1966 CPM and “one of the Hot 100’s finest specimens of pure pop genius.” BB Diamond still recorded the song, releasing it on his 1967 album Just for You and as a single in 1971, peaking at #51. The song resurfaced in 2001 when the alternative rock group Smash Mouth recorded it for the movie Shrek and took it to #25 on the pop charts. Resources: DMDB blog entry (9/12/1966). “The Monkees debuts on TV” BB Billboard (9/08). “All-Time Hot 100” FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 216. RC Rod Couch (2015). The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015. Pages 104-5. DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 95. KL Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits: The Stories Behind Every Number One Single Since 1952. London, Great Britain: Omnibus Press. Page 129. SF Songfacts.com CPM Joel Whitburn (1999). A Century of Pop Music. Record Research, Inc.: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 91. Related Links: First posted 3/1/2012; updated 4/21/2024.