The Top 50 Music Executives of All Time

Executives: Top 100

Here’s the top 50 music executives. The record companies with which they were associated are shown in parentheses after each name. This list, as always with DMDB lists, was determined by an aggregation of multiple lists. See other lists of Acts/Music Makers by Categories. 1. Berry Gordy, Jr. (Motown) 2. Sam Phillips (Sun) 3. Leonard Chess (Chess) 4. Clive Davis (Columbia, Arista) 5. David Geffen (Asylum, Geffen, DGC, Dreamworks SKG) 6. Herb Alpert (A&M) 7. Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic) 8. Jerry Wexler (Atlantic) 9. Nesuhi Ertegun (Atlantic) 10. Jac Holzman (Elektra, Nonesuch) 11. Jim Stewart (Stax) 12. Jimmy Iovine (Interscope) 13. Antonio “L.A.” Reid (LaFace, Arista, Def Jam Island, Epic) 14. Irving Azoff (manager for Christina Aguilera, Bon Jovi, the Eagles, Dan Fogelberg, Journey, Maroon 5, No Doubt, Steely Dan, and Van Halen) 15. Mo Ostin (Verve, Reprise, Warner Bros., DreamWorks SKG) 16. Jerry Moss (A&M) 17. Dr. Dre (Death Row, Aftermath) 18. Tommy Mottola (Sony Music) 19. Phil Chess (Chess) 20. Rick Rubin (Def Jam, American Recordings, Columbia) 21. Milt Gabler (Commodore, Decca) 22. Bill Graham (concert promotor, Fillmore Auditorium) 23. Arif Mardin (Atlantic, Manhattan) 24. Clarence Avant (Venture, Sussex) 25. Seymour Stein (Sire, Warner Bros.) 26. Chris Strachwitz 27. Norman Granz (Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, Pablo) 28. Goddard Lieberson (Columbia) 29. Kenneth Gamble (Philadelphia International) 30. Leon Huff (Philadelphia International) 31. Chris Blackwell (Island) 32. Puff Daddy/P. Diddy (Bad Boy Entertainment) 33. Art Rupe (Speciality) 34. Suge Knight (Death Row) 35. Lou Pearlman (Trans Continental) 36. Syd Nathan (King) 37. Mathew Knowles (manager of Destiny’s Child) 38. Swizz Beatz (Full Surface) 39. Neil Bogart (Casablanca, Boardwalk) 40. Rick Hall (FAME Studios) 41. Willie Mitchell (Hi, Waylo) 42. Simon Cowell (Pop Idol, American Idol) 43. Kanye West (Roc-A-Fella) 44. Smokey Robinson (Motown) 45. Scooter Braun (School Boy Records, Raymond-Braun Media Group) 46. Jerry Ross (Heritage) 47. Jay-Z (Roc-A-Fella) 48. R. Kelly (Rockland) 49. Madonna (Maverick) 50. Miles Copeland III (I.R.S.) Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Lists of Acts/Music Makers by Categories First posted 5/24/2017; last updated 1/26/2022.

50 years ago: Dusty Springfield released Dusty in Memphis

First posted 4/8/2008; updated 12/1/2020.

Dusty in Memphis Dusty Springfield

Released: January 18, 1969 Charted: March 15, 1969 Peak: 99 US Sales (in millions): -- Genre: blue-eyed soul

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Just a Little Lovin’ (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil) [2:19] So Much Love (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) [3:33] Son of a Preacher Man (John Hurley, Ronnie Wilkins) [2:28] (11/30/68, 10 US, 9 UK) I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore (Randy Newman) [3:12] Don’t Forget about Me (Goffin, King) [2:54] (3/1/69, 64 US) Breakfast in Bed (Eddie Hinton, Donnie Fritts) [2:59] (4/12/69, 91 US) Just One Smile (Newman) [2:44] The Windmills of Your Mind (Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand) [3:54] (5/3/69, 31 US, 3 AC) In the Land of Make Believe (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) [2:34] (10/4/69, 27 AC) No Easy Way Down (Goffin, King) [3:11] I Can’t Make It Alone (Goffin, King) [4:01] Total Running Time: 33:31

Rating: 3.807 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings) Quotable: “The All-time rock-era torch record” – Robert Christgau Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “The idea of taking England’s reigning female soul queen to the home of the music she had mastered was an inspired one.” RW That “home” was specifically the American Sound Studio in Memphis where Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and others had recorded. Although she’d self-produced her earlier albums, she went with outside producers this time around using Atlantic Records’ Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd, and Arif Mardin to create what critic Robert Christgau called “the perfect instance of how a production team should work.” WK Springfield had “very real anxiety about being compared with the soul greatest who had recorded in the same studios.” WK She had recorded R&B songs before, but this was the first time she committed to an entire album’s worth. WK The “production and engineering team picked mostly perfect songs, and those that weren’t so great were salvaged by Springfield’s marvelous delivery and technique.” RW She was backed by the house band, the Memphis Cats, who had worked with Elvis Presley, Wilson Pickett, and King Curtis. She covered songs written by the famed writing teams of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Burt Bacharach and Hal David. “This set has definitive numbers in So Much Love, Son of a Preacher Man, Breakfast in Bed, Just One Smile, I Don't Want to Hear About It Anymore, and Just a Little Lovin'.” RW The album didn’t perform well initially, peaking at #99 in the US and failing to reach the UK top 40. Music journalist Peter Robinson said the album stalled Springfield’s career, but eventually became “a popcultural milestone [and] timeless emotional reference point.” WK Entertainment Weekly’s Tony Scherman called it “one of the greatest pop records ever recorded.” WK Christgau called it “the all-time rock-era torch record.” WK “It’s truly a disc deserving of its classic status.” RW Notes: A reissue added three bonus tracks including a cover of Willie and Laura Mae Jones’ That Old Sweet Roll (Hi-De-Ho) and an unreleased version of What Do You Do When Love Dies from the original Memphis sessions. A 25-song Rhino reissue included those three songs as well as “songs left over from sessions for the unfairly underrated Gamble- and Huff-produced Brand New Me album, and the unissued 1971 Jeff Barry-produced sides for a never-released third Atlantic album.” BE Also featured are “covers of David Gates' Make It with You and Carole King’s You’ve Got a Friend, the gospel-flavored Love Shine Down, and the hard-rocking Natchez Trace.” BE

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Dusty Springfield BE All Music Guide review by Bruce Eder of Rhino reissue RW All Music Guide review by Ron Wynn WK Wikipedia

Today in Music (1967): Aretha Franklin “Natural Woman” charted

You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman Aretha Franklin

Writer(s): Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Jerry Wexler (see lyrics here) Released: September 7, 1967 First Charted: September 29, 1967 Peak: 8 BB, 12 CB, 15 GR, 9 HR, 2 RB, 79 UK, 11 CN, 36 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.4 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 46.8 video, 202.60 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Aretha Franklin was born in 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee. She got her start singing gospel at her father’s church in Detroit, Michigan. She recorded gospel music as early as the 1950s for Chess Records and then in 1960 signed to Columbia Records “where she was cutting polite jazz.” TC Jerry Wexler, an executive from Atlantic Records, had followed her career since her gospel days and signed her to Atlantic in 1966 when her contract expired at Columbia. It became “one of the stellar partnerships in pop music” TC marrying “the sacred and the profane” TC in music that led to Aretha becoming known as “The Queen of Soul.” She landed four consecutive top-five albums in the late ‘60s that produced some of her most beloved songs, including “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You,” “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” and “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.” The latter was a song featuring Wexler as a co-writer with Gerry Goffin and Carole King, “the greatest husband and wife writing partnership in pop.” TC Wexler had the idea for the song’s title and pitched the idea to Goffin after bumping into him at an oyster bar in Manhattan. SS In 1971, King released her own version of the song on Tapestry, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year and sold 30 million copies worldwide. Author and critic Dave Marsh said the song “is probably the greatest record ever made about female sexuality.” DM It uses metaphors to describe her “near-delirious experience” DM of what one has to assume is her celebration of having great orgasms because of this man in her life. It is “risky stuff…but that’s not all that’s going on here – this music is also about as beautifula and moving as you can imagine.” DM The recording featured Wilson Pickett’s band as the backup musicians and Aretha’s sisters Carolyn and Erma on backing vocals. Aretha’s voice is “intimate, reflective, and deeply felt.” SS She “allows the song to swell and evolve and she goes with it, rising to the occasion rather than pushing the arrangement.” TC Music historian Steve Sullivan called it “one of the Queen of Soul’s finest three minutes on record.” SS Resources: TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 159-60. DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Page 20. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 323. Related Links: First posted 1/31/2024.

50 years ago: Aretha Franklin hit #1 with “Respect”

Respect Aretha Franklin

Writer(s): Otis Redding (see lyrics here) Released: April 10, 1967 First Charted: April 21, 1967 Peak: 12 US, 12 CB, 2 GR, 13 HR, 18 RB, 10 UK, 3 CN, 14 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.14 UK, 1.14 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 72.0 video, 374.22 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Respect” was first recorded by Otis Redding backed by Booker T. & the MG’s along with the Memphis Horns. “His strong and gritty style of singing gave this raw version of a gospel-type chorus song a particularly macho feel.” LW It was a 1965 top five R&B hit and “considered among the best Southern blues-soul records of the era,” TB but Aretha Franklin transformed it into an anthem “for black Americans and for women’s political and sexual liberation.” LW It became her signature song in launching her reign as the Queen of Soul. Aretha had recorded with Columbia Records from 1960-1966. In her years there, she developed neither a signature sound nor much commercial success. When she jumped to Atlantic Records, she was paired with producer Jerry Wexler, who had worked with Wilson Pickett and Dusty Springfield. He backed her with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, which would become legendary, but was then in their infancy. For “Respect,” initially comprised only of verses and no bridge, Wexler blended a King Curtis’ tenor-sax solo with the studio band playing the chord changes from Sam and Dave’s “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby.” RS500 Also giving the song heft was Aretha‘s addition of the “sock it to me” lines SF and the spelling out of the title, an idea which engineer Tom Dowd attributed to Aretha‘s sister Carolyn, who sang backup on the album. “I fell off my chair when I heard that!” RS500 Aretha defiantly demands respect without playing the part of a victim. As Wexler said, “Aretha would never play the part of the scorned woman.” RS500 Mix that with the gospel flavor of the call-and-response vocal arrangement, and a classic was born. Wexler reported Otis’ reaction to Aretha’s version: “He looked at me with a big grin and said, ‘That girl done stole my song.’” TC Resources: TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 455. JA David A. Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 164. LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 122. RS500 Rolling Stone (12/04). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SF Songfacts.com TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 99. Related Links: First posted 6/3/2012; last updated 11/24/2022.