[MotleyGirl70]

Interesting article.

[Clemenza]

Putting out this album by Millie Jackson:

[MotleyGirl70]

The Last Of The Mega-Deals #13 One label’s big spending single-handedly ends “alt-rock” boom In 1996, Warner Bros. signed R.E.M. to a five-album contract for a reported $80 million.

I never understood R.E.M.s popularity. I received their CD Out of Time as a gift and I ended up re-gifting it to someone who was a big fan of theirs.

Win-win situation for all : )

[Yardstick]

Regarding #12 — have any of the songs from GNR’s (or really Axl Rose’s) unfinished Chinese Democracy ever surfaced? It’d be interesting to hear what they sound like.

[Larry Lucido]

[proxy_user]

How about the dummies who sold the rights to issue any back catalog album on vinyl to Scorpio for nearly nothing?

Now Scorpio is selling more vinyl copies than they are selling CDs.

[Fractal Trader]

The all time biggest screw up was when Meat Loaf’s major label gave him a pass on “Bat Out of Hell.” He put it out on a no name label — I’m sure his royalties were stunning.

[Mr_Moonlight]

Tomorrow Never Knows #2 Decca Records A&R exec tells Fab Four, “No, thanks” Dick Rowe was not the only record-label executive who passed on the Beatles in the early ’60s, but he was the only one who brushed off their manager, Brian Epstein, with the astute prediction that: “Groups with guitars are on their way out.” Epstein begged Rowe to reconsider, so Rowe hopped a train to Liverpool to check out the band live. When he arrived at the Cavern, he found a mob of kids trying to force their way into the club in the pouring rain. Annoyed, he smoked a cigarette, went home and signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead. Unintended consequence The Monkees

As a lifelong Beatles fan who attends BeatleFest regularly and knows a bit about their history; The 'unintended consequense' of Dick Rowe's rejection by Decca allowed Epstein to pursue another record company, one Parlophone, run by a 'mad scientist' kinda guy named George Martin ... and we all know how that association turned out :)

My guess is that had Rowe's Decca signed The Beatles to a chincy contract and been allowed to tinker with (and interfere with) the 'chemistry' of the group, that BeatleMania may have never even happened, that they might have had a couple of successful singles in England, and that would have been about the end of it.

George Martin allowed the Beatles to florish on their own, to maintain their own identity, while offering his own excellent production techniques to the mix.

Sometimes a major setback is really a blessing in disguise, and IMO, Decca rejecting The Beatles is one of them.

And the rest ... is history :)

MM

[caver]

Interesting! Thanks for posting!

[Liberty Valance]

*

[dfwgator]

Two words, “Chris Gaines.”

[neb52]

If Napster was never squashed, would iTunes every come to the forefront? Funny how in a very short few years that the whole music making business has shifted to iTunes, Myspace(shudders) and Youtube. I would assume the movie business will go the same way, at least on smaller budget movies. Big budget epic films will still need movie studios to be the vehicle to bring that type of cash together.

[Lancey Howard]

I can’t believe the Sony deal with Michael Jackson isn’t in the top three.

[catfish1957]

Left off the obvious #1.... Sam Phillips (Sun Records) selling rights to Elvis Presley. I know 4 or 5 blunders that didn’t and should’ve made the list.

[Drew68]

Dick Rowe was not the only record-label executive who passed on the Beatles in the early ’60s, but he was the only one who brushed off their manager, Brian Epstein, with the astute prediction that: “Groups with guitars are on their way out.”

Rowe did redeem himself by signing another guitar-driven band to the Decca label: The Rolling Stones.

[Diamond]

Here's one of my favorite train wrecks:

Cordially,