Seymour Stein, a powerhouse music executive who co-founded Sire Records, helped popularize the punk and new wave movements and inked Madonna’s first record deal, has died at 80.
Across a six-decade career in the music industry, Mr. Stein flitted between genres and continents, always searching for the next big sound. “What I really am,” he once said, “is an extremist,” the kind of music-industry fanatic happy to spend $8,000 to book a last-minute Concorde flight to London to hear a hot new band called Depeche Mode. Upon his arrival, he found “four teenagers poking synths in a dump in the English suburbs” and signed them to a record deal.
Whatever the genre, all of the musicians on his roster seemed to share at least one quality. “They all had an edge,” Ice-T said in 2005 while inducting Mr. Stein intoMr. Stein’s biggest commercial success was the 1982 signing of a struggling singer who went by a single name, Madonna, and had recorded a demo track calledHe was in a New York City hospital, recovering from a heart infection with penicillin dripping through his body, when he first heard the song on his Sony Walkman.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Seymour Stein, Sire Records Co-Founder Who Signed Madonna, The Ramones & More, Dies at 80Seymour Stein, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member who was the co-founder of Sire Records, the former vice president at Warner Bros. Records and who began his storied career in the music industry at Billboard, has died.
Read more »
Seymour Stein, Sire Records Co-Founder Who Signed Madonna, The Ramones and More, Dies at 80The music industry veteran began his storied career at THR sister publication Billboard.
Read more »
Seymour Stein, co-founder of Sire Records who signed Madonna, dies at 80Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others,...
Read more »
Seymour Stein, Sire Records Co-Founder Who Signed Up Madonna and Ramones Dies at 80Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died Sunday at age 80.
Read more »
Seymour Stein Dies: Sire Records Co-Founder Who Launched Madonna, Talking Heads & The Ramones Was 80Seymour Stein, the founder of Sire Records who launched the recording careers of Madonna, the Ramones, Talking Heads and the Pretenders, died Sunday of cancer in Los Angeles. He was 80. His death w…
Read more »
Seymour Stein, Legendary Music Exec Who Signed Madonna and Talking Heads, Dies at 80Seymour Stein, whose Sire Records launched Madonna’s career and signed such early punk rock and new wave icons as the Ramones and Talking Heads, has died, multiple sources close to Stein confirm to…
Read more »