Eddie Rosenblatt, who had served as president of Geffen Information since its inception in 1980 and labored on Weapons N’ Roses, Nirvana, Don Henley and numerous others, died Tuesday at a Santa Barbara hospital. The glory days of man. sort confirmed. His son Michael instructed Sheets that the reason for demise was pneumonia; he was 89 years outdated.
Underneath Rosenblatt’s management, Geffen turned the music trade’s gold commonplace label all through a lot of the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, spawning not solely the aforementioned bands however dozens of hits from artists starting from Whitesnake to Weezer Sizzling songs and in addition has a fastidiously curated listing. It additionally produced a lot of executives who went on to grow to be leaders, together with prime A&R executives and future document label presidents or CEOs Gary Gersh, Tom Zutaut, John Kalodner and Wendy Goldstein.
Rosenblatt was born in Queens, New York, in 1934. After serving within the Military, he attended Macy’s administration coaching program after which moved to Cleveland to work at Cosnat Distributing, which was truly his entry into the music trade. . In 1962, he joined Fundamental Line Distribution, the place he developed relationships with trade giants corresponding to A&M government Gil Friesen, Jerry Moss and Elektra founder Jac Holzman. He joined A&M in 1967 and transferred to Warner in 1971. There, Rosenblatt additionally gained worthwhile expertise serving to run the corporate’s then-new distribution firm, WEA.
Rosenblatt’s expertise at Warner working with Joni Mitchell (Joni Mitchell had been managed by David Geffen for a number of years) led Geffen to rent him in 1980 as president of the newly shaped eponymous model. John Lennon, Elton John and Donna Summer season adopted, though solely Lennon’s album, launched earlier than his homicide in December 1980, achieved main chart success.
Geffen Information loved early success on MTV with albums by Asia, Sammy Hagar, Quarterflash and others, and in addition signed Peter Gabriel, Don Henley and Neil Higher-known artists corresponding to Neil Younger (who had a legendary authorized dispute with Geffen). Nevertheless, it achieved nice success within the mid-Eighties with exhausting rock bands corresponding to Whitesnake and Weapons N’ Roses, and later, by its DGC offshoot, with various artists corresponding to Sonic Youth, Weezer, Gap, Beck, and particularly Nirvana.
In 1990, Geffen bought the label to MCA for about $550 million, and MCA was bought to Japanese expertise large Panasonic shortly after, giving him an enormous windfall, however Rosenblatt was left within the Nineteen Nineties. The label’s runaway success continued for a lot of the last decade. David Geffen left the corporate in 1995 to co-found DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg and appointed Rosenblum Rosenblatt is the corporate’s successor. As Hits factors out, Rosenblatt’s former boss at Warners, Mo Ostin, stated: “In the event you consider David because the imaginative and prescient behind Geffen Information, Eddie was the core. The label was not solely Worthwhile, but in addition stylish and scorching, and Eddie was the glue that held the model collectively through the years.
Regardless of a long time of scorching streak, Geffen Information was absorbed by Interscope in Seagram’s acquisition of PolyGram and its merger with Common Music Group, and Rosenblatt left the corporate and retired from the music enterprise.
Rosenblatt is survived by 4 kids: Michael himself, a longtime government at Warner Bros. Information; Steven, Peter and Gretchen – six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His spouse of 68 years, Bobbi, died in 2023.
In lieu of flowers, presents could also be made in Rosenblatt’s reminiscence to Sansum Clinic, a nonprofit outpatient medical group, at https://www.sansumclinic.org/donate-now.
