Don Grierson was a British-born music industry executive best known for receiving the Golden Apple Award from the Beatles and signing Celine Dion to her first US recording contract. He died on 5 January 2019 at the age of 77.[1]
Don Grierson was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England and grew up in the small town of Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia. Grierson was born to Monica Linden, a novelist and Leslie, a department store manager. After the war years, Grierson, his parents and younger brother immigrated to Australia, where he attended a public school until he was 16 years old. After leaving school, Grierson held several local job positions that would eventually lead to his main career. He attended a small radio school in Sydney, Australia for six months. Grierson befriended the DJ of his hometown radio station and was later hired as a junior announcer and DJ there. During Grierson's four year employment at the station, he created and held the Music Director position to emphasize the importance of music in his community.[2][3][4]
Grierson also worked with a local band, The Saints (not to be confused with the later, more famous Australian band), in his extra time, acting as manager, driver and roadie. The band's gigs mainly consisted of small events that were similar to community dances.[5]
Early career
Originally a disc jockey at the age of 18, Grierson began his US music industry career by doing record promotions for various labels, including Capitol, Apple, Chess/Checker/Cadet and MGM records.
Once Grierson, a fanatic lover of all types of music and particularly actual record labels, moved to the United States, he found a job at a one-stop record store where he was exposed to many artists and labels that he had been distanced from. A year later, Grierson obtained his first promotion opportunity at independent record distributor, Record Merchandising, where he covered Southern California for two years. After six months in the U.S. Marine Reserves, Grierson was hired and spent four years as the West Coast Promotion Manager for Capitol Records.[5]
Apple Records and the Beatles
As the West Coast promotions manager for Capitol Records, Grierson had the opportunity to work on the promotion of the Beatles' releases in the United States. Grierson was instrumental in the promotion of all of the Beatles' albums and singles from 1966 to 1969 and helped contribute to the band's success.[2]
On 31 October 1968 Grierson received the Golden Apple Award for his outstanding promotion of the initial launch of four simultaneous Apple Records singles. Known as "Our First Four", the singles were the Beatles' "Hey Jude", Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days", Jackie Lomax's "Sour Milk Sea" and the Black Dyke Mills Band's "Thingummybob". The award was presented personally by George Harrison and was the only Golden Apple Award ever presented by Apple Records.[2]
Discovering Celine Dion
From 1970 to 1974, Grierson was the A&R Coordinator, West Coast, for RCA Records. In 1974 he returned to Capitol Records, as Manager, International Promotion and A&R. His first signing in that role was Little River Band, from Australia. In 1976, he was promoted to head Capitol's Merchandising and Advertising Department.[6]
In 1987, Grierson left Capitol Records and accepted the position of Senior Vice President, Head of A&R for Epic Records. (Then CBS Records, later to become Sony Music), basing in New York City. Sony Canada, was looking to sign and promote Celine Dion via an American record label and presented her to Columbia Records and Epic Records. While Columbia passed on the artist, Grierson believed in her potential and offered to release her on Epic Records. Her single, “Where Does My Heart Beat Now” reached No. 4 in January 1991.[6][7]
In 1993, Grierson co-founded Drive Entertainment, “a company with emphasis on classic artists and niche market catalog exploitation.” The company re-packaged, re-mastered and created liner notes for more than 140 albums by artists such as Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker.[2][6]
Grierson Consulting
In 1998, Grierson re-entered the mainstream music business to run his own independent consultant company, working both in the United States and overseas. Grierson has worked with many up and coming artists including Tara Macri, Michael Sullivan, Danielle Taylor, Amy Sky, Molly Gutman and many others. Grierson recently finished executive producing an album with former American Idol contestant Jon Peter Lewis as well as executive producing a major album project for Vietnamese superstar, Yenn. He consulted with developing artists (including John Peter Lewis, Tara Macri, Michael Sullivan, Danielle Taylor, Molly Gutman, Anika Paris) managers and small labels.[9]
Grierson also worked as a music supervisor for independent films, was on the board of advisors for MusicBizPro, India and Artistsintersect.com. His consulting work was also profiled in the book "Making Your Mark In Music/ Stage Performance Secrets written by Anika Paris.[10][11]
Grierson was a long time voting member of NARAS/The Grammys.
Author
Grierson is also the co-author of the book “It All Begins with the Music: Developing Successful Artists and Careers for the New Music Business,” with veteran music journalist Dan Kimpel. The book was published by Cengage Learning in March 2009. It features interviews with artists, managers and executives who discuss how to make an impact in today’s music business. The book provides an examination of the new methods by which recording artists are discovered, developed, and nurtured in the modern music industry.[12]
Parlophone Records Limited is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited, which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited (EMI). George Martin joined Parlophone in 1950 as assistant to Oscar Preuss, the label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of recordings, including by comedian Peter Sellers, pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith.
Capitol Records, LLC is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955. EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012, and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, California.
Apple Records is a record label founded by the Beatles in 1968 as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston. In practice, the roster had become dominated by the mid-1970s with releases of the former Beatles as solo artists. Allen Klein managed the label from 1969 to 1973, then it was managed by Neil Aspinall on behalf of the Beatles and their heirs. Aspinall retired in 2007 and was replaced by Jeff Jones.
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Don Ienner is an American music executive. He served as president of Columbia Records from 1989 to 2003, and as Chairman from 1994 to 2003. In April 2003 he became president of Columbia's umbrella company, Sony Music U.S., overseeing its music labels, and was named Chief Executive Officer of Sony Music Label Group, U.S. in 2004. He resigned from that position on June 1, 2006.
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"Stand by Your Side" is a song recorded by Canadian recording artist Celine Dion, for her eight English studio album, One Heart (2003). It was written by Paul Barry, Mark Taylor, and produced by Taylor and Humberto Gatica. The moving ballad sees Dion promising to someone who has been deeply wounded that she will comfort and support it. It was released on 15 September 2003 as the third single from the album, in the United States. "Stand by Your Side" reached number 17 on the US Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks.
Steven Rinkoff is an American Grammy Award–winning record producer, mixer, and sound engineer, best known for his work with songwriter-producer Jim Steinman. He worked with Steinman from 1986 on various projects, in all facets of production, and was Steinman's partner in Ravenous Records, a record label.
Ken Mansfield was an American record producer who was the manager of Apple Records in the United States. He was also a high-ranking executive for several record labels, as well as a songwriter, author of seven books and a Grammy and Dove Award-winning album producer.
"Eyes on Me" is a song recorded by Canadian singer Celine Dion, taken from her tenth English-language studio album, Taking Chances (2007). It was released as the second single in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2008, while "Alone" was released as the second single in the rest of Europe and North America instead.
David "Bruce" Spizer is a tax attorney in New Orleans, Louisiana, who is also recognized as an expert on the Beatles. He has published thirteen books, and is frequently quoted as an authority on the history of the band and its recordings.
Steve Barnett is the former Chairman and CEO of Capitol Music Group.
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Vito Luprano is a Canadian music producer and talent manager. He was Vice-President of A&R for Sony Music Canada from 1986 until 2009. During those years, he oversaw the production of recordings for many musicians and bands, mainly in Quebec. Alongside René Angélil, Luprano executive produced over 20 albums for Céline Dion.
↑ Stiernberg, John (2009). It All Begins with the Music: Developing Successful Artists for the New Music Business (0082039538631): Don Grierson, Dan Kimpel: Books. ISBN978-1598638639.
External links
"Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 16 November 1968. p.86. Retrieved 23 January 2021– via Google Books.
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