PA GE E6 The Boss - Catalyst House...T he Prince of Promo-tions is holding court at Patsy’s —...

The Prince of Promo-tions is holding courtat Patsy’s — one ofFrank Sinatra’s fav-ourite New York res-taurants — and talk-ing about the Beatles.

It all makes sense. Peter Ben-nett has worked with bothSinatra and the Fab Four dur-ing an astounding career thathas touched most of the bignames in showbusiness.

In his bulging briefcase hecarries snapshots that tellsome of the tales. There’s Eliz-abeth Taylor, Princess Grace,Elvis Presley, John Lennon andYoko Ono, Michael Jackson(with an Afro), the RollingStones, Julio Iglesias, Bob Dy-lan, Eric Clapton, SophiaLoren. The stories are in hishead, and may soon be in abook.

The 55-year-old Bennett, ahulking man with thinningblack hair, a warm smile and athick-as-cheesecake New Yorkaccent, is a dead ringer for ac-tor Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas),who also happens to be afriend. He’s a distant cousin ofTony Bennett, a fact he tendsto downplay.

Bennett, aka Pietro Benedet-to of the Bronx, knows some-thing about record promotion.Billboard magazine dubbedhim the World’s Top Promo-tion Man, Rolling Stone alsohailed him as one of the toppromoters in the business.

Still, there was one recordeven the world’s best couldn’tdo anything with. Bennettknew he couldn’t turn JohnLennon’s controversial 1973song Woman Is the Nigger ofthe World into a hit and he toldthe Beatle so.

“I did not like the song andtold John I would not promoteit,” says Bennett over thelunchtime din at this popular56th Street eatery. “I thoughtthe song was racist, it was not acommercial song, nobodywould play it.”

His decision put him in con-flict with the most tempera-mental of the Beatles. Lennonstomped off to promote thesong himself, telling Bennettthat if it turned into a hit thelegendary promoter wouldhave to kiss his behind. Ben-nett agreed.

The song, of course, bombed,never rising higher than No. 67on the pop charts. The promot-er knew his stuff, a fact Lennonlater acknowledged, with anapology.

“I said to Lennon, ‘You’re theboss of songwriting, I’m theboss of promotion.’ He put his

arms around me, but therewere no bad feelings over whathad happened.”

Bennett — who has beenphotographed with showbiz’selite — has been the boss ofpromotions for more than 40years. And he’s not slowingdown. He has recently beenspending time in Ottawa, hard-ly an entertainment mecca, towork on a couple of new ven-tures. He has also gotten toknow some Ottawa talent.

Bennett’s extensive bio in-cludes a national hit in his mu-sician days (a version of thePeggy Lee song Fever), a stintas the national promotion director at Apple Records anda period as Nat King Cole’smanager. He also helped orga-nize the first rock benefit,Concert for Bangladesh, in1971, promoted the large-scaleEmerson Lake and Palmer con-cert at the opening of Montre-al’s Olympic stadium in 1976,and produced a worldwide TVspecial at the 1988 SeoulOlympics with Gloria Estefanand Brooke Shields. And hehad a long association withBob Hope, working with theailing comedian until six yearsago

Bennett was primarily arecord promoter, hustlingrecords to radio station pro-gram directors. He had tomake sure his clients’ recordsgot airplay and then made itonto the Billboard recordcharts.

He has covered much groundin his career, dabbling in rockmusic, concerts, personal man-agement and movie production— always as a behind-the-scenes guy, piecing togetherdeals, soothing the egos of per-formers and working closelywith record executives.

Just think of him as a con-sigliere (the Robert Duvallcharacter in The Godfather), anegotiator between artist andrecord company. He’s riddenthe coattails of the big stars,but he still loves the smell ofnew talent. He is alwayssearching for the next big star,eager to “enhance” (hisfavourite word) their career.

He helped land Ottawasinger Tammy Raybould a giglast summer at the Bitter End,a vaunted New York club, afterhe met her in Montreal.

“He got me into New Yorkand without him I would nothave had a name there,” saysRaybould, 24, of her set beforesome record industry execu-tives. She said the Bitter Endgig was crucial to her chancesof breaking into the United

States and it led to a returnclub engagement, possibly lat-er this year.

For about nine months, Ben-nett has also shuttled to Ot-tawa from his home in Green-wich, Connecticut, to act as ad-viser and possible investor ontwo business ventures withDigital Works, a printing firmon Bank Street. One is an Inter-net project in which peoplewould vote via computer onthe world’s sexiest woman, theother is a magazine listing biosof models and performers whowould be available to castingagents, producers and model-ling agencies. The projectscould debut later this year.

BENNETT ENTERED THErecord promotion businessthrough the back door.

He grew up in the Bronx,where he once shined FrankSinatra’s shoes. He also madehero sandwiches for Ol’ BlueEyes at an old New Yorkrestaurant frequented byfighters Jake LaMotta andRocky Graziano. He consid-ered entering the priesthood,but later turned to music, buy-ing his first drum set at apawnshop for $22.

He dreamed of being a fa-mous drummer and he won aGene Krupa drum contest. Atage 17, he got a break when heworked with bandleader Tom-my Dorsey on a reunion tourwith Sinatra.

“I worked behind Sinatra onthe drums. Sinatra used to say,‘Hey kiddo,’ and he called mehis former shoeshine boy. Heembarrassed me onstage, I hat-ed it,” says Bennett, who is sep-arated from his wife, Annette, acorporate headhunter. He hastwo grown sons, Joseph, 30,and Peter Jr., 31, who live inGreenwich.

In the early ’60s his ownband, Pete Bennett and TheEmbers, had a modicum ofsuccess with their recording ofFever, which led to an appear-ance on American Bandstand.

When a friend offered him a50-per-cent partnership to dis-tribute records for a newrecord label to radio stations,he reluctantly took the job, fig-uring there was nothing tolose. The record label, Mo-town, was a newly formed De-troit-based company foundedby Berry Gordy, Jr.

“I did not know how hard itwas to promote other people’srecords. It was a lot of work,going to radio stations, gettingthem to play records of artistsfor a label that no one hadheard of.”

He says the early records he promoted — the Shirelles’Tonight’s the Night andSmokey Robinson and the Mir-acles’ Shop Around — weretough sells, especially with theprogram directors of “white-owned” New York radio sta-tions. Through sheer determi-nation and guts, Bennettplugged away and soon severalof the big stations began toplay the records he promoted.He was soon regarded byrecord industry types as a mar-keting whiz, an Italian kid whocould get airplay for newartists.

“Pete is one-of-a-kind andthe personification of the inde-pendent promotion man, he’sprobably the originator of it,”says Seymour Stein, chairmanof London-Sire Records, whosigned Madonna to a recordcontract in 1982 after seeing herperform in New York clubs.

Stein says he first met Ben-nett in New York about 40years ago when he worked forBillboard magazine and Ben-nett was promoting records.

“Pete worked at CambridgeDistributors and he actuallyput them on the map. He wasskilled in getting the recordson the radio and he had rela-tionships with all the top disc-jockeys at the time. It did nottake long to strike up a friend-ship with him because he wasthe type of guy you can get toknow pretty fast.”

Bennett says record promo-tion came easily to him and hehad no hesitation leaving hismusical career. “Promotion,”says Bennett, “was somethingthat I fell into. I could not be-lieve it, I was making money,more money than I had beenmaking as a musician.”

After the Shirelles, Bennetttook on Bobby “Boris” Pickett(Monster Mash), Sam Cooke(Cupid), Stevie Wonder (Fin-gertips), the Supremes (WhereDid Our Love Go?), DionneWarwick (Walk on By), Bobby

Darin (Splish Splash) and otherartists.

Bennett moved from recordpromotion to personal man-agement in the mid-’60s, tak-ing on Nat King Cole at a timewhen the singer had no hitrecords and was largely forgot-ten by the public.

“Nat comes to me and he hashis flunkies with him. He playsme Ramblin’ Rose and six ac-etates of new songs. I said tohim I love Ramblin’ Rose out ofthe bunch, I could make it a hitfor you.”

The singer was not con-vinced Bennett could turn theballad, which had yet to be re-leased, into a hit.

“Why do you love thatrecord so much?” Bennett asksin a deep, gravelly voice, im-personating the late singer.Bennett told Nat to give himthe song and he’d waive hisstandard promotion fee.

Bennett immediately drovefrom New York to Philadel-phia, hitting a snowstorm onthe way, to meet GeorgieWoods, a rhythm-and-bluesdisc jockey on WDAS. Woodsplayed the record on hisevening show and the switch-board lit up. Listeners loved it.

Woods phoned Bennett thenext morning and told him therecord was hot. Within a week,it had sold 40,000 copies inPhiladelphia and soon radiostations around the countrywere putting it on theirplaylist.

“The song went to No. 1 andNat called me afterwards andthanked me. He said ‘Kid, youwere right.’

“Promotion,” stresses Ben-nett, “is the name of the game,without that you go nowhere,no matter who you are.”

Kenny di Camillo, an agent atWilliam Morris Agency inNew York, says Bennett is oneof the last independent recordpromoters and likens him to aDamon Runyon character.

“Pete understands the artist’s

sensitivities about how theyshould be treated, he makessure he puts together the rightteam,” says Camillo, who rep-resents Regis Philbin, Bill Cos-by and Wayne Newton.

“Pete does not have to do400 shows, lose on 150, win on100 and break even on the rest.He understands quality, notquantity; that’s how best to de-scribe him.”

Bennett was thanked by PaulMcCartney in his book ManyYears from Now for helping topromote the Beatles on the ra-dio. “In one of the outer officeslurked Pete Bennett,” McCart-ney wrote, “a vast bulk of aman with a round Italian face,looking more like a bodyguardfor Sinatra than the promoman responsible for gettingthe Beatles on the radio.”

WHEN THE BRITISH INVASIONhit America, Bennett was at

the centre of the musical revo-lution. He caught the wave ofthe many young British bandscoming to North America,helping to sell the records ofHerman’s Hermits, the DaveClark Five, the Who, Chad andJeremy, Peter and Gordon,Donovan and Lulu. In 1964,when the Rolling Stones firstcame to the U.S., Bennett wasby their side.

“There’s a big promotion inNew York with the RollingStones to celebrate the releaseof their album. We were on ayacht called The Princess —which was used by Sinatra —and I told the Stones that theBeatles were playing at SheaStadium and did they want togo see them. They said sure.

“So I called Shea Stadiumand talked to the promoter thatI wanted to bring the Stones.He said fine. We docked theboat in Long Island and tooklimousines to the stadium.”

The Beatles were alreadyperforming and the Stones andtheir entourage discreetlyslipped into the stadium, set-

P A G E E 6 ● F E B R U A R Y 3 , 2 0 0 1

GINO DOMENICO FOR STYLE WEEKLY

Peter Bennett is a distant cousin of Tony Bennett, about the only connection the World’s Best

Promotion Man downplays. His briefcase bulges with photos of some of the greats he has worked

with during the past 40 years, from Mohammed Ali to Dean Martin to the Beatles and Rolling

Stones.

The BossFrom Ol’ Blue Eyes

to the Beatles and beyond,

Peter Bennett has touched showbiz royalty

By Tony Lofaro

GINO DOMENICO FOR STYLE WEEKLY

Bennett’s promotion skills touched the careers of both Elvis and Beatle John Lennon. Bennett

promoted Elvis’s hit Suspicious Minds. Later, when he met Elvis in Las Vegas, the singer hugged him

and said ‘he’s the one who made the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.’

I said to (John) Lennon, ‘You’re the boss of songwriting. I’m the boss of promotions ’

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tling into the baseball dugout, saysBennett.

“Some of the fans see that theStones are there and start yellingout ‘The Stones are here, theStones are here.’ The fans startthrowing things and I said to theStones, ‘Let’s get out of here, we’regoing to get killed.’ ”

Bennett promoted such Stoneshits as I Can’t Get No Satisfaction,Paint It Black, Ruby Tuesday andJumpin’ Jack Flash. But the songthat gave him the most troublewas Honky-Tonk Woman.

After the Stones sent an advancetape of Honky-Tonk Woman toBennett, he realized there was go-

ing to be a problem getting thesong airplay because of the line “Ilaid a divorcee in New York City.”In 1969, says Bennett, a recordwith such a risqué lyric could bebanned by radio stations. Hebrought an acetate tape of thesong to New York radio stationWMCA and played it for radio sta-tion executives.

“They said there was no waythey could possibly play therecord on the air. I said what’s theproblem. They said the lyric isbad. I had to bluff, so I said no, itsays ‘played a divorcee, not laid.’ ”

The station manager wantedproof of the actual lyric and askedBennett for the lead sheet (sheetmusic with lyrics) of the song.The Stones had given Bennett theoriginal lead sheet, but he whitedout the words “laid a divorcee”and typed in “played a divorcee.”The radio executives were satis-fied with the change and the songwent on to be a smash for theStones.

In the early ’60s, the Beatleswere managed by Brian Epstein,but after his death on Aug. 27, 1967they needed someone to managetheir business affairs. The Beatles,ready to launch Apple Records,

were looking for a promotion manto handle their records on the newlabel.

Lennon asked Mick Jagger whowas promoting the Stones’records and was told it was Ben-nett. At the end of 1967, Bennettjoined the Beatles, working withAllan Klein who was managingthe Stones as well as taking on theFab Four.

“It was crazy being with theBeatles during those days,” re-members Bennett. “The fanswanted to be with them, theywould be rioting and trying to

turn our cars over when they sawus. The would sneak into our hotelrooms, we’d be in the room andwe’d find fans in the closet. Theywould bribe anybody just to getclose to the Beatles.”

Bennett spent weeks with theBeatles, sitting in on such classicrecordings as Lady Madonna, HeyJude, Get Back, Come Together andLet It Be.

“The Beatles trusted me,” saysBennett, of his long associationwith the group and later with eachBeatle after they began solo ca-reers.

“I broke their records andworked hard at promoting them. I

was honest with them and theyliked me. They felt secure with meand they could talk to me, we hada lot of laughs together.”

He says the Beatles were no dif-ferent from other rock groups —they “needed promotion just likeeverybody else.

“Everybody thought a Beatlesrecord would always sell … With-out the right marketing and pro-motion it’s not going to happen.”

Years after the Beatles broke up,McCartney brought Bennett anew song he had recorded calledMy Love, hoping he could helppromote it to the public.

“Paul thought the record was apiece of s---. I said to him I love it.I put it out there and promoted itand it became a No. 1 hit for him.He was surprised.”

The Beatles’ breakup was in-evitable, says Bennett. “Thedownfall started with Lennon andMcCartney, it was like who waswriting the better songs, who hadthe bigger name. I also got thefeeling they did not want to be theBeatles anymore, they wanted tobranch out.

“There was also the Yoko Onofactor. She’s a great gal, wonderfulreally, but the others resented thatJohn had married her. She had abig influence over John, she want-ed to sing, but they could not seeit.”

Bennett says he played itstraight in the record promotionbusiness despite the fact that ra-dio’s early days were notorious forpayola, whereby disc jockeys werepaid to play certain records. Ben-nett says payola was happening,but he was not part of anyschemes.

“One thing I learned since I gotinto promotion was that I didn’tgive anybody lip service. That’sthe way the Beatles liked me, Ididn’t go out and say their recordwas a smash if I didn’t think so.”

Bennett is trying to get his lifestory published and has workedwith a New York writer on an out-line and sample chapters in an ef-fort to pitch his story to a few pub-lishers. He’s also had preliminarytalks with longtime Hollywoodproducer Howard W. Koch (TheManchurian Candidate, The OddCouple) about turning his years inthe record business into a movie.

“Yeah, Robert De Niro will playme in the movie,” jokes Bennettabout his buddy “DeNiro.”

Bennett has hardly sloweddown, spending his days meetinglongtime radio friends for dinner,attending fundraising functions inNew York, raising financing for aproposed film with Michael Mad-sen (Reservoir Dogs) and trying toget a film about Apollo 14, featur-ing astronaut Edgar Mitchell, offthe ground. He keeps his ear to theground, still looking for the nextbig thing, undiscovered talent thatcould benefit from the Bennettpromotional spin.

“I still have the drive, Bob Hopehad the drive up until two yearsago, George Burns never retired.

“I don’t ever talk about retire-ment, I’ll retire in my coffin. Howcould I stop if I see someone withpotential, I’d want to see them getright up there.”

Tony Lofaro writes for the Citizen.

F E B R U A R Y 3 , 2 0 0 1 ● P A G E E 7

Record promoter

Peter Bennett

has worked with

dozens of celebrities

over the years. Here

are some of his

favourite stories.

On Elvis Presley:“The first time I met Elvis he was in the army, we

became friends. Years later when he opened at the

International Hotel (now the Hilton) in Las Vegas I

was invited. He remembered me because I had pro-

moted Suspicious Minds. When he went out on

stage he seemed like he didn’t know what he was

doing. He was saying things like ‘hi everybody’ and

‘geez, there’s a lot of people here.’ He had just got

out of the movies and he had never seen that many

people onstage. The audience reaction was great,

keys were thrown on stage, but he would stop after

every song.

“I was invited by Elvis back to his dressing room,

but he didn’t allow the owner of the hotel to come

into his room. Elvis kissed and hugged me and he

kept calling me the Italian kid and saying he’s the

one who made the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

He got a big kick out of me and when I told him his

ring sparkled on stage he gave me his pinkie ring. I

said I don’t want it, the silver ring had 55 diamonds.

It’s worth a fortune, that’s why I have it in a safe.”

On Bette Midler:“I was in my New York office working on some

figures with George Harrison. Songwriter Paul

Jabbara and Saul Swimmer come in the office

with this girl who looked like she needed a good

meal. She was wearing a ripped rabbit jacket and

a stained blouse. I had a dark suit on and she was

shedding all over me. Paul is saying to me you

got to come and see her tonight, she’s great.

“So the next morning this girl comes in and

she’s making everyone in the office laugh. She

says again to come and see her that night, so I

end going where she sings, it’s a real dive. I sit

down in this club and who walks in — Johnny

Carson and his talent co-ordinator. She gets on

the stage and in the first 20 minutes she’s breaks

everybody up. She sang like the Andrew Sisters.

Carson says right away that he wants her for five

shows. She finishes her stuff and I go backstage

and Carson asks me who handles her. She says to

Carson that I am, so I negotiate the deal. People

from Atlantic Records see her and love her. I

could not sign her with Apple Records until John

Lennon — who was president of the record label

— sees her. So Atlantic puts out her album and

then she appears on Carson and she’s a big hit.”

On Bob Hope:“Bob is a great guy, he trusts you but don’t lie to

him. The mighty dollar is big to him, he’s probably

worth about $5 billion. He owns land all over the

world, especially in Orlando. When you stay at a ho-

tel fans send gifts all the time, bottles of scotch,

champagne, whatever. You have to tip the bellboy to

help you bring down all this stuff. When it comes to

tipping Bob has holes in his pocket. So I’d have to

reach into my pocket and give the bellboy about

$200.

Bob usually gets $150,000 for one appearance,

plus transportation, but he usually would keep the

plane tickets because he has his own airplane. He

would always make sure I got the fuel money which

was about $8,500. At the end of the concert we

would be walking to the plane and he’d be asking

me if I got the fuel money. I’d say yes I got the mon-

ey and he said where’s the money and I had to hand

the envelope with the money in it and he’d be look-

ing at it.”

Paul Bennett’s career has brought him in contact with

generations of stars, from the likes of Brooke Shields to

legendary comedian Bob Hope.

When the British invasion hit America in the 1960s, Peter Bennett was at the centre of the musical revolution. He began

promoting the Rolling Stones’ records and when the Beatles launched Apple Records they, too, signed on with Bennett. ‘It

was crazy being with the Beatles during those days.’

The British Invasion

‘Pete is the personification of the independentpromotion man, he’s probably the originator of it’

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