I spent 10 years at three different major labels, and another 17 years (and counting) as label manager & creative director at a classic R&B indie label and its sister label specializing in various-artist compilations and branded music. I could actually read sheet music back then, until rock & roll took over.Īfter working at three different record stores (all in the same mall) throughout high school & college, I was fortunate enough to get a job at a major record label right after college. I also had the pleasure of playing in the Staten Island Borough-Wide Orchestra when I was a teenager. Now I can barely recall a time when I wasn’t listening to, or thinking about, music. Kiss & Stevie Wonder were my first two favorites. By the mid-70s, between my first visit to the local record store and drum lessons that began when I was 8 years old, my obsession with music had started.
Throughout the early 70s it was Top 40 radio for me, along with my parents’ small collection of LPs ( Meet The Beatles, Hank Williams’ Greatest Hits, Allan Sherman’s My Son The Folk Singer, the Fiddler On The Roof Soundtrack, a few classical compilations). Of course it would be several years before I discovered the greatness of these now-considered classics.
