The notorious and pugnacious manager of artists including The Rolling Stones and Sam Cooke, Allen Klein took control of The Beatles' business affairs in 1969, following the death of Brian Epstein.
Born in America on 18 December 1931, Klein was the son of Jewish immigrants from Budapest. As a teenager he excelled at mental arithmetic. After graduating from Upsala College, New Jersey in 1956, he began auditing for record companies and bookkeeping for a number of showbusiness names.
In 1957 he began a business partnership with his wife Betty. Two years later he met singer Bobby Darin at a wedding, and offered to make him $100,000. Darin asked what he needed to do, and Klein reportedly said: "Nothing. Just let me go over your accounts."
Klein pursued Darin's record company for money he regarded as owed to the singer. Darin gave Klein free rein to audit his accounts, and duly received the cheque Klein had promised.
The hostile approach became Klein's trademark. He picked up further celebrity clients, and record labels began to fear his methods.
In 1963 Klein became Sam Cooke's business manager, negotiating an unprecedented agreement between the star and the music industry: Cooke ended up with the rights to all his future recordings, gate receipts for concert, 10% of all record sales and back royalties.
The deal had a huge effect on the music industry, though it's worth remembering that he was far from the only management svengali around at the time. Andrew Loog Oldham, for example, secured ownership of all The Rolling Stones' master tapes, which he then leased to Decca; a method he picked up from Phil Spector.
When Oldham fell victim to drugs in 1965, Klein took over management of the Stones' affairs. Jagger, initially impressed by Klein's business skills, recommended him to Paul McCartney, who was looking for someone to take over The Beatles' business matters. Klein met John Lennon on the set of the Stones' Rock And Roll Circus, but they didn't discuss business and little came of the meeting.
The Rolling Stones soon began to doubt the trustworthiness of Klein. They decided to fire him in the late 1960s, and in 1970 set up their own business. However, a legal settlement left Klein the rights to most of their songs recorded before 1971.
With The Beatles
Shortly after the recording of Rock And Roll Circus, Allen Klein read a comment by John Lennon that financial problems at Apple Corps would leave them "broke in six months".
The Beatles had been without a manager since Epstein died in August 1967. Although NEMS, headed by Brian's brother Clive, had looked after the day-to-day running, and Paul McCartney was mostly steering the band's artistic direction, there was little grasp of the bigger picture. There were, crucially, few people trusted to sort out the practicalities of business as Epstein had done.
By 1969 it was clear that Apple's finances needed to be addressed urgently. McCartney favoured his father-in-law Lee Eastman, but the others - led by Lennon, who on 28 January had appointed Klein his personal advisor on the spot after a meeting at the Dorchester Hotel in London - objected. They felt that Eastman would put McCartney's interests ahead of the rest of the group.
Klein offered to take a commission only on The Beatles' increased business, a change in his normal method of operating. If Apple continued losing money, he said, he would take nothing.
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News flash! Allen Klein just died today (7/4/09) of Alzheimer's. Hard to believe that this, Michael Jackson's death, and Phil Spector's life sentence for murder all happened in so short of a time. Paul's probably laughing his butt off at the moment! Vengeance is now complete! Rock on, Beatles fans of the world!
allen klein was the anti-thesis of the soul of rock n roll. he was the counterpart to soul, he was the ruthless objectifying capitalist. He took soul and distilled out money, and drooled as a vulture saunters over carrion. He is the real life version of Fagin, or Mr. Smallweed in Dickens books. I wonder if this guy ever helped anyone less fortunate than himself. Another banal consumer that sucks everything he can out of the world. They are all too frequent anymore.
The Allen Klein saga in the Beatles (and solo years) is one of the more fascinating elements of the break-up.
No matter how you cut it, John let the Klein brigade getting George and Ringo on board, isolating Paul - Paul was then pushed into the arms of his in-laws another uncomfortable position for George and Ringo.
All of this happened during John's heavy heroin phase - making him impossible to reason with.
The truth is that Klein played John like a cheap fiddle - and this only added to the animosity between John and Paul - thus not only helping to end an incredible partnership - but splitting up two very close friends.
The lose of the friendship between John and Paul is the really sad point. I don't know about you, but good close loving friends are hard to find.
I'm not saying Klein broke the Beatles up - but he sure made it harder for them to get along.
One point Paul makes often is that previous to Klein everything they did was as friends - all in or nothing.
Klein turned the four of them into voting blocks, and they began to treat each other as business partners and not friends.
Klein was a cancer, and John brought him in - so sad.
A evil in the Beatles story.