R.I.P.: Walter Yetnikoff, Former CBS Records Executive

Walter Yetnikoff (1933-2021)

Walter Yetnikoff, the combative, profane, licentious record company executive whose frequent feuds, unrestrained drug and alcohol consumption, and skillful management of superstar egos made him a powerful, feared but also beloved music man, died Sunday at age 87.

The L-A Times reports he died of cancer at a hospital in Bridgeport, Conn.

Yetnikoff was president/chief executive of CBS Records, which vied with Warner Bros. as the industry’s dominant label, from 1975 to 1990. The CBS artists he worked with included Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper, Elvis Costello, the Clash, Paul McCartney, Public Enemy, Julio Iglesias and Quiet Riot. Under his leadership, the New York-based label’s annual revenue grew from $485 million to more than $2 billion. He was richly compensated, including a reported $20-million bonus after he oversaw the sale of CBS Records to Sony for $2 billion in 1987. Soon after, Rolling Stone called him “the most powerful man in the record business.”

“Walter stuck by my side no matter what project I presented him with — ‘Nebraska,’ ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’ he was always there for me. Always,” Springsteen attested via email. “A wild man in the old school music business tradition, yup. But when the chips were down and the records were getting made and you were getting paid, he was there 100%. I loved Walter because he respected and shepherded my art through an often hostile and unfriendly music business. I considered him my friend.”

“Walter was a street fighter,” Joel told The Times by email, “a man who didn’t shy away from confrontation with other power players when it came to protecting his artist’s interests. I loved him as a dear friend and a mentor, in a business where real friendships don’t exist.”

Yetnikoff reigned in an era before synergy- and accounting-driven business decisions, when personal relationships mattered and success justified unsavory means. For instance, he had no qualms about hiring independent promoters, who were accused of using payola and other illegal means to help create a hit record. “They get results,” he shrugged in 1986. In Yetnikoff’s day, a buccaneer didn’t have to explain himself to anyone.