Seymour Stein founded Sire Records and helped launch the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and the Pretenders. He co-founded the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.
Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launch the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died Sunday at age 80.
Stein, who helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was himself inducted into the Rock Hall in 2005, died of cancer in Los Angeles, according to a statement by his family.
Stein was born in 1942 in New York City and as a teenager worked summers at Cincinnati-based King Records, James Brown’s label, and by his mid-20s had co-founded Sire Productions, soon to become Sire Records.
Obsessed with the Billboard music charts since childhood, he was known for his deep knowledge and appreciation of music and would prove an astute judge of talent during the 1970s era of New Wave, a term he helped popularize, signing record deals with Talking Heads, the Ramones and the Pretenders.
