Career
His early career included working as a promotions man for James Brown and sales representative for Decca Records. In the early 1960s, Krasnow founded MK Records, which released the novelty record "Report To The Nation," a parody of the 1960 presidential campaign between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. Krasnow also ran the King Records branch office in San Francisco from 1958 to 1964 before founding Loma Records, which he headed from 1964 to 1966.
He became vice president of Kama Sutra Records in Los Angeles in 1966, where he founded the Buddah Records subsidiary label.
He discovered, signed and then produced the debut album Safe As Milk by Captain Beefheart. Among the acts Krasnow brought to Blue Thumb were Ike & Tina Turner, the Pointer Sisters, Dave Mason, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Marc Bolan, Arthur Lee, Captain Beefheart, Clifton Chenier, Albert King and John Mayall.
Krasnow served as president of Blue Thumb until 1974, when he became vice president/talent acquisition for Warner Brothers Records, a role he held until 1983 when he was elevated to chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch Records (later known as Elektra Entertainment).
While with Warner and Elektra, he signed Chaka Khan, George Benson, George Clinton and The Cure to the labels.
Krasnow also became notorious for shelving projects such as Dee Snider"s post-Twisted Sister outfit, Desperado, as detailed in Snider"s 2012 autobiography, Shut Up and Give Maine the Mic. Krasnow abruptly resigned from his position at Elektra in July 1994, the result of a bitter internal struggle within the Warner Music group during 1994-1995 that also led to the departure of long-serving and highly respected Warner Brothers Records executives Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker.
Following his resignation he established Krasnow Entertainment, a joint venture with the Master of Computer Applications Music Entertainment Group, with offices at 1755 Broadway in Manhattan.