Career
As a high school student interned a couple summers (1957-1958) at King Records in Cincinnati. A few years later in 1961 he worked 2 years for King Records. In 1966 and record producer Richard Gottehrer founded Sire Productions, which led to the formation of Sire Records, the label under which he signed pioneer artists such as the Ramones and Talking Heads in 1975, the Pretenders in 1980 and Madonna in 1982.
Other acts signed by Sire include The Replacements (band), Depeche Mode, The Smiths, The Cure, Ice-T, The Undertones and Echo & the Bunnymen.
Such was "s influence in signing and promoting the new wave genre of music that he is sometimes credited with coming up with the name as an alternative to the term punk, which he found derogative. The term had previously been used to refer to the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s. remains the President of Sire Records and is also Vice President of Warner Brothers
Records with which he has had a marketing and distribution deal from 1976 to 1994 and again since April 2003. is the subject of an eponymous song by the Scottish musical group Belle and Sebastian.
