Walter Yetnikoff, the CBS record head who shot Michael Jackson to superstardom has died at the age of 87 from unknown causes.
Yetnikoff led CBS Records from 1975 to 1990. His wife, Lynda, says he battled several illnesses through recent years.
Yetnikoff was born in 1933 and lived in Brooklyn’s largely Jewish Brownsville neighborhood. before going to CBS in 1961 as an in-house attorney. He gained notoriety for breaking down color barriers and forcing MTV to play Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” threatening to withhold all his other artists, like Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and the Rolling Stones, if the fledgling music network refused to comply.
At the 1984 Grammy Awards, Jackson brought Yetnikoff to the podium calling him, “the best record company president in the world.”
Yetnikoff resigned from CBS in 1990 blaming his protégé Tommy Mattola and Allen Grubman for undermining him with Sony, which was owned by the Japanese, they were distressed by Fredric Dannen’s controversial 1990 book “Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business.”
An autobiography of Yetnikoff’s life was published called, “Howling at the Moon.”
He volunteered at Eva’s Recovery Center, in Paterson, New Jersey to show appreciation to the Catholic priest who helped him break his addiction to alcohol and cocaine. Yetnikoff is survived by his second wife, Lynda, and sons Michael and Daniel.
