It's David Geffen's birthday!
Like him or hate him, controversial or not, you can not talk about the history of music without mentioning his name. Geffen got his start in 1964 in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency, where he eventually became a talent agent. By 1968 Geffen left WMA and and moved to Ashley-Famous Agency, where he started working as a personal manager with Crosby, Stills and Nash and Jackson Browne. When Geffen approached Atlantic Records to sign Browne, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun suggested that Geffen start his label.
Geffen would co-found Asylum Records with Elliot Roberts, and the label would be distributed by Atlantic Records. Asylum became the home of the rising Southern California folk-rock sound that was being made popular by Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Judee Sill, and J.D. Souther. Geffen would lead Asylum to being one of the biggest labels in the business, and at its height he would sell it to Warner Communications, to be merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records. The move would cause a tear in his relationship with the members of the Eagles as he gave Jackson Browne his publishing rights, but did not give it to them.
After a stint as vice chairman of Warner Bros film studios, Geffen would retire and teach at Yale University. Not steying out of the music business, however Geffen would create Geffen Records and sign on was Donna Summer, who hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Geffen would follow that with the release of John Lennon's "Double Fantasy", which unfortunately was marred by Lennon's murder. His death push Double Fantasy to becoming a massive seller, and Geffen records would boom throughout the 80's, behind artists like Olivia Newton-John, Asia, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Elton John, Cher, Sonic Youth, Aerosmith, Whitesnake, XTC, Peter Gabriel, Weezer, Blink-182, Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Pat Metheny, the Stone Roses and Neil Young.
In 1990 David, sold Geffen records to MCA Records for $550 million of MCA stock, then when Matsushita Electric acquired MCA, his payout was $670 million. Geffen's legacy in the recording industry is that of opening the doors for some of the greatest songwriters music has ever known, and although his relationship with some of those artists have been left broken, because of bad deals and lawsuits, Geffen's name in music is still one of the most successful indie labels in music history.