Alan Klein

According to the 2019 documentary Lady You Shot Me: The Life and Death of Sam Cooke, Klein was a predator in his relationship with the singer. As of 2019, Cooke's family received no royalties or benefits from his music. All royalties and publishing profits go to the Klein's corporation. The documentary also proposed that Klein was behind the death of Cooke and had him murdered in order to become the sole beneficiary of Sam Cooke's music.

In June 2015, American journalist Fred Goodman published a biography of Klein, Allen Klein: The Man Who Bailed Out the Beatles, Made the Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll.

When Klein examined the Stones' management contract with Easton and Oldham he found that the latter were receiving a disproportionate share of the group's income: not only did Easton and Oldham receive an 8 percent royalty on sales of the Stones' singles—the Stones themselves received only 6 percent—but they also received a 25 percent commission on the Stones' income. At Klein's insistence, Oldham increased the Stones' royalties to 7 percent and relinquished his commission. Klein offered the Stones a million-dollar minimum guarantee, paid over a 20-year period to reduce the Stones' tax liability, to let him become their music publisher, based on his faith in the Jagger-Richards songwriting team. He also arranged for a level of tour support and publicity far above anything the band had ever previously experienced for the Stones' 1965 American tour in support of the album December's Children.

Klein was diagnosed with diabetes at age 40. He suffered several heart attacks over the years, of varying severity. In 2004, the same year that ABKCO collected a Grammy Award for a Sam Cooke documentary, Legend, Klein fell and broke bones in his foot, requiring surgery. He was subsequently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He died on July 4, 2009 in New York City. The cause of his death was respiratory failure. Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon attended Klein's funeral. Andrew Loog Oldham commented at a subsequent memorial service that Klein had greatly magnified the success of the Rolling Stones.

The song became a hit, popular for use at sporting events, and it was a big money-maker for ABKCO, which licensed its use for commercials advertising Nike shoes and Opel automobiles. In 1999, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Song, even though "Bitter Sweet Symphony" actually bears little resemblance to the Rolling Stones's "The Last Time."

On their song "Bitter Sweet Symphony" the British alternative rock group the Verve sampled the Andrew Oldham Orchestra's version of the Rolling Stones song "The Last Time," the rights to which were owned by ABKCO, and included it on their 1997 album Urban Hymns. The Verve had obtained the rights to sample the recording from Decca, but had failed to consider obtaining the necessary permission from ABKCO itself until the album was ready for release by EMI. Realizing that he had the advantage in negotiations, Klein forced Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft to sell his rights as lyricist to ABKCO for $1, and ABKCO became the sole publisher of "Bitter Sweet Symphony."

In 1988 Klein began managing Phil Spector’s business affairs, including his publishing and recording assets. Although Spector had not been active as a producer for several years, his early work was still frequently broadcast and also licensed for film soundtracks. Spector’s publishing company, Mother Bertha Music, Inc, was controlled by Trio, a Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller company, which was in turn administered by Warner/Chappell Music. Warner/Chappell was making appropriate payments, but significant amounts were not being passed on to Spector. Klein's goal was to get Spector all the money owed him, and also to wrest a concession allowing Spector to co-administer the future licensing of his music. Klein and Spector brought suit in federal court. A courtroom win would secure the first goal, but not the second, so Klein advised a settlement strategy. It proved successful.

Starting in 1986, when the introduction of compact discs brought great profits to the music industry, relations began to improve between Klein and the Stones. In 2002 the Stones' album Forty Licks and the Licks Tour, celebrating the band's 40th anniversary, incorporated songs owned by ABKCO. The Stones agreed to a five-year payment plan suggested by Klein's son, Jody. In 2003 Klein negotiated with Steve Jobs to make ABKCO's Rolling Stones songs available on iTunes.

In the 1978 television mockumentary The Rutles: All You Need is Cash, which parodies the career of the Beatles, Allen Klein is portrayed as "Ron Decline", played by John Belushi. Introduced as "the most feared promoter in the world", Decline is so intimidating to his colleagues that they choose to throw themselves out of skyscraper windows rather than face him.

In 1977, Klein and ABKCO's former head of promotion, Pete Bennett, were each charged with three felony counts of income tax evasion for 1970, 1971, and 1972, and related misdemeanor counts of making false statement on their income tax returns for each of those years. The IRS, which had been investigating Klein for several years, claimed that Klein and Bennett had sold promotional copies of Beatles and post-Beatles albums—common practice in the music industry at the time—without declaring the sales on their tax returns. Klein was alleged to have received over $200,000. Bennett pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge and became a witness against Klein. Klein testified that he had not instructed Bennett to sell promotional copies of albums and that although he'd received cash payments from Bennett the payments were a return of cash advances which Bennett had been given. Klein's first trial ended in a mistrial because the jury was deadlocked. At his second trial in 1979 the jury found Klein innocent of the felony charges and convicted him of a single misdemeanor charge of making false statements on his 1972 tax return. Klein was fined $5,000 and sentenced to two months in jail, which he served in July–September 1980.

Klein responded by suing the Beatles and Apple in New York, in order to recoup the loans he had made to his three former clients and other costs owing to ABKCO. They then sued him in the London courts, citing excessive commission fees, the mishandling of the Concert for Bangladesh, his misrepresentation of their individual financial standings, and his failure to ensure that the roster of artists at Apple Records prospered under his control. While the suits were ongoing, Klein made a play for the US portion of Harrison's publishing company, Harrisongs, in late 1974, without success. He also attempted to influence the outcome of Lennon's arrangement with music publisher Morris Levy regarding an alleged copyright infringement (of the Chuck Berry song "You Can't Catch Me") in Lennon's 1969 Beatles composition "Come Together". Lennon's song "Steel and Glass" from the 1974 album Walls and Bridges was his thinly veiled dig at Klein.

Klein's 1973 lawsuit against the Beatles was settled out of court in January 1977, with Ono representing the former bandmates. Klein received a lump sum payment of approximately $5 million in lieu of future royalties and as repayment of the loans that ABKCO had made to the Beatles.

After years of pursuit by the IRS, Klein was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of making a false statement on his 1972 tax return, for which he spent two months of 1980 in jail.

The split between Klein and the Stones led to years of litigation. In 1971 the Stones sued Klein over U.S. publishing rights. The suit was settled the following year, with the Stones receiving $1.2 million as a settlement of all American royalties earned up to that point (and was essentially the $1.25 million advance that Decca had paid the Stones in 1965 that Klein had been withholding since August 1965). However, the Stones were unable to break their contract with Klein, who held an additional $2 million of the Stones' money to be paid over a 15-year period, ostensibly for tax purposes. Klein's company, ABKCO, continued to control the rights to publish the Stones' music and it was Klein who made a fortune off the band's all-time best-selling album, Hot Rocks 1964–1971. In 1972 Klein alleged that some of the songs on their album Exile on Main Street had been composed while the Stones were still under contract with ABKCO. As a result, ABKCO acquired ownership of the disputed songs and was able to publish another Rolling Stones album, More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies). In 1974 negotiations over royalties led to a payment of $375,000 to the Stones and ABKCO's release of an additional Rolling Stones album, Metamorphosis. In 1975 more lawsuits and negotiations resulted in a $1 million payment to the Stones for non-payment by Klein of songwriting royalties, and the release of four Rolling Stones albums including Rock and Roll Circus and Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones. In 1984 Jagger and Richards sued to break their publishing agreement with ABKCO because of non-payment of royalties. The judge encouraged the two sides to reach a settlement.

Unhappy with production decisions on the Let It Be album and the other Beatles' decision to hire Klein as their manager, McCartney went public with his plans to leave the Beatles in April 1970. He wanted to be released from his partnership with Lennon, Starr, and Harrison, who had in recent months proved a steady three-to-one majority against McCartney's proposals. The Eastmans convinced McCartney to file suit against his former bandmates for dissolution of the Beatles' partnership, which he did on December 31, 1970.

Klein contacted John Lennon after reading his press comment that the Beatles would be "broke in six months" if things continued as they were. On January 26, 1969, he met with Lennon, who retained Klein as his financial representative, and the next day met with the other Beatles. Paul McCartney preferred to be represented by Lee and John Eastman, the father and brother respectively of McCartney's girlfriend Linda, whom he married on March 12. Given a choice between Klein and the Eastmans, George Harrison and Ringo Starr preferred Klein. Following rancorous London meetings with both Eastmans, in April, Klein was appointed as the Beatles' manager on an interim basis, with the Eastmans being appointed as their attorneys. Continued conflict between Klein and the Eastmans made this arrangement unworkable. The Eastmans were dismissed as the Beatles' attorneys, and on May 8 Klein was given a three-year contract as the business manager of the Beatles. McCartney refused to sign the contract but was out-voted by the other Beatles.

Jagger, who had studied at the London School of Economics, gradually became distrustful of Klein, particularly for the latter's ability to insert himself as a profit participant in the group's ever-growing financial affairs. For example, in 1968 Klein very profitably bought out Oldham's share in the band for $750,000. By 1968 the Stones were so concerned with how their finances were being handled by Klein that they hired a London law firm, Berger Oliver & Co, to look into their financial situation and Jagger hired the titled merchant banker Prince Rupert Loewenstein to be his personal financial adviser. Another possible factor in the Stones' dissatisfaction with Klein was that when the latter began to manage the Beatles he focused more of his attention on that band's affairs than on the concerns of the Stones. In 1970, on the occasion of needing to negotiate a new contract with Decca, Jagger announced that Klein would be replaced as manager by Loewenstein.

In February 1967, with an eye toward producing films and finding a way to invest his clients' money, Klein attempted to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His hopes were blunted when Edgar Bronfman, Sr., heir to the Seagram fortune, instead took control of the firm. Klein then turned his attention to Cameo-Parkway Records, a Philadelphia-born, Los Angeles-based label which had enjoyed hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, thanks to Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Dee Dee Sharp and others, but which by 1967 was no longer prospering. It was one of the first publicly traded record companies, making it ideal for a financial maneuver Klein had in mind, known as a reverse acquisition. It was meant to take Allen Klein and Company public via its being acquired on paper by Cameo-Parkway. By July 1967, Klein and his associate Abbey Butler had acquired a controlling interest and filed to rename Cameo-Parkway as ABKCO, which is an acronym for "The Allen and Betty Klein Company." Fueled by speculation, the stock price increased from $1.75 a share in July 1967 to a peak of 76⅜ in February 1968 before the SEC halted trading. The American Stock Exchange declined to reinstate the stock; instead, ABKCO continued to trade over the counter, and the stock price dropped to more realistic levels. In 1987, Klein made ABKCO a privately held company.

Rather than offering financial advice and maximizing his clients' income, as a business manager normally would, Klein set up what he called "buy/sell agreements" where a company that Klein owned became an intermediary between his client and the record label, owning the rights to the music, manufacturing the records, selling them to the record label, and paying royalties and cash advances to the client. Although Klein greatly increased his clients' incomes, he also enriched himself, sometimes without his clients' knowledge. (The Rolling Stones's $1.25 million advance from the Decca Records label in 1965, for example, was deposited into a company that Klein had established, and the fine print of the contract did not require Klein to release it for 20 years.) Klein's involvement with both the Beatles and Rolling Stones would lead to years of litigation and, specifically for the Rolling Stones, accusations from the group that Klein had withheld royalty payments, stolen the publishing rights to their songs, and neglected to pay their taxes for five years; this last had necessitated their French "exile" in 1971.

Tracey would manufacture Cooke's recordings and give exclusive rights to RCA to sell them for 30 years, after which the rights would revert to Tracey. Cooke would receive a cash advance of $100,000 per year for three years, followed by $75,000 for each of two option years. Instead of being paid the first $100,000 in cash, Cooke was paid in Tracey preferred stock, which would be taxed only when he sold it. While the deal benefited Cooke, it also greatly benefited Klein, who ended up owning the rights to all of Cooke's recordings made since the contract re-negotiation when Cooke was killed in 1964 and his widow sold Cooke's remaining rights to Klein.

In 1963, Klein began a business partnership with Jocko Henderson, an urbane black disc jockey who had daily radio shows in both Philadelphia and New York. Henderson hosted lavish, profitable live rhythm and blues shows at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and formed a partnership with Klein to begin doing the same in Philadelphia. As Henderson's partner, Klein was introduced to Sam Cooke, a preeminent talent who was equally adept at writing, producing, and performing his numerous hit records. Cooke had scored four top ten hits between 1957 and 1963, including his number one hit, "You Send Me," among 33 records in the top 100 in that period. Although Cooke was clearly making his label, RCA Records, a great deal of money, label executives nonetheless repeatedly refused to honor his many requests for a review of his accounts. Klein forced the reluctant label to open its books for a thorough audit. Shortly afterward, RCA agreed to re-negotiate Cooke's contract.

In June 1958 Klein married Betty Rosenblum, a Hunter College student seven years his junior. The couple had three children: Robin, Jody, and Beth.

The multi-Academy Award-winning 1955 film Marty, an independently produced movie that undercut the Hollywood studio system, provided a business template which Allen Klein closely studied and later adapted to the recording industry. In the late 1950s Klein shared an office with press agent Bernie Kamber, who represented Burt Lancaster, one of Marty's producers. Klein absorbed much from Kamber on how the producers had structured their business model, a paradigm whose strength derived from the fact that artists, not film studios or record labels, drove marketplace success and that intense preparation and canny negotiation could lavishly reward artists and their representatives. In 1961 Klein did accountancy work for an independent film, Force of Impulse, where he formed lasting relationships that he would turn to for many film projects of his own. In 1962 Klein produced a film called Without Each Other. He took it to the Cannes Film Festival and later claimed that it had won the "Best American Picture Award" there, though no such award actually existed. A distributor never materialized, but Klein's enthusiasm for film persisted.

Klein enlisted in the US Army in 1951 where he served as a clerk typist on Governors Island, New York. After military service, and with the assistance of the G.I. Bill, Klein majored in accounting at Upsala College, graduating in June 1957, and was hired by a Manhattan accounting firm, Joseph Fenton and Company. He was assigned to assist Joe Fenton in an audit of a music publishers' organization, the Harry Fox Agency, and several record companies, including Dot Records, Liberty Records, and Monarch Records. In an early setback to Klein's career, he was fired by Joseph Fenton and Company after four months because of chronic lateness. The company wrote to the State of New Jersey urging officials not to approve him as a Certified Public Accountant, and Klein chose not to take the examination. He briefly attended law school but soon dropped out.

Klein was born in Newark, New Jersey, the fourth child and only son of Jewish immigrants. His mother died of cancer soon afterward, and Klein lived for a time with his grandparents, then subsequently in a Jewish orphanage, until his father remarried shortly before Klein's 10th birthday. An indifferent student, he graduated from Weequahic High School in 1950; fellow graduate Philip Roth was the only classmate to sign his yearbook.

Allen Klein (December 18, 1931 – July 4, 2009) was an American businessman, music publisher, writers' representative and record label executive. He was known for his tough persona and aggressive negotiation tactics, many of which affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits for his musician clients, who previously had been receiving less lucrative record company contracts. He first scored monetary and contractual gains for Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen, one-hit rockabillies of the late 1950s, then parlayed his early successes into a position managing Sam Cooke, and eventually managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones simultaneously, along with many other artists, becoming one of the most powerful individuals in the music industry during his era.