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March 14, 1955 - Present : Started career in the record industry in 1971 at the age of 16, working for AMPEX RECORDS in NYC (Todd Rundgren). By 1975, having established himself as a credible radio promotion man, was hired by CASABLANCA RECORDS
Started career in the record industry in 1971 at the age of 16, working for AMPEX RECORDS in NYC (Todd Rundgren). By 1975, having established himself as a credible radio promotion man, was hired by CASABLANCA RECORDS to relocate to SF as West Coast Regional Promotion Representative. Amusingly, while the drinking age was 18 in NYC, it was 21 in the state of CA, and when Donna Summer's debut album came out, while getting into radio stations to get airplay was not problem, I could not get into many of the local discotheques to service the album to the club DJ's. That being said, I did get the very first radio station to spin the single off a test pressing (KBCQ - Roswell, NM) and the reaction was swift (and, in Roswell, NM, generally negative... the program director knew he was sitting on a "smash.")
I stayed in radio promotion at various labels through 1988. My love for dance music, and my willingness to promote some of the lesser known priorities at the labels I was working at did bring about some substantial success for records that might have been lost at the time. "Rivers Of Babylon" by BONEY M (Sire) and "Only In My Dreams by DEBBIE GIBSON (Atlantic) are two that come to mind, but over that 13 year period, I worked many dance/club records. While at Sire in 78-79 I had the pleasure to work "Kiss Me Again" by DINOSAUR (Arthur Russell) and even convinced label owner Seymour Stein to get some musicians together to try to recreate Village People magic with the classic song, "Born Free." The version that was released by the "artist" LION'S DEN didn't exactly re-create my original vision, but I was a promotion man, not a musician, so I didn't have a lot of input into the final product.
In 1988, while living in New York and working for Atlantic Records I took a vacation to Toronto and was in a dance club when I heard an unfamiliar song that within 15 seconds sounded like a smash to me. I went up to the DJ booth and asked what it was. Turns out the DJ was Barry Harris, and the song was his personal composition, "I Beg Your Pardon," recorded with a studio singer named Kevin Wynne and released locally in Toronto as KON KAN. I bought every copy I could find and returned to NY. Mailing the single off to radio pals, I got some airplay, Atlantic signed the record and my role as an A&R man began. Two Kon Kan albums were released by Atlantic in the US ("Move To Move" and "Syntonic") and we had the privelege of working with the great John Luongo, as well as Information Society's Paul Robb, and UK producer Martyn Phillips. Many dance club hits from 1989-90 were culled from the two Kon Kan albums, and my friendship with Barry has lasted 15 years. Incidentally, my friendship with a budding young remixer named Chris Cox in 1990 led me to introducing the two, and thus I can be given the credit for creating the THUNDERPUSS team. One of their earliest projects was BILLIE MYERS' "Kiss The Rain" which was a Universal Records project I was involved with in the mid/late 90s. While at Universal I also enlisted Thunderpuss to produce a "comeback" single for JENNIFER HOLLIDAY, "A Woman's Got The Power," originally a "new wave" single by Philadelphia rockers The A's in the early 80s.
33 years since I started promoting records, and I'm thrilled to have found this website (by accident, as I was doing a search on my old friend, the late Paul Jabara.)
Thanks for an amazing wealth of memories. I appreciate my chance to add my own.
Marc Nathan
Studio City, CA
11/7/04
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