Joe Smith, Executive At Warner Bros., Elektra And Capitol/EMI Dead At 91

Joe Smith (Photo: Facebook)

JOE SMITH, a BOSTON radio disc jockey who rose to head the WARNER BROS., ELEKTRA /ASYLUM and CAPITOL RECORDS labels with a quick wit that led him to be the music industry’s designated “toastmaster,” has passed away at the age of 91.

Perhaps best known for his seats behind the basket as one of L.A.’s longest standing LAKER fans, SMITH has been a season ticket holder since arriving in town from BOSTON nearly 55 years ago. SMITH also headed the RECORDING ACADEMY and manned a fledgling WARNER launched sports network and, along the way, worked with such notable artists as GRATEFUL DEAD, VAN MORRISON, JIMI HENDRIX, FRANK SINATRA, JAMES TAYLOR, JACKSON BROWNE, LINDA RONSTADT, BONNIE RAITT and GARTH BROOKS. Born in CHELSEA, MA, SMITH graduated the local high school in 1945 as senior class president, serving time in the ARMY before attending YALE UNIVERSITY, graduating in 1950, where he was roommates with WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY and friends with GEORGE BUSH, SR. 

While at YALE, he worked at the college radio station and became a disc jockey at a country station in PETERSBURGH, VA, then BOSTON before moving to CALIFORNIA in 1961 as head of promotion at WARNER BROS. RECORDS, going from a diehard CELTICS fan into an early LAKER supporter. “When BILL RUSSELL retired, I realized I had invested a lot of money in the LAKERS, so I better start rooting for them,” the longest - continuous LAKER season - ticket holder once recalled.

While at WARNER BROS., working with MIKE MAITLAND and then his good friend MO OSTIN, SMITH saw the label go from its biggest acts being FRANK SINATRA, PETULA CLARK, PETER, PAUL & MARY and ALLEN SHERMAN to THE GRATEFUL DEAD, whose signing he famously executed while visiting the band in their home of SAN FRANCISCO. “The DEAD insisted I’d never understand their music until I dropped acid with them,” said SMITH “I wouldn’t drink or eat anything when I was near them.” SMITH was turned on to the DEAD by local S.F. disc jockey TOM DONOHUE. “My wife and I were having dinner at ERNIE’S, this expensive restaurant there,” he said. “I was in my BANK OF AMERICA suit and she was in her pearls. I said, ‘We’re dressed kind of funny,’ and he said, ‘No one will notice.’ He was at the AVALON BALLROOM and said the band wanted to meet me. It was like a FELLINI movie with the smell of pot wafting in the air. We made a deal about five days later.” SMITH went on to sign BLACK SABBATH “when I saw kids lined up to see them at the WHISKEY” and TINY TIM, hiring RICHARD PERRY to produce him. After WARNER BROS. SMITH was tapped by an outgoing DAVID GEFFEN, who left the music to go into the movie business in 1975, to replace JAC HOLZMAN and himself as head of the combined ELEKTRA/ASYLUM label. “It was between MO [OSTIN] and me, but I lived in BEVERLY HILLS, so I was closer,” he recalled about moving from WARNER BROS.’ BURBANK offices.

While at ELEKTRA/ASYLUM, he oversaw the label’s entrance into black music by signing DICK GRIFFEY’s SOLAR label, with artists like PATRICE RUSHEN, and helped guide the success of THE EAGLES, JACKSON BROWNE, LINDA RONSTADT and, later on, new wave stalwarts TELEVISION and THE CARS. In 1983, WARNER had him helm the fledgling, NEW YORK-based cable network HOME SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT – acquiring the PITTSBURGH PIRATES – before the ATARI crash forced them to sell it to FOX SPORTS. After a brief stint as head of THE RECORDING ACADEMY (“They were paying me $300,000 and I didn’t even have to be in the office!”), BHASKAR MENON offered him the Presidency at CAPITOL/EMI RECORDS in 1987, to try to rebuild the once storied label at the Tower, which had fallen into disrepair since the heyday of SINATRA, THE BEATLES and THE BEACH BOYS. Helping the turnaround, he signed BONNIE RAITT, with whom he’d worked at WARNER BROS. and won seven GRAMMYS for her 1989 album “ Nick Of Time,” and GARTH BROOKS. While still at CAPITOL, SMITH compiled a series of interviews he’d conducted into “Off The Record: An Oral History Of Popular Music,” in 1988, including conversations with a wide range of people he’d known through the years, from BOB DYLAN, ARTIE SHAW, BARBRA STREISAND and BO DIDDLEY to PAUL McCARTNEY, BILLY JOEL, MICK JAGGER, JAMES TAYLOR and ELLA FITZGERALD. He donated the original recordings to the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS for digitization, where they are now available for anyone to access. He retired from CAPITOL in MARCH, 1993, to spend more time with his wife, his wine collection and working on his golf game, largely staying away from the music business since booking talent for concerts surrounding the FIFA WORLD CUP in the U.S. in 1994.

A noted raconteur, SMITH was a regular toastmaster/MC at industry events who would make fun of himself as much as he did the other executives. One of his most famous lines about a fellow major label exec was “to the record business what surfers are to KANSAS,” and ended one B’NAI BRITH dinner honoring the infamous, mob connected ROULETTE RECORDS boss MORRIS LEVY by noting, “I just got word my wife and children have been released, so goodnight everybody.” SMITH received a star on the HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME in AUGUST, 2015. He is survived by his longtime wife DONNIE, son JEFFREY, a wine expert, daughter JULIE KELLNER, grandson CHRISTOPHER and granddaughter LILA.

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