Bob Keane

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Bob Keane
Bob Keane's book about his life in the music industry
Born
Robert Verrill Kuhn

January 5, 1922
Manhattan Beach, California, United States
DiedNovember 28, 2009 (aged 87)
Occupation(s)Musician, record producer, record label founder

Robert Verrill Kuhn (January 5, 1922 – November 28, 2009), professionally known as Bob Keane,[1] and also sometimes known as Bob Keene, was an American musician, producer and the founder and owner of the record label Del-Fi Records. He was the producer and manager of Ritchie Valens and Pinoy star Josephine Roberto, aka Banig.[2]

Life and career

Early years

Bob Keane was born Robert Verrill Kuhn in

MCA who had heard the broadcast on KFWB, and who wanted to sign Keane. MCA billed him as "The World's Youngest Bandleader."[citation needed
]

MCA dropped Keane in 1941 as they felt he was likely to be drafted.[

Army Air Force, and was retired from active service due to a lung infection. He returned to Los Angeles and continued to play clarinet in several bands. In 1950, he was offered a job as a conductor on The Hank McCune Show, a new radio show. After the first episode, the producer approached Bob and told him that he would have to change his name, as the announcer was pronouncing Kuhn as "Coon." A band colleague suggested Keen, after a popular Woody Herman song, "Peachy Keen," to which Bob decided to add an 'e'. Later on in life he changed this to Keane.[citation needed
]

Sam Cooke and Keen Records

By 1955 Keane was playing clarinet in several bars and clubs around Los Angeles, and one evening he met businessman John Siamas, who persuaded Bob to set up a record label with him.[

Billboard chart.[citation needed
]

At this point, despite Keen Records having earned over $1,000,000 from sales of "You Send Me," Bob had only an oral contract with Siamas.[citation needed] Upon asking when the corporation was to be formed and when he was likely to receive stock certificates for the company, he received a letter asking for him to invest $5000 (which, of course, he did not have) into his own company should he wish to remain a partner. He realized that he had been tricked into finding a hit record and then pushed out of the company.[citation needed]

Del-Fi

While waiting for legal proceedings against Siamas to begin, Bob's wife suggested that he set up another label, and approach someone else who had also been duped by Siamas to put up the money to do so. Taking its name from Delphi, the Greek god of music and inspiration, the new label was named Del-Fi Records. The first release was "Caravan" by Henri Rose, which sold well, and led to

John Waters' film Pink Flamingos
.

In March 1958, Keane discovered

biopic La Bamba
, the story of Ritchie Valens.

After Valens' death in February 1959, Del-Fi records continued, and one of the next signings was

Nature Boy
." By this point, and totally unlike the rest of the major labels in Hollywood, Del-Fi had an "open door" policy - anybody with music they wanted to be released could approach the Del-Fi offices and get it played to Bob Keane. In an interview, he remarked, "I'll listen to anyone, even if they bring 'em in on a stretcher."

Other notable artists on Del-Fi over the next few years included

Little Caesar and the Romans, Ron Holden, Johnny Crawford, Brenda Holloway, the first records released by Frank Zappa, and surf bands The Surfaris, The Lively Ones and The Centurians
.

In 1964 he signed Bobby Fuller and his band, The Bobby Fuller Four, to Del-Fi, and released several singles and two albums under a subsidiary label just for the band called Mustang Records. Their biggest song, "I Fought the Law," was released in October 1965 and was a hit in the United States and the United Kingdom. The band's career was brought to an abrupt end when the corpse of Bobby Fuller was found inside his mother's car in the parking lot of his Hollywood apartment on July 18, 1966.

In 1965, Keane also set up a subsidiary label for

R&B music, called Bronco, and employed Barry White
as an in-house producer, musician and A&R man for the new label. In late 1966, Keane also released an album titled An Afternoon Affair, under the pseudonym "Verrill Keene," which showcases his talent as an accomplished clarinet player.

After Del-Fi

By 1967, with Del-Fi's biggest band, The Bobby Fuller Four, disbanded, Del-Fi was closed down. Keane embarked upon a career selling burglar alarm systems, mainly to celebrities, and oversaw the music career of his two sons, known professionally as The Keane Brothers.[citation needed]

Ritchie Valens' life and music came back into the public eye with the release of the film La Bamba in 1987, and seven years later, two of Del-Fi's surf records by The Lively Ones and The Centurians were used in the film

Pulp Fiction. Del-Fi was resurrected and released numerous CDs of its original material, and signed some new acts to the label as well. In September 2003, Keane sold the Del-Fi catalog to the Warner Music Group.[citation needed
]

Death

Keane was diagnosed with

non-Hodgkin's lymphoma when he was 87, and died of kidney failure on November 28, 2009.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Bob Keane: Record producer who kick-started the careers of Sam Cooke". Independent.co.uk. 28 January 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  2. ^ "Bob Keene | Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic.
  3. ^ Del-Fi Records Founder Bob Keane, 87, Dies Archived June 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2009.

External links

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