Joseph Benjamin Smith (January 26, 1928 – December 2, 2019) was an American music industry executive.

Early life

Smith was born in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and raised in

Chelsea, Massachusetts Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts Suffolk County ( ) is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 797,936, making it the fourth-most populous county in ...

. His parents were Phil and Lil Smith. Smith joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

after graduating high school in 1945 and served with the occupation forces in

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

Career

Smith attended

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. After graduation, he became a sportscaster and later a DJ at WMEX and WBZ in Boston. Smith was hired as national promotion manager at

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

in 1961 and later served as the label's general manager. He was named President of Warner Bros. in 1972. In 1975, he became chairman of Warner's sister company, Elektra/Asylum. Smith briefly served as president of the

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely kno ...

in 1986. He became vice chairman and chief executive of Capitol-EMI that same year. While at Capitol Records, Smith compiled 238 hours of recorded interviews with artists and executives. Excerpts from his recordings were included in his 1988 book ''Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music.'' In 2012, Smith donated these recordings to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Death

Smith died December 2, 2019, at the age of 91.

References

External links

Joe Smith Collection: Library of Congress
1928 births 2019 deaths Businesspeople from Boston Businesspeople from Los Angeles Yale University alumni American music industry executives 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1920s-stub