John Kalodner
John David Kalodner is a retired American A&R (artists and repertoire) executive.
History
John Kalodner was born in Philadelphia and was a writer and photographer at Concert magazine. He went on to be a photographer for various record labels by 1972. He wanted to be, and worked to be, in the record industry, and was first noticed by Atlantic Records' executive Bob Roland.
Kalodner was headhunted as the first A&R executive for David Geffen's new label Geffen Records in 1980, where he worked with Asia, White Zombie, Madness, XTC, Whitesnake, Wang Chung, Nelson and Aerosmith. He brought Jimmy Page and Sammy Hagar success as solo artists, and was responsible for the musical collaboration Coverdale•Page.
His achievements included signing Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins to Atlantic Records in the 1970s. Contradicting claims that Kalodner signed AC/DC and Foreigner, fellow Atlantic executives Phil Carson and Jerry Greenberg have asserted in interviews that they, and not Kalodner, signed those artists (Carson signing AC/DC and Greenberg signing Foreigner).
Kalodner also placed songs on soundtracks of such films as Top Gun and Footloose. Kalodner followed Aerosmith to Columbia in the 1990s, where he also worked with Cher, Santana, Journey, Manowar, Chicago, Heart, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Ted Nugent, REO Speedwagon, Mars Electric, and the Black Crowes, among others.
Kalodner's unique role was underlined by the fact that he is usually credited on albums for simply being himself. The phrase "John Kalodner: John Kalodner" originated with Foreigner's 1978 Double Vision album, when the album's producer, Keith Olsen, was wondering just how to credit Kalodner's involvement with the band and the album. In keeping with the double vision theme, Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones came up with idea of doubling Kalodner's name.[1][2] Kalodner's work with other record labels, such as Epic with Boston, can be heard on their Greatest Hits on the original 1997 track listing featuring an edit by him of their song "Higher Power" as the final track of the album (The 2009 re-issue of the album does not feature this track).
Kalodner worked with Billy Idol, Jack Blades, Roadstar, Steve Perry, Cher, and Suzie McNeil (of Rock Star: INXS) before retiring in 2006.[3]
Kalodner retired from the music business in 2006.[2] In 2014, he was inducted into the Rock Radio Hall of Fame, in the "Visionary" category.
In other media
- Kalodner briefly appeared in a few Aerosmith music videos including the videos for "Let the Music Do the Talking", "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", "The Other Side", "Eat the Rich", "Blind Man", and "Pink". He was dressed as a bride in the "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" video as a private joke, because he almost always dresses entirely in white.
- Kalodner appeared in the "Flaming Moe's" episode of The Simpsons, which featured Aerosmith.
- Kalodner also made a cameo appearance in Revolution X as the face of the sphinx in the Middle East level. This being so because the main characters in Revolution X are none other than Aerosmith themselves, and at the time, Aerosmith was still with Geffen Records during their Get a Grip tour.
- Kalodner appeared in videos for the band Jackyl, with whom he worked in the early 1990s.
- Kalodner appeared as the judge in Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55" music video.
- Kalodner appeared on the cover of GPS' (a band featuring ex-Asia band members) 2006 album Windows to the Soul as sitting in front of a TV.
- Kalodner appeared in the Wang Chung music video for "To Live and Die in L.A.".
In 2012, Kalodner appeared in the American Masters PBS television documentary entitled Inventing David Geffen, directed by Susan Lacy.
References
- ↑ "John Kalodner". John Kalodner. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
- 1 2 Matt Wake, A&R Legend John Kalodner Talks Aerosmith and Why Rock Won't Reach the Masses Again. LA Weekly, June 16, 2016. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
- ↑ Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
