Longtime Industry Executive Bob Greenberg Dies

Billboard Business News
Longtime Industry Executive Bob Greenberg Dies
September 24, 2009

By Evan C. Jones, N.Y.

Longtime record executive Bob Greenberg died Friday, Sept. 11, in West Hills, Calif., from a stroke. He was 75.

“[He] cared about the music and the musicians, not just the sales figures,” Alice Cooper said. “The saying ‘they don’t make them like they used to’ truly applies here.”

Over his 50 year career, Greenberg worked with such acts as Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, Foreigner, AC/DC, Whitesnake, Aretha Franklin, ABBA, Bette Midler, and others.

He began is career at Eastern Records as a radio promoter, and then moved to Warner Brothers Records in 1967, becoming VP of west coast promotion for the label in 1968. Two years later he joined his brother Jerry at Atlantic Records as senior VP of the west coast.

The brothers started Mirage Records in 1980 with Bob serving as executive VP. Greenberg moved to United Artists Records as executive VP in 1986, then joined Hitmaker’s Magazine as president in 1988.

“He had great ears and an intense love of music,” Bette Midler says. “In fact, music was his life.”

Greenberg is survived by his wife Anne, two sons Brett and Kirk, brother Jerry and daughters-in-law Nancy and Austin. Services were held Tuesday, Sept.15 at Chapel on the Hill in Hollywood Hills, Calif. Donations can be made to the American Heart Association at (800) 242-8721.