Sid Bernstein "The Beatles BIG BOSS"

Sid Bernstein (August 12, 1918 – August 21, 2013) was an American music producer and promoter. Bernstein changed the American music scene in the 1960s by bringing The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Moody Blues, and The Kinks to America. He was the first impresario to organize rock concerts at sports stadiums

 

Bernstein helped start the "British invasion" by bringing The Beatles to Carnegie Hall and later, to New York's Shea Stadium for landmark concerts in 1965 and 1966.

Bernstein booked the Carnegie Hall concert in August 1963 -- the same year that Capitol Records had rejected three singles from the group.

"I'm a hunch player, you see," Bernstein once said, according to his publicist's statement. "I was just glad to get this group I had been reading about for months. It took eight months after I booked them for there to be any airplay of their records on the radio. I had to convince Carnegie Hall and my financial backers to take a chance on this then-unknown group. I had been reading about their progress in the European papers and was fascinated with the hysteria that surrounded them. I was the first to promote The Beatles in the States and Ed Sullivan called me first about them before he ever booked them on his television show."

Ultimately, it was Sullivan's audience who heard them first, on February 9, 1964. The Carnegie Hall concert that Bernstein booked was three days later.

Bernstein, the son of Russian immigrants, also booked top acts like Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, Judy Garland and the Rolling Stones.

Bernstein, who was 95, promoted the Fab Four's gigs at Carnegie Hall in New York on their first US tour in 1964.

 

He also arranged the Rolling Stones' first five US gigs and shows for Judy Garland, Ray Charles and Tony Bennett.

He died on Wednesday in New York, according to his longtime friend, publicist Merle Frimark.

Bernstein spent time in England during World War II and continued to follow British newspapers after his return to the US.

Reading about the growing Beatlemania, he persuaded the group's manager Brian Epstein to let him promote two shows at Carnegie Hall despite the fact, Bernstein said, that he had never actually heard their music.

A Carnegie Hall official told Bernstein the demand for tickets was so high that he could have sold out 50 dates. That remark led him to book the 55,000-capacity Shea Stadium for the following year.

He also booked a string of other UK bands. "The first dozen groups of the British Invasion were my imports," he later said. "But look, it was no stroke of genius. I was just doing my homework at the time."

In 1976 and '79, Bernstein tried to persuade The Beatles to reform for charity concerts. They declined.

He also arranged concerts for artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to Jimi Hendrix.

In a documentary about Bernstein's life, late funk singer James Brown said the promoter was the only mainstream impresario booking black singers in the 1960s and so, according to Brown, "was in the forefront of race relations".

Bernstein made his own musical debut at the age of 93 with an album of cover versions of his favourite songs.

 

He is survived by six children, six grandchildren and his wife of 50 years, Geraldine.