Tag Archives: seymour stein

Seymour Stein, Legendary Music Exec Who Signed Madonna and Talking Heads, Dies at 80

Seymour Stein, whose Sire Records launched Madonna’s career and signed such early punk rock and new wave icons as the Ramones and Talking Heads, died Sunday morning in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer, his daughter Mandy confirms to Variety. He was 80.  Though Stein’s imprint, which he co-founded in New York in 1966, enjoyed major-label distribution, he approached the…

Sire Records Co-Founder Seymour Stein Leaving Warner Music Group After Four Decades

Sire Records co-founder Seymour Stein — who signed and released albums by Madonna, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, the Smiths, the Pretenders, and many others — will be leaving Warner Music Group after four decades with the company, it was announced Wednesday. The announcement was made in tandem with Stein receiving the Recording Academy’s Trustees Award on Saturday night at the…

Seymour Stein’s “Siren Song” Recounts a Career Co-Starring Madonna, the Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Smiths

Music is medicine. Hospitalized in 1982—the hole in his heart was infected—Stein listened on a Walkman to a Madonna demo from the producer Mark Kamins. “As penicillin dripped into my heart,” he writes, “I’m sure I was going nuts in that little room.” From his bed, he called Kamins, a hairdresser, and a nurse to help him…