A FORMER music manager, blamed by many Beatles fans for the group’s split, has died.
Allen Klein was known as an aggressive businessman who bulldozed his way into and out of deals with the Fab Four and the Rolling Stones.
Bob Merlis, a publicist for Klein’s company, ABKCO Music & Records, said Klein died on Saturday at his New York home of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 77.
Klein became one of the most powerful figures in the music world in the 1960s.
Known for his tenacity in tracking down royalties and getting better record deals, he garnered clients including Sam Cooke, Bobby Darin and Herman’s Hermits.
But he was most famous for signing The Rolling Stones and then The Beatles.
Both arrangements eventually spurred lawsuits, with some Beatles fans blaming Klein for contributing to the tensions that broke the band apart.
The cracks first appeared after the death of The Beatles’ legendary manager Brian Epstein from an accidental drug overdose in 1967.
