ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL, PT. 3
Apparently, Fredric Dannen’s heralded 1990 expose Hit Men, which detailed the rise and fall of the independent radio promotion business, told only part of the story.
HITS’ publisher Dennis Lavinthal, whose company Musicvision with longtime partner, Lenny Beer, was one of the major players in the game, only to be shut down by Brian Ross’ famed NBC News report linking indie promotion to organized crime, reveals the parts of the tale Dannen got wrong..
The excerpt from his forthcoming book, High & Inside, was included in HITS’ recent 25th Anniversary issue, and included here for your reading pleasure.
Among the revelations:
*Then-CBS President Walter Yetnikoff did his best to overturn his label colleague Dick Asher’s attempt to subvert the indies by not hiring them to promote Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2” to L.A. radio in 1980, causing PDs to ignore the song.
*The real story behind MCA Records’ involvement with reputed mobster Salvatore Pisello and Morris Levy over cutout records.
*The secret 1986 indie promotion meetings at the Helmsley Palace Hotel in N.Y. on the day of the first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction dinner, at which NBC’s Ross alleged Joe Isgro and Fred Disipio met with Gambino crime boss John Gotti.
*The U.S. government’s indictments of Isgro, Ralph Tashjian, Ray Anderson and Jeffrey Monka.
*The launch of HITS in August, 1986.
