Nearly 16 years after his death, Atlantic Records CEO Ahmet Ertegun accused of assault and battery by his former personal manager, David Geffen. In fact, the man whose career was marked by a series of hits was not the “Hit Man” at all, but rather a victim of the former.
But in the end, according to Atlantic Records, it was only a love story that kept the man at the top of the American music industry for decades.
G. Edward Griffin is better known as the man behind the infamous “Sesame Street” album cover, and he’s gone his own way since his first hit. “You can’t change who you are,” says Griffin. “It’s a shame he’s not here to tell the story. I just hope nobody ever does it. People have no sense of humor.”
But David Geffen would have had no problem telling a story. Back in the late ’80s, the former Warner Music CEO was a hot property in the industry as the man who had recently bought Atlantic Records. Geffen had also recently bought RCA Records and was the new owner of the master tapes of The Beatles. He didn’t waste his time with a hit-making machine. Instead, he gave $20,000 to Geffen’s favorite charity: The Special Olympics. There was no hit after that.
“It took me a while to get over being married to a guy who never married anybody,” Geffen tells Rolling Stone. “And I think the reason he never married anybody, it was because he was a nice guy. I don’t know. It’s just a strange thing. He was like a little kid on the outside, and inside all he wanted to do was be happy and loved. I wasn’t a guy to argue with him on things. It’s strange, the things you don’t have a problem with.”
Eventually, Geffen and Geffen-aide Geena Rocah left his company to help found the National Geographic Society.
Geffen was married during the making of the “Sesame Street
