Walter Yetnikoff

Walter Yetnikoff (August 11, 1933 – August 9, 2021) was an American music industry executive who was the president of CBS Records International from 1971 to 1975 and then president and CEO of CBS Records from 1975 to 1990.

During his career at CBS Records, which included Columbia Records and Epic Records, he guided the careers of Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Culture Club, Earth, Wind & Fire, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Sade, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Miami Sound Machine, and many other successful acts.In 1975, William Paley appointed Yetnikoff President and CEO of CBS Records. During his tenure he attracted stars like James Taylor and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney away from, respectively, Warner Bros. Records and EMI, and went on to "preside over the most profitable and prestigious stable of artists of all time."With Yetnikoff at the helm of CBS Records, Michael Jackson's Thriller sold over 40 million copies, Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. sold over 20 million and Billy Joel's The Stranger sold in excess of 13 million. Yetnikoff also helped launch the careers of Lauper (on Portrait Records, which CBS owned), Culture Club (on Virgin Records, which CBS distributed at the time), and Gloria Estefan.

Yetnikoff was known for being a strong artist advocate. For example, Billy Joel speaks of how Yetnikoff bought back Joel's publishing rights and gave them to him as a birthday present. Yetnikoff notes in the documentary film The Last Play at Shea that he had to threaten Artie Ripp to close the deal. Also, in its early years, when the cable music station MTV refused to air many music videos by Black, Latino, Asian, and other non-white Anglo acts, Yetnikoff threatened to go public and accuse the station of racism and stated he would pull all of CBS Records acts from MTV if the station didn't air the video to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", a CBS artist, which had become a US number one hit.At CBS, Yetnikoff was the chief architect of the sale of CBS Records, (which included Epic Records and Columbia Records) to Sony, which in turn created Sony Music Entertainment, in January 1988. Yetnikoff's memoir, Howling at the Moon, written with David Ritz, was published in 2004. In the late 80s, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, then an editor of Doubleday, approached Yetnikoff about writing his life story.