Bob Keane was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 and owner of the record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 Del-Fi Records

Del-Fi Records

Del-Fi Records was a record label based in Hollywood, California and owned by Bob Keane. The label's first single released was no 4101 "Caravan" by Henri Rose released in 1958; however, the label was most famous for signing Ritchie Valens. Valens' first single for the label was "Come On Let's Go"...

. He was perhaps best known for being the producer and manager of Ritchie Valens

Ritchie Valens

Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....

.

Early years

Bob Keane was born Robert Kuhn in Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach, California

Manhattan Beach is the wealthiest beachfront city located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, USA. The city is on the Pacific coast, south of El Segundo, and north of Hermosa Beach. Manhattan Beach is the home of both beach and indoor volleyball, and surfing. During the winter, the...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 in 1922. He was a clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

 player, and his ambition was to front a big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

 like his idol, Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

. He did so, and in 1938, at age 17, he was setting up to play his first show, at Glendale

Glendale, California

Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

 Junior College and was approached by an employee of KFWB, a Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

, who wanted to broadcast the concert on air to replace a canceled scheduled show. The next day Keane received a phone call from an agent at MCA

Music Corporation of America

MCA, Inc. was an American talent agency. Initially starting in the music business, they would next become a dominant force in the film business, and later expanded into the television business...

 who had heard the broadcast on KFWB, and who wanted to sign Keane to the label. MCA billed him as "The World's Youngest Bandleader".

MCA dropped Keane from the label in 1941 as they felt he was likely to be drafted. Keane decided to enlist in the Army Air Force, and was retired from active service due to a lung infection. He returned to Los Angeles and continued to play clarinet in several bands. In 1950, he was offered a job as a conductor on The Hank McCune Show, a new radio show. After the first episode, the producer approached Bob and told him that he would have to change his name, as the announcer was pronouncing Kuhn as "Coon". A band colleague suggested Keen, after a popular Woody Herman

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...

 song, "Peachy Keen", to which Bob decided to add an 'e'. Later on in life he changed this to Keane.

Sam Cooke and Keen Records

By 1955 Keane was playing clarinet in several bars and clubs around Los Angeles, and one evening met businessman John Siamas, who persuaded Bob to set up a record label with him. The label would be known as Keen Records

Keen Records

Keen Records was founded by John and Alex Siamas in 1957 in Los Angeles as a side business. John Siamas was a very successful businessman in the aerospace industry, and, as a music aficionado, started Keen as a side business. Bob Keane was with the label in its early days, but departed in late...

, with Bob working as an A&R man. He was given an acetate of two songs by Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke

Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...

, who at the time using his original surname, Cook, and singing in a gospel group called The Soul Stirrers. On the acetate was "Summertime

Summertime (song)

"Summertime" is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin by ASCAP....

" and "You Send Me". Sam Cook was signed to a three-year contract with Keen, his surname changed just as Bob's had been, and the songs were subsequently pressed and released as the first single on Keen Records. Originally "Summertime" was intended to be the A-side, and sold moderately. It was only when a DJ played the B-side that the record took off, and by November 25 1957, it reached #1 on the Billboard chart.

At this point, despite Keen Records having earned over $1,000,000 from sales of "You Send Me", Bob only had an oral contract with Siamas. Upon asking when the corporation was to be formed and when he was likely to receive stock certificates for the company, he received a letter asking for him to invest $5000 (which, of course, he did not have) into his own company should he wish to remain a partner. He realized that he had been tricked into finding a hit record and then pushed out of the company.

Del-Fi

While waiting for legal proceedings against Siamas to begin, Bob's wife suggested that he set up another label, and approach someone else who had also been duped by Siamas to put up the money to do so. Taking its name from Delphi, the Greek god of music and inspiration, the new label was named Del-Fi Records. The first release was "Caravan" by Henri Rose, which sold well, and led to Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

 offering Keane $8000 for Henri Rose's contract, which he accepted, and which enabled him to buy out his business partner. Another early Del-Fi release was "Chicken Grabber" by The Nite Hawks, which although not a success at the time, was featured in John Waters

John Waters (filmmaker)

John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...

' film Pink Flamingos

Pink Flamingos

Pink Flamingos is a 1972 transgressive black comedy film written, produced, composed, shot, edited, and directed by John Waters. When the film was initially released, it caused a huge degree of controversy and thus became one of the most notorious cult films ever made. It made an underground star...

.

In May 1958, Keane discovered Ritchie Valens

Ritchie Valens

Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....

 performing a Saturday matinee show in a movie theatre in Pacoima and invited Valens to audition in the basement of his home, where he had set up a small recording studio. A formal contract was signed, and Valens and Keane spent hours in the basement working on songs together. Among the songs was "Come On Let's Go", which was recorded in Gold Star Studios

Gold Star Studios

Gold Star Studios was a major independent recording studio located in Los Angeles, California, United States. For more than thirty years, from 1950 to 1984, Gold Star was one of the most influential and successful commercial recording studios in the world....

 in July 1958, and released as Valens' first single soon after. This single, and the follow-up, "Donna" b/w "La Bamba", were smash hits. Keane served as Valens' manager as well as producer, booking shows for him across America and several TV performances. In the film La Bamba

La Bamba (film)

La Bamba is a 1987 American biographical film written and directed by Luis Valdez. The picture features Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Rosanna DeSoto, Elizabeth Peña, Danielle von Zerneck, and Joe Pantoliano...

, the story of Ritchie Valens, Bob Keane was played by Joe Pantoliano

Joe Pantoliano

Joseph Peter "Joe" Pantoliano is an American film and television actor. He played the character of Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos, Bob Keane in La Bamba, Cypher in The Matrix, Teddy in Memento, Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, Guido "the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business, and Jennifer Tilly's...

.

After Valens' death in February 1959, Del-Fi records continued, and one of the next signings was eden ahbez

Eden Ahbez

eden ahbez was an American songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s-1960s, whose lifestyle in California was influential on the hippie movement...

, best known for his song "Nature Boy

Nature Boy (song)

"Nature Boy" is a song by eden ahbez, published in 1947. The song tells a fantasy of a "strange enchanted boy... who wandered very far" only to learn that "the greatest thing... was just to love and be loved in return"...

." By this point, and totally unlike the rest of the major labels in Hollywood, Del-Fi had an "open door" policy - anybody with music they wanted to be released could approach the Del-Fi offices and get it played to Bob Keane. In an interview, he remarked "I'll listen to anyone, even if they bring 'em in on a stretcher."

Other notable artists on Del-Fi over the next few years included Chan Romero

Chan Romero

Robert Lee "Chan" Romero is an American rock and roll pioneer and contemporary of Ritchie Valens, best known for his seminal 1959 hit, Hippy Hippy Shake.-Life and career:...

, best known for his song "Hippy Hippy Shake", Little Caesar and the Romans, Ron Holden

Ron Holden

Ron Holden was an American pop singer. He was born in Seattle, Washington.Holden was discovered by Larry Nelson, who had just left work as a police officer to start his own record label...

, Johnny Crawford

Johnny Crawford

John Ernest "Johnny" Crawford is a prolific American character actor, singer and musician. At 12, Crawford rose to fame for playing Mark McCain, the son of the Lucas McCain character , in the popular 1960s ABC western series, The Rifleman, which aired from 1958 to 1963...

, Brenda Holloway

Brenda Holloway

Brenda Holloway is an American singer and songwriter, a recording artist for the Motown label during the 1960s...

, the first records released by Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

, and surf bands

Surf music

Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...

 The Surfaris

The Surfaris

The Surfaris were an American surf rock band formed in Glendora, California in 1962. They are best known for two songs that hit the charts in the Los Angeles, California area, and nationally by May 1963: "Surfer Joe" on the A-side and "Wipe Out" on the B-side of a 45 RPM single.-Career:The original...

, The Lively Ones

The Lively Ones

The Lively Ones were an American instrumental surf rock band active in Southern California in the 1960s. They played live mostly in California and Arizona. They recorded for Del-Fi records with production from Bob Keane...

 and The Centurions

The Centurions

The Centurions were an American surf rock band from Newport Beach, California, active in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In recent times, they are best known for their recording "Bullwinkle Part II", a dark and saxy surf tune from their eponymous album. This tune was featured in Quentin...

.

In 1964 he signed Bobby Fuller

Bobby Fuller

Robert Gaston "Bobby" Fuller was an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitar player best known for his singles "I Fought the Law" and "Love's Made a Fool of You," recorded with his mid-1960s group, the Bobby Fuller Four....

 and his band, the Bobby Fuller Four, to Del-Fi, and released several singles and two albums under a subsidiary label just for the band called Mustang Records. Their biggest song, "I Fought the Law

I Fought the Law

"I Fought the Law" is a song written by Sonny Curtis of The Crickets and became popularized by a cover by the Bobby Fuller Four, which went on to become a top-ten hit for the band in 1966 and was also recorded by The Clash in 1979...

" was released in October 1965 and was a hit in the United States and the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The band's career was brought to an abrupt end when the corpse of Bobby Fuller, in his mother's car, was found in the parking lot of his Hollywood apartment on July 18, 1966. In 1965, Keane also set up a subsidiary label for R&B music, called Bronco, and employed Barry White

Barry White

Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...

 as an in-house producer, musician and A&R man for the new label.

Aftermath

By 1967, with Del-Fi's biggest band, the Bobby Fuller Four, disbanded, Del-Fi was closed down. Keane embarked upon a career selling burglar alarm systems, mainly to celebrities, and oversaw the music career of his two sons, known professionally as The Keane Brothers

The Keane Brothers

The Keane Brothers was an American pop music duo from 1976 to 1982, composed of pre-teens Tom Keane on piano and John Keane on drums. The duo released four albums and briefly hosted a television variety show on CBS...

.

Ritchie Valens' life and music came back into the public eye with the release of the film La Bamba in 1987, and seven years later, two of Del-Fi's surf records by The Lively Ones and The Centurions were used in the film Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction (film)

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...

. Del-Fi was resurrected and released numerous CDs of its original material, and signed some new acts to the label as well. In September 2003, Keane sold the Del-Fi catalog to the Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...

.

Keane was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma when he was 80, and died of renal failure

Renal failure

Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...

 on November 28, 2009.

External links

• Del-Fi's Keane Opens Door, Colin Devenish, Rolling Stone, on line, article dated September 28, 2004.
• [ Bob Keane] at Allmusic
• Article on Keane's labels