Michael Viner
Encyclopedia
Michael Viner was an American
film producer
and record producer
, who later shifted into book publishing and became an innovator in the audiobook field. A widely sampled percussion break in the recording of the song "Apache" by the Incredible Bongo Band
, a group he assembled in the early 1970s, has been frequently integrated into many hip hop
recordings.
, Viner attended the Chadwick School
in Palos Verdes, California, majored in English at Harvard University
, and studied at the School of Foreign Service
at Georgetown University
. He worked on Robert F. Kennedy
's 1968 presidential campaign. Viner began his entertainment industry career working summers during high school in the mail room at Twentieth Century Fox; after Kennedy's assassination, he worked for movie studios, and ran a record division called Pride for MGM. He was the producer of the inaugural ball for President Richard Nixon
in 1973.
Viner produced a record in 1970 called The Best of Marcel Marceau
, a joke album that featured silence from the mime artist
, followed by applause from an audience. Though produced for under $50, the album appeared on the charts and led to a production deal with Mike Curb
at MGM Records
, where he helped produce a cover version of The Candy Man
, which was a chart-topping hit for Sammy Davis, Jr.
in 1972.
He assembled the Incredible Bongo Band in 1972, which produced an album that was the soundtrack for that year's The Thing with Two Heads
, consisting of remakes of instrumental songs from the 1950s and 1960s given a characteristic funk
style, and achieving a hit with "Bongo Rock" with King Errisson on bongos and Jim Gordon
on drums in a remake of a 1959 song by Preston Epps
. That success led Viner to produce Bongo Rock, another album for the group, that included "Apache", a remake of the instrumental which was originally a 1960 UK hit
for The Shadows
and in 1961 a US hit for guitarist Jørgen Ingmann
. Decades later, hip hop
artists started sampling the Incredible Bongo Band recording, with the percussion breakdown from "Apache" appearing in songs by DJ Kool Herc
, L.L. Cool J and Nas
, as well as Moby
. Among the artists he signed at MGM Records was Debby Boone
, who would have a hit in 1977 with "You Light Up My Life
".
Viner married the actress Deborah Raffin
in 1974 (they divorced in 2005). He and Raffin opened Dove Books-on-Tape in 1985 in the garage of their Coldwater Canyon
home. Viner had won an $8,000 bet in a backgammon
game with the author Sidney Sheldon
; rather than taking the money, Viner asked Sheldon to let him publish two of his books as audiobooks. Although Viner became known for publishing sensational tabloid-style books such as You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again
and Faye Resnick's book about Nicole Brown Simpson
, among Dove's first successes was the audiobook of Stephen Hawking
's A Brief History of Time
. The company grew to become a serious competitor of the more established publishers in the audiobook business.
After suffering some financial setbacks, Viner and Raffin sold Dove in 1997, and later obtained a large legal malpractice
judgment against their own lawyers relating to this transaction, but after a lengthy appeals process, the judgment was overturned. They founded New Millennium Entertainment, which filed for bankruptcy after a jury ordered it to pay $2.8 million in a highly-publicized lawsuit with author and editor Otto Penzler
. In 2005 Viner established another company, Phoenix Books. Viner sold Phoenix to Dwight D. Opperman
in 2007 but stayed on as its president. Viner died in Beverly Hills, California
at age 65 on August 8, 2009, due to cancer
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and record 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...
, who later shifted into book publishing and became an innovator in the audiobook field. A widely sampled percussion break in the recording of the song "Apache" by the Incredible Bongo Band
Incredible Bongo Band
The Incredible Bongo Band, also known as Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, was a project started in 1972 by Michael Viner, a record artist manager and executive at MGM Records. Viner was called on to supplement the soundtrack to the virtually anonymous B film The Thing With Two Heads. The...
, a group he assembled in the early 1970s, has been frequently integrated into many hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
recordings.
Biography
Viner was born in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Viner attended the Chadwick School
Chadwick School
Chadwick School is a nonsectarian independent K-12 day school located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, California.-History:...
in Palos Verdes, California, majored in English at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and studied at the School of Foreign Service
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service is a school within Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., United States. Jesuit priest Edmund A...
at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
. He worked on Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
's 1968 presidential campaign. Viner began his entertainment industry career working summers during high school in the mail room at Twentieth Century Fox; after Kennedy's assassination, he worked for movie studios, and ran a record division called Pride for MGM. He was the producer of the inaugural ball for President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
in 1973.
Viner produced a record in 1970 called The Best of Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau was an internationally acclaimed French actor and mime most famous for his persona as Bip the Clown.-Early years:...
, a joke album that featured silence from the mime artist
Mime artist
A mime artist is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer was referred to as a mummer...
, followed by applause from an audience. Though produced for under $50, the album appeared on the charts and led to a production deal with Mike Curb
Mike Curb
Michael Curb is an American musician, record company executive, NASCAR and IRL race car owner. A Republican, he served as the 42nd Lieutenant Governor of California from 1979-1983 under Democratic Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown, Jr...
at MGM Records
MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
, where he helped produce a cover version of The Candy Man
The Candy Man
"The Candy Man" is a song from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the film and does not appear in the original book or the 2005 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...
, which was a chart-topping hit for Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
in 1972.
He assembled the Incredible Bongo Band in 1972, which produced an album that was the soundtrack for that year's The Thing with Two Heads
The Thing with Two Heads
The Thing with Two Heads is a 1972 film, starring Rosey Grier, Ray Milland and Don Marshall directed by Lee Frost, and written by Wes Bishop. Frost and Bishop also had parts in the movie....
, consisting of remakes of instrumental songs from the 1950s and 1960s given a characteristic funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
style, and achieving a hit with "Bongo Rock" with King Errisson on bongos and Jim Gordon
Jim Gordon (musician)
James Beck "Jim" Gordon is an American recording artist, musician and songwriter. The Grammy Award winner was one of the most requested session drummers in the late 1960s and 1970s, recording albums with many well-known musicians of the time, and was the drummer in the blues-rock supergroup Derek...
on drums in a remake of a 1959 song by Preston Epps
Preston Epps
Preston Epps is an American percussionist.Epps learned to play percussion instruments, including the bongos, while he was stationed in Okinawa during the Korean War. After his tour of duty he settled in Southern California, playing in coffee shops and working odd jobs...
. That success led Viner to produce Bongo Rock, another album for the group, that included "Apache", a remake of the instrumental which was originally a 1960 UK hit
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
for The Shadows
The Shadows
The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...
and in 1961 a US hit for guitarist Jørgen Ingmann
Jørgen Ingmann
Jørgen Ingmann is a musician from Copenhagen, Denmark.He worked with Svend Asmussen, the jazz violinist, during the 1940s and part of the 1950s....
. Decades later, hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
artists started sampling the Incredible Bongo Band recording, with the percussion breakdown from "Apache" appearing in songs by DJ Kool Herc
DJ Kool Herc
Clive Campbell , also known as Kool Herc, DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Herc, is a Jamaican-born DJ who is credited with originating hip hop music, in The Bronx, New York City...
, L.L. Cool J and Nas
Nas
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
, as well as Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
. Among the artists he signed at MGM Records was Debby Boone
Debby Boone
Deborah Anne Boone is an American singer and stage actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life," which spent a then record ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist the following year...
, who would have a hit in 1977 with "You Light Up My Life
You Light Up My Life (song)
Many artists have covered "You Light Up My Life" since 1977. The following year, Johnny Mathis recorded and named his album after the song. LeAnn Rimes released her version as a single in 1997, 20 years after Boone's version was released and on the same record label . Her version fared modestly...
".
Viner married the actress Deborah Raffin
Deborah Raffin
Deborah Iona Raffin is an American film and television actress.Raffin was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Trudy Marshall, a Brooklyn-born former movie actress, and Phillip Jordan Raffin, a restaurateur and meat/brokerage executive.She appeared in several 1970s Hollywood films...
in 1974 (they divorced in 2005). He and Raffin opened Dove Books-on-Tape in 1985 in the garage of their Coldwater Canyon
Coldwater Canyon
Coldwater Canyon is a canyon running perpendicular to the Santa Monica Mountains in the city of Los Angeles, California. The canyon is traversed by Coldwater Canyon Drive and Coldwater Canyon Avenue , which connect the city of Beverly Hills with the community of Studio City in the San Fernando...
home. Viner had won an $8,000 bet in a backgammon
Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...
game with the author Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon was an Academy Award-winning American writer. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show , I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart , but he became most famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game ,...
; rather than taking the money, Viner asked Sheldon to let him publish two of his books as audiobooks. Although Viner became known for publishing sensational tabloid-style books such as You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again
You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again
You'll Never Make Love In This Town Again is a book published in January 1996 which describes the stories of three prostitutes and one actress about their sexual encounters with various Hollywood celebrities. The sisters Robin Greer and Liza Greer are contributors along with Alexandra D. Datig,...
and Faye Resnick's book about Nicole Brown Simpson
Nicole Brown Simpson
Nicole Brown Simpson was a former wife of professional football player O. J. Simpson.- Relationship with O. J. Simpson :...
, among Dove's first successes was the audiobook of Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
's A Brief History of Time
A Brief History of Time
A Brief History of Time is a popular science book written by renown physicist Stephen Hawking and first published by the Bantam Dell Publishing Group in 1988. It became a best-seller and has sold more than 10 million copies...
. The company grew to become a serious competitor of the more established publishers in the audiobook business.
After suffering some financial setbacks, Viner and Raffin sold Dove in 1997, and later obtained a large legal malpractice
Legal malpractice
Legal malpractice is the term for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, or breach of contract by an attorney that causes harm to his or her client...
judgment against their own lawyers relating to this transaction, but after a lengthy appeals process, the judgment was overturned. They founded New Millennium Entertainment, which filed for bankruptcy after a jury ordered it to pay $2.8 million in a highly-publicized lawsuit with author and editor Otto Penzler
Otto Penzler
Otto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.-Biography:...
. In 2005 Viner established another company, Phoenix Books. Viner sold Phoenix to Dwight D. Opperman
Dwight D. Opperman
Dwight D. Opperman is currently chairman of Key Investments, a privately held venture capital firm focusing on high-tech ventures. Previously, Opperman was the CEO of West Publishing Company and while he was CEO the company moved into technology products with the creation of the Westlaw legal...
in 2007 but stayed on as its president. Viner died in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
at age 65 on August 8, 2009, due to cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
.