Bob Keane (Born Robert Kuhn)
January 5, 1922 – November 28, 2009
Bob Keane was the founder of Del-Fi Records, the first label to give a young Ritchie Valens a recording contract. Keane began his music career as a clarinetist who, after a 1938 concert by his jazz band was broadcast on Los Angeles radio station, KFWB, was offered a record deal by MCA Records. A couple of years later, he was dropped by the label so he enlisted in the army. Upon his return home from duty, Keane picked up where he left off, playing in local clubs around Los Angeles. In 1955, Keane and a partner formed the label, Keen Records, and released a single by then unknown soul singer, Sam Cooke. The song was “Summertime,” but it was the b-side “You Send Me” that started to get attention at radio, quickly sending it to #1 on the Billboard pop chart. Unfortunately for Keane, he made an oral agreement with his partner, and before he could collect any of the “You Send Me” earnings, he was out the door. He soon formed his own label, Del-Fi Records and discovered Valens, a young Latino rock ‘n roller from Pacoima, CA. Over the next several months, Keane released hit after hit records by Valens but sadly, the musician was killed the following year in the plane crash that also took the lives of Buddy Holly and JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson. The label continued on, eventually signing a stable of artists that were just as important to the legacy of popular music as Valens had been. That list included the Surfaris, Frank Zappa, Brenda Holloway, and the Bobby Fuller Four. In 1967, Keane shuttered the label and went on to manage his sons’ band. He sold the Del-Fi catalog to the Warner Music Group in 2003. On November 28, 2009, Bob Keane, 87, died of renal failure.
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