Died On This Date (March 19, 2008) Sam Weiss / Music Industry Veteran
themusicsover Sam Weiss
September 19, 1926 – March 19, 2008
Sam Weiss was a pioneering music industry veteran. He began his career in the jukebox industry and moved on to the label side when he co-founded Old Town Records in 1953. It was one of the great early R&B and doo wop labels and home to the likes of the Earls and the Capris. Later that decade, Weiss started Win One-Stop, which soon became one of the leading music wholesalers in America. During the ’80s, the Win became the first one-stop to break into the home video market and was the first to sell music and video into drugstores and other non-traditional music retailers. Weiss also founded the Sam and Nervous record labels. Sam Weiss was 81 when he died of natural causes on March 19, 2008.
Alan W. Livingston was the executive with Capitol Records who played a significant role in bringing two future pop culture icons to the world. First in 1946, he created the character, Bozo The Clown for a series of children’s records and sing-along books. It was his first duty at the fledgling company and it was the very first such learning tool for children. He has been credited for building the company from its $6 million a year beginnings into one of the industry’s powerhouses taking in over $100 million a year. When he was president during the ’60s, he led the company down a the path of rock ‘n roll by signing the likes of the Beach Boys, the Band, and his most celebrated “discovery,” the Beatles. Alan Livingston was 91 when he passed away on March 13, 2009.
Ralph Mercado was a successful Latin music impresario who had his hands in many facets of the entertainment industry. He started out promoting Latin jazz shows in clubs throughout Manhattan, but it was just a matter of time before he was putting on Salsa shows at the Hollywood Bowl and Madison Square Garden. During the early ’70s, Mercado opened his own management company where he represented the likes of 
Hal Gaba was an entertainment industry veteran who, over the course of his career, was an acquisitions consultant for Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin’s Tandem production company, ran Embassy Pay Television Unit, and owned multimedia holding company, ACT III Communications. Over the last ten years of his life, he was the CEO and C0-owner of Concord Music Group, the acclaimed independent jazz label. Hal Gaba was 63 when he died of cancer on March 9, 2009.
John Fahey was an influential folk and blues guitarist who is revered for his minimalistic steel string finger-picking style of play. Fahey bought his first guitar at the age of 13, and by the time he was 20, he was making his own recordings. Besides his amazing guitar skill, what separated Fahey from most other musicians at the time, was that he started his own record label, Takoma Records through which to release while he was still just a teenager. Through all this, Fahey continued his education, eventually earning a Master’s degree in folklore from UCLA. As a musicologist, Fahey tracked down the long forgotten blues great, 
