Howling at the Moon
by Walter Yetnikoff
Broadway
$200
Those with even the most passing of interests in popular music will know Walter Yetnikoff as The Man. Not The Man as in the main man we'd all love to be, but The Man, as in the embodiment of corporate rock music.
He was the rock fan's arch-nemesis: the man who let Michael Jackson record Bad, the man who gave Billy Joel the latitude to record Uptown Girl and the man who encouraged Cyndi Lauper to bop us into bruised submission with Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
The egotistical and arrogant chief of CBS records and later, the president and CEO of Sony through the 1970s and 80s, he was responsible for foisting on the world some of pop's most excruciating acts and songs. In short, if you love rock, you should hate Walter Yetnikoff.