Dave Dexter Jr.

Jazz and pop career

Dexter began his career writing about music for the Kansas City Journal-Post and later for Down Beat magazine. He produced an album titled Kansas City Jazz that documented his hometown's jazz scene, featuring Count Basie, Lester Young, and Big Joe Turner. In 1943 he joined Capitol Records, initially handling press releases and publicity, and eventually became an A&R representative. Over three decades he signed Frank Sinatra, Stan Kenton, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Kay Starr, and Julia Lee to the label.

He produced the first Dixieland recordings to reach the music charts and was responsible for the 1944 collection The History of Jazz. Dexter also compiled the Capitol of the World series, which included over 400 titles from 1956 into the early 1970s, such as German Beer Drinking Songs and Kasongo! Music from the Belgian Congo. He served as editor of Capitol News and produced Duke Ellington's "Satin Doll."

In a 1956 memo, he criticized the music business for catering to children's tastes, deriding hits by Elvis Presley and Guy Mitchell as juvenile.

The Beatles

After EMI acquired 97% of Capitol stock in 1955, Dexter screened EMI's releases for American suitability. He rejected most, including the Beatles' first four singles, believing the group would not appeal to U.S. audiences. While visiting England in autumn 1963, he observed Beatlemania and changed his mind, encouraging Capitol to license the Beatles' recordings once they were freed from Swan Records. Capitol released "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in the U.S. in December 1963.

Dexter also rejected other British EMI artists in 1963 and 1964, including the Hollies, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, the Swinging Blue Jeans, Manfred Mann, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Animals, the Yardbirds, Herman's Hermits, and the Dave Clark Five, all of whom later found U.S. success on other labels. In a February 20, 1964 memo to Capitol head Alan W. Livingston, Dexter viewed most of these acts as unsuccessful, praising only Freddie and the Dreamers, whom he signed.

Later career

Dexter's decisions regarding British popular music caused friction between Capitol and EMI from late 1964 onward, worsened by his refusal to grant the Beatles identical U.S. and U.K. releases. He was demoted in 1966 to a job he described as having no title, and left Capitol in 1974 after more than thirty years. He then wrote for Billboard magazine; in the December 20, 1980 issue, which featured tributes to John Lennon, Dexter published an article highly critical of Lennon titled "Nobody's Perfect."

The piece prompted threats of sponsor boycotts, and Billboard printed an apology the following week. In 1975 he produced a radio show called Here's to Veterans for the Veterans Administration. He published an autobiography, Playback, and earlier books included Jazz Cavalcade (1946) and The Jazz Story, From the '90s to the '60s (1964). He wrote liner notes for the Fullerton College Jazz Band's 1983 Down Beat award-winning LP Time Tripping.