Nick Venet

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Nick Venet (real name Nikolas Kostantinos Venetoulis , born December 3, 1936 , † January 2, 1998 ) was an American music producer and composer. He became best known for signing the American band The Beach Boys for Capitol Records and producing their first two albums.

Live and act

Venet began his career with World Pacific / Pacific Jazz Records at the age of 19 . There he found mentors in Lee Gillette , John Hammond , and Richard Bach . During this time he used the name of his friend Derry Weaver, whom he gave as the author of his compositions.

In 1958 he finally moved to Capitol Records , where he initially worked as a producer, later he rose to head the A&R department. Venet was known for naming each of his singles as "Produced by ...", which was eventually adopted for Capitol and later for other record companies. In addition, he usually listed the names of the studio musicians who played on the records, which was unusual at the time. At Capitol, he initially produced a few jazz albums, including one with Ray Anthony and his first rock & roll singles, which did not sell very well. In 1962 he finally signed the group The Lettermen for Capitol Records. A few months later he finally became aware of the Beach Boys and gave them a long-term contract. Venet also wanted to produce the Beach Boys, but had to give up this project after two albums, as Brian Wilson insisted on taking over the production on the other albums. From there on, he concentrated on his work as an A&R manager and worked as a freelance producer.

Over the next few years he was in charge of Nat King Cole , Glen Campbell and many other artists. Later in his career he founded Media Arts with Capitol Vice President Alan W. Livingston, where he produced Don McLean , among others . In the 1990s he produced the CD version of the Broadway musical Salvation and in 1997 the musical The Last Session . The Last Session was actually the last recording for Nick Venet, who died of cancer on January 2, 1998.