(excerpts)
By Tony Lofaro

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He grew up in the Bronx, where he once shined Frank Sinatra’s shoes. He also made hero sandwiches for Ol’ Blue Eyes at an old New York restaurant frequented by fighters Jake LaMotta and Rocky Graziano. He considered entering the priesthood, but later turned to music, buying his first drum set at a pawnshop for $22.

He dreamed of being a famous drummer and he won a Gene Krupa drum contest. At age 17, he got a break when he worked with bandleader Tommy Dorsey on a reunion tour with Sinatra.
“I worked behind Sinatra on the drums. Sinatra used to say, ‘Hey kiddo,’ and he called me his former shoeshine boy. He embarrassed me onstage, I hated it,” says Bennett, who is separated from his wife, Annette, a corporate headhunter. He has two grown sons, Joseph, 30, and Peter Jr., 31, who live in Greenwich.

In the early ’60s his own band, Pete Bennett and The Embers, had a modicum of success with their recording of “Fever”, which led to an appearance on American Bandstand.
When a friend offered him a 50-percent partnership to distribute records for a new record label to radio stations, he reluctantly took the job, figuring there was nothing to lose. The record label, Motown, was a newly formed Detroit-based company founded by Berry Gordy, Jr.

“I did not know how hard it was to promote other people's records. It was a lot of work, going to radio stations, getting them to play records of artists for a label that no one had heard of.”
He says the early records he promoted — the Shirelles’ “Tonight’s the Night” and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “Shop Around” — were tough sells, especially with the program directors of “white-owned” New York radio stations. Through sheer determination and guts, Bennett plugged away and soon several of the big stations began to play the records he promoted. He was soon regarded by record industry types as a marketing whiz, an Italian kid who could get airplay for new artists.

After the Shirelles, Bennett took on Bobby “Boris” Pickett (“Monster Mash”), Sam Cooke (“Cupid”), Stevie Wonder (“Fingertips”), the Supremes (“Where Did Our Love Go?”), Dionne Warwick (“Walk on By”), Bobby Darin (“Splish Splash”) and other artists.

“Pete is one-of-a-kind and the personification of the independent promotion man, he's probably the originator of it,” says Seymour Stein, chairman of London-Sire Records

Pete Bennett on Elvis Presley:
“The first time I met Elvis he was in the army. We became friends. Years later when he opened at the International Hotel (now the Hilton) in Las Vegas I was invited. He remembered me because I had promoted “Suspicious Minds”. When he went out on stage he seemed like he didn't know what he was doing. He was saying things like ‘hi everybody’ and ‘geez, there's a lot of people here.’ He had just got out of the movies and he had never seen that many people onstage. The audience reaction was great, keys were thrown on stage, but he would stop after every song.
“I was invited by Elvis back to his dressing room, but he didn't allow the owner of the hotel to come into his room. Elvis kissed and hugged me and he kept calling me the Italian kid and saying he's the one who made the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He got a big kick out of me and when I told him his ring sparkled on stage he gave me his pinkie ring. I said I don't want it, the silver ring had 55 diamonds. It's worth a fortune, that's why I have it in a safe.”

 

On Bette Midler:
“I was in my New York office working on some figures with George Harrison. Songwriter Paul Jabbara and Saul Swimmer come in the office with this girl who looked like she needed a good meal. She was wearing a ripped rabbit jacket and a stained blouse. I had a dark suit on and she was shedding all over me. Paul is saying to me you got to come and see her tonight, she’s great.
“So the next morning this girl comes in and she’s making everyone in the office laugh. She says again to come and see her that night, so I end up going where she sings. It's a real dive. I sit down in this club and who walks in — Johnny Carson and his talent coordinator. She gets on the stage and in the first 20 minutes she's breaks everybody up. She sang like the Andrew Sisters. Carson says right away that he wants her for five shows. She finishes her stuff and I go backstage and Carson asks me who handles her. She says to Carson that I am, so I negotiate the deal. People from Atlantic Records see her and love her. I could not sign her with Apple Records until John Lennon — who was president of the record label — sees her. So Atlantic puts out her album and then she appears on Carson and she’s a big hit.”
 

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