Peter Bennett

Peter Bennett (May 10, 1935 – November 22, 2012) was a popular music promoter who worked with several prominent artists including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and the Jackson 5. Peter Bennett was born as Pietro Benedetto in the Bronx, New York. As a distant cousin to singer Tony Bennett, Peter changed his last name in the early 1950s as his famous relation had. Peter and Tony both knew they had family from a similar Italian locale and remained close through the music business. Pete Bennett first entered the entertainment world as a drummer. In 1956 he sat in with trombonist and big bandleader Tommy Dorsey at New York's Paramount Theater. This was an historic engagement, as a reunion of Dorsey and his former boy singer of the early 1940s, Frank Sinatra. Bennett made his television debut in 1961 performing on drums his first single, "Fever", with his group Pete Bennett and the Embers on ABC-TV's Dick Clark's American Bandstand. His behind-the-scenes work helping singer Bobby Vinton plug his early 1962 recordings for Epic Records first introduced Bennett to the world of music promotion. During the summer of 1962, Bennett's efforts successfully pushed Nat King Cole's Capitol Records single "Ramblin' Rose" into the top 10, a return for Nat after four years. In 1963 Bennett began a long-standing business relationship with accountant, turned personal manager Allen Klein. Klein at the time held exclusive representation of soul and R&B legend Sam Cooke. Bennett assisted in Cooke's return to the top 10 by promoting classics such as "Another Saturday Night" and "Shake". In 1964 Klein and Bennett found themselves at the center of the British Invasion. Following the American release of the Beatles' second LP, With the Beatles, and its unprecedented success, Klein arranged business deals to handle the stateside affairs of other leading UK groups, including the Rolling Stones, the Animals and Herman's Hermits. It fell on Bennett to persuade disc jockeys coast to coast to break songs such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "The House of the Rising Sun" and "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" into nationwide number one hits. Bennett believed that the B-side of the Stones' "Satisfaction" single, "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man", was an ode to himself. Sinatra sought Bennett's assistance in making his 1966 Reprise Records release "Strangers in the Night" his first chart topper in eleven years.