Rating: 
Summary: ENDEARING EXCESS
Review: This is a review of the Audio CD which is read by Walter himself.
I was compelled to buy this because we so seldom hear from the people at the top - and Walter Yetnikoff was certainly at the top of his game. He was one of the most visible label chiefs in the world, and not an "executive" in a suit as he decries today's industry figures.
What makes this compelling listening is the words come to life as Walter recalls anecdotes with Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger. Unlike most other biographies, he doesn't bore you too much with details of his childhood - and gets right into what readers want to know - what really happened at CBS records during his reign? Was MJ as squeaky clean as he seemed? Walter doesn't disappoint and tells us as much as he can without I suppose, destroying anyone's career. The moments of irony, dry humor and introspect make this ascent and descent of a record mogul story worth buying. Walter was there - he saw, he conquered, he fell. He's lived a few lifetimes, and he makes no apologies for it - remaining a realistic, candid observer of his own life.
Rating:
Summary: Walter Yetnikoff's amazing life story is one worth reading
Review: Walter Yetnikoff's "Howling at the Moon" is a great read. The author is stone-cold honest about his history - morphing from a poor kid in Brooklyn to Columbia Law graduate to "Jimmy Olsen greenhorn" in the music business to master business builder to *the* out-of-control legendary wildman of the music business to abrupt sobriety to betrayal, fall, a period in the wilderness and redemption. What a tale.Where else are you going to get insights on Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Marvin Gaye and Mick Jagger mixed with equally eye-opening passages on Tom Wyman, Norio Ohga, Akio Morita and Bill Paley? The Paley passages are especially enlightening - the controlling, secretive builder of the Tiffany network and the wildman of CBS/Columbia records were as unlikely a pairing as you could imagine, but Paley appreciated Yetnikoff's undeniable ability to make money and, as Paley says upon taking his leave from CBS, "in this office, that did not go unnoticed." Despite Yetnikoff's well-documented demons, his track record in the business is unassaible: when he left, CBS/Columbia was still pulling in $450 million a year in *net* profits. True, Yetnikoff's successors had to deal with a more vexing set of assaults on the recorded music business model, but you need to give the guy his due.
Rating:
Summary: Walter Yetnikoff's amazing life story is one worth reading
Review: Walter Yetnikoff's "Howling at the Moon" is a great read. The author is stone-cold honest about his history - morphing from a poor kid in Brooklyn to Columbia Law graduate to "Jimmy Olsen greenhorn" in the music business to master business builder to *the* out-of-control legendary wildman of the music business to abrupt sobriety to betrayal, fall, a period in the wilderness and redemption. What a tale. Where else are you going to get insights on Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Marvin Gaye and Mick Jagger mixed with equally eye-opening passages on Tom Wyman, Norio Ohga, Akio Morita and Bill Paley? The Paley passages are especially enlightening - the controlling, secretive builder of the Tiffany network and the wildman of CBS/Columbia records were as unlikely a pairing as you could imagine, but Paley appreciated Yetnikoff's undeniable ability to make money and, as Paley says upon taking his leave from CBS, "in this office, that did not go unnoticed." Despite Yetnikoff's well-documented demons, his track record in the business is unassaible: when he left, CBS/Columbia was still pulling in $450 million a year in *net* profits. True, Yetnikoff's successors had to deal with a more vexing set of assaults on the recorded music business model, but you need to give the guy his due.
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