Remembering Marc Nathan
Marc Nathan, renowned music industry promotion and A&R executive passed away on April 9 at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. He had been ill for some time and he finally succumbed to a variety of afflictions. His 55-year career began when he was a 15-year-old student at Forest Hills High School in Queens, NY. Earlier, he had become a fan of the band Nazz before encountering vocalist Todd Rundgren’s first solo album Runt on Bearsville Records in the record section at Alexander’s department store. He wrote a letter to Rundgren in care of Ampex Records, Bearsville’s then distributor, inquiring about a track listing anomaly. The label copy indicated there were six songs on side one and four songs on side two, but the album Marc bought had seven on the first side and five on the second side. Soon thereafter he received a letter from Paul Fishkin, who was Ampex’s promotion manager explaining that Nathan had bought one of the few copies of a rejected version of the album that had leaked out before being withdrawn from the market.
Marc Nathan, still in his teens, working at Bearsville Records
That letter marked the start of Nathan’s long-lasting friendship with Fishkin and opened the door to a music business career that included promotion positions at Bearsville, Casablanca, Playboy Records, MCA, Sire, Atlantic and others. His preternatural ability to pick hits developing in secondary and tertiary markets led to numerous roles in A&R and talent development for Universal, Capitol, Atlantic/Atco and other imprints. He had also managed artists including The Rubinoos, Meryn Cadell and The Explorers Club. As an A&R person, he was responsible for Universal’s acquisition of Cash Money Records (B.G., Lil Wayne, Juvenile and ultimately Drake) and the signing of 3 Doors Down. He brought Barenaked Ladies to Sire and worked with Kon Kan, Linear, King Missile, Terry Tate, Merril Bainbridge and The Hunger, spanning multiple musical genres and radio formats. Nathan’s belief in Barenaked Ladies co-founder Steven Page was abiding and he established a label, Flagship Records, that was the home of Page’s initial solo work.
Marc Nathan receives 1975 Promotion Man of the Year Award from Helen Reddy at Bobby Poe Music Survey conclave
Page wrote, “Marc was a Record Person of the highest order. He was absolutely and passionately obsessed with music and amassed an encyclopedic memory for songs, charts and artists. He played a huge role in my career and in my life – a role that arced across our entire shared timeline. Marc was a guy who loved big, emotional music and also too-smart-for-its-own-good pop and had a huge soft spot for silly novelty songs too. We kind of fit the bill perfectly for him and he got us. Marc took our demo tape to Seymour Stein at Sire records, and, thankfully, Seymour got it. While everyone else was calling us a throwaway, Seymour looked at Marc and said, ‘they’re a Simon and Garfunkel for the ’90s.’ Marc was always especially proud of his involvement, and I’m eternally grateful to him for it. Years later, while I was still in Barenaked Ladies, I recorded my first solo record, The Vanity Project. Marc was such a huge believer in me and in the album that he started his own record label, Flagship Recordings, just to release it. He took a huge risk because he believed in me and my music, when so many others wouldn’t. It’s a record we both remained proud of. When my life started to take a dramatic turn in 2008, he was among the first and most persistent of my friends to lend me support, advice, and solidarity. He could be a nudge, but that’s only because he had a huge heart and he really, really cared. There were many, many people in his life that he would counsel and coach and cajole and mentor through their darkest hours — he’d been there and back several times himself — and I’m proud and grateful to be one of those friends. I’m lucky to have known him. He was always sure to tell me, lest my head got too big, that I was only his second favourite Canadian singer, behind Burton Cummings, but I’ll be singing his favourite song of mine, ‘What A Good Boy,’ in Marc’s honour at my show tonight.”
Marc Nathan’s work took him from New York to Los Angeles, and he resettled in Nashville within the past decade. Most recently he “discovered” Nashville-based metal/country/folk/alternative artist Dan Spencer, who was working at a pizza shop; soon thereafter Spencer was touring nationally with Post Malone. Both as a savvy analytical thinker and music enthusiast, Marc Nathan had a profound impact on the industry he loved. Apart from music, his enthusiasm for hockey, both professional and minor league was the stuff of legend, and he was a lifelong New York Mets fan with a base of knowledge about the team that was truly astounding.
Recently Marc Ratner, a retired promotion executive now serving elected office as a county commissioner for Knox County, Maine, recalled his many experiences with Nathan; the two were often confused for each other because of they had “Marc” in common. He wrote, “We had become friends because we both lived on the phone at our respective record companies calling radio programmers all over the county. Often the programmer would tell one of us ‘the other Marc is on hold,’ or ‘I just finished talking to the other Marc.'” When Marc Nathan moved to Los Angeles, Ratner helped him unpack some boxes when they discovered Nathan’s notebook of calls he made on behalf of his first project at Bearsville: the promotion of Todd Rundgren’s “I Saw The Light.” “We opened the book, and the first note was ‘I called the music director at WMEX in Boston about ‘I Saw The Light’ by Todd and he was already playing it; his name is Marc Ratner.” Nathan was 16 and Ratner was 19 at the time. Ratner said, “I have such great memories of time spent together with ‘other Marc’ but will miss the ones we never will get to make.”
Marcs, Nathan and Ratner, clearing up any confusion about which is which
Paul Fishkin, who responded to 15-year-old Marc Nathan’s letter, commented, “I lost my best friend of 55 years. Marc Nathan walked like he talked as well as anyone I’ve ever known. His irascible, acquired taste persona was what I enjoyed the most, even though maddening at times. We had much in common chiding and deriding phonies and pretentious fools in sports, politics, but most importantly, the music business. We occasionally enjoyed busting each other as well. We delighted in having our own sometimes hilarious shorthand putting us on the floor at times with uncontrollable laughter. He was a great record man, and a baseball and hockey chronicler supreme, among his many talents and passions. And yes, I have stories! But most important was his loyalty and support for all the right people and issues. And he never let me down in all those 55 years.” — Bob Merlis
Marc Nathan, Paul Fishkin and Todd Rundgren in recent times [Photo credit; Donna Balancia]
