Freddy Bienstock

Freddy Bienstock (April 24, 1923 – September 20, 2009) was a Swiss-American music publisher who built his career in music by being the person responsible for soliciting and selecting songs for Elvis Presley's early albums and films.

Early life Bienstock was born to a Jewish family in Switzerland on April 24, 1923, and relocated to Vienna with his family when he was three-years old. After the Anschluss, he emigrated to the United States in 1938, just before the outbreak of World War II, with his brother Johnny Bienstock, who later founded Big Top Records. The family ended up settling in New Jersey after his parents came to the U.S. in 1939.

Music career After visiting a cousin, Jean Aberbach, who worked as an executive with Chappell Music at New York City's Brill Building, Bienstock found employment in the stock room there. He acquired Chappell Music from PolyGram in 1984 — marking his elevation from storeroom clerk to become the firm's primary shareholder and president three decades later — in a deal valued at $100 million, with Bienstock owning 15% of the company. At the time of the acquisition, Chappell was the world's largest music publisher, holding copyrights on 400,000 song titles and netting $30 million annually on gross revenues of $80 million. He sold the company to Warner Communications in 1988. Hudson Bay Music Company, a music publishing firm that he established together with Leiber and Stoller, remained in business until 1980.

Carlin America was formed in 1994, and controlled the rights to such music as the 1956 R&B song "Fever" that became a traditional pop standard when modified by Peggy Lee, "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" by the Australian rock group AC/DC and Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". By the time of his death, Carlin America's catalog included Broadway theatre, classical, country music, pop classic standards.

Bienstock was the CEO and President of Carlin Music and Carlin America, and was on the board of directors of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Death Bienstock died at age 86 on September 20, 2009, at his home in Manhattan. He was survived by his wife, Miriam Bienstock, who had become a partner in Atlantic Records after acquiring an ownership stake from her first husband Herb Abramson. He was also survived by his daughter Caroline, the namesake of Carlin Music and Carlin America and his successor on the board of the National Music Publishers Association and who was COO of Carlin America at the time of Bienstock's death. A son, Robert Bienstock, also had been an executive in the family business and there were five grandchildren surviving him.