Marc Nathan, the promotion and the A&R director, who in his 55-year-old career helped Barenaked Ladies, 3 Doors Down and More Get Record Deals, have died. He was 70.
He died earlier this week at the Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, says a representative. A statement said Nathan had “been ill for some time and that he finally succumbed to a variety of disorders.”
Nathan got his foot in the door in the music industry in just 15 years old when the then Queens, New York, Kid wrote a letter to Todd Rundgren and received a response from the Ampex Records’ Paul Fishkin, in terms of an anomaly trace list he found at Rundgren’s RUNT album.
“He just opened a stack of Todd’s fan that day. If he hadn’t opened that stack that day, you know … My life would have changed forever,” Nathan said in an interview in 2019.
Nathan soon landed his first industry job in the field of radio straps at Ampex, which led to him building a career with roles in promotion on labels, including Bearsville, Casablanca, Playboy, Sire and Atlantic.
“I lost my best friend of 55 years,” Fishkin noted after his death. “Marc Nathan went as if he were talking as well as anyone I have ever known. His indispensable, acquired taste persona was what I enjoyed most, though Madden at times. We had a lot in ordinary chiding and deride of phonies and pretentious fools in sports, politics, but most importantly, the music industry. We occasionally enjoyed busting each other. os på det tidlige, at vi var på et stykke tid med at gå i gang med at gå på et stykke tid med at gå i gang med at gøre et stykke tid med at gå i gang med at gøre det til at gå på et hul på et gulv på et gulv på gulvet på et gulv ved at gulv på et gulv på et gulv på et gulv på gulvet på et gulv på et gulv på et gulv på et gulv på et gulv på et gulv på et gulv på et gulv på et gulv på et gulv på gulv Ukontrolleret latter.
Over the years – with Stints in New York, Los Angeles and most recently Nashville – Nathan also worked in A&R, with a hand in Universal’s acquisition of cash records and in talent development for Universal, Capitol, Atlantic/ATCO and Iprints.
Among the artists he was signed were bands 3 doors down (at Universal) and Barenaked Ladies (at sire). Later, he established a label, Flagship Posts, to release solo work from Barenaked Ladies co-founder Steven Page.
“Marc was a record person of the highest order,” Page wrote after his death. “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. Too-Smart-by-IT-ORDER POP AND HAD A HUGE SOFT SPOT FOR SILLY NOVELY SONGS TOO.
Page added, “He was among the first and most persistent of my friends to give me support, advice and solidarity. He could be a push, but it’s only because he had a huge heart and he really was really interested in. There were many, many people in his life that he would advise and coach and Cajole and mentor through their darkest hours – he had been there and back there and I was there and I was proud of I’m lucky to have known him.