DON GRAHAM,
1935-2022

Don Graham, a promotion pioneer from the 1960s into the '80s, died 7/7 in Los Angeles of stomach cancer. He was 87.

Graham worked records in the early days of Warner Bros. Records and A&M Records and was part of Bob Krasnow’s team at the start of Blue Thumb Records in 1968.

A Bay Area native, he helped Russ Solomon get Tower Records off the ground soon after he was tapped to lead San Francisco operations for Warner Bros.' brand new label, founded in 1958. His first big record was “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb” by Edd “Kookie” Burns and Connie Stevens, based on Byrnes’ character on the TV series 77 Sunset Strip. It peaked at #4 in 1959 after Graham created a comb trade-in promotion that helped get the song on the air.

Graham moved to Los Angeles in 1962 to join Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ A&M Records as its first national promotion manager, breaking the label’s first hit by an act other than Albert’s Tijuana Brass: We Five’s 1965 “You Were on My Mind.” There he met Tommy LiPuma, who called Graham “a powerhouse of a promotion man” in his obit/appreciation of Blue Thumb founder Krasnow.

They started Blue Thumb with Captain Beefheart as their first signing and built a roster that would include Ike & Tina Turner, Dave Mason, Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, Love and The Pointer Sisters. Graham was key in promoting the launch of Shelter Records, which Blue Thumb distributed, and its first premier act, Leon Russell.

Graham sold his interest in Blue Thumb in 1971 and left to become director of special projects for Chess/Janus Records, subsequently doing a 14-month stint as national promotion director for United Artists. In late 1974, he and two partners created Midget Productions, which acted as a combination talent scout, production and promotion outfit for major labels. He joined Cream Records in 1976 to head its promo unit, eventually starting his own company, Don Graham Promotions, in 1980.