Longtime recording industry executive Joe Smith received the 2,558th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, calling the ceremony in front of the Capitol Records building “a real special event in my life.”
Smith is the only person to have headed three major record companies. He was preceded in speaking in the ceremony by singers Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt and Councilman Mitch O’Farrell.
Smith was CEO and president of Capitol-EMI Music from 1987-93, with Raitt among the artists helping the firm register record profits.
Smith was a sportscaster and disc jockey in Virginia and Pennsylvania before moving to Boston, where he became a top-rated and pioneering rock ‘n’ roll disc jockey.
Smith entered the music industry in 1961as national promotion manager for Warner Bros. Records. He was selected as Promotion Executive of the Year four times by the industry trade publication The Gavin Report.
Smith was appointed president of Warner Bros. Records in 1972. During his tenure there, he signed or worked with an array of stars of music and comedy that included Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, Rod Stewart, James Taylor, Don Rickles, Alan Sherman and Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks.
Smith began an eight-year stint as chairman of Electra/Asylum Records in 1975. Its stable of artists included The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Browne, Carly Simon, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell and Hank Williams Jr.
Smith has also been president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, executive producer of entertainment for the 1994 World Cup and president and CEO of the regional sports network, Home Sports Entertainment.
