Bhaskar Menon, largely credited with making Pink Floyd a household name in the United States, died March 4 at his home in Beverly Hill, Calif. He was 86.
Menon, a native of Thiruvanthapuram, India, was founding chairman and CEO at EMI Music Worldwide, and served as president and CEO of Capitol Records in Los Angeles at the time Floyd released “The Dark Side of the Moon” in 1973.
“The story in America was a disaster, in that we really hadn’t sold records,” Floyd drummer Nick Mason says. “So they brought in a man called Bhaskar Menon who was absolutely terrific. He decided he was going to make this work, and make the American company sell (‘The Dark Side of the Moon’). And he did.”
Under Menon’s direction, “Dark Side” reached #1 on the Billboard chart and become one of the greatest selling albums of all time. In doing so he helped turn around Capitol’s finances, which were in shambles after the break-up of its biggest-selling act, The Beatles.
While helping steering “Dark Side” to success was perhaps his biggest achievement during the seven years he spent at Capitol, Menon also oversaw successful releases from other bands such as Wings, Steve Miller Band, Grand Funk Railroad, Linda Ronstadt, Helen Reddy and Natalie Cole.
Menon left Capitol in 1978 and the music business altogether in the early-’90s to found International Media Investments, an investment and consulting firm for media businesses.
Rest in peace.