John Smith (9)

American label executive, manager, and attorney, born 28 August 1941 in North Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. Smith joined the staff of Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, in June 1969, after teaching in a high school in Arkansas for two years. In January 1970 he was appointed Stax' statistician and market analyst. While he was at Stax, he worked with well-known artists such as Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Otis Redding, Johnnie Taylor, and B.B. King. In 1973 he was elected president of the newly formed Memphis chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). In the mid-1970s, Smith was briefly the vice president of Osiris in Memphis before being appointed the director of Black promotion and artist development at United Artists Records in Los Angeles in 1976. In 1977, Smith was named vice-president of marketing for Blue Note. After that he worked for At Home Productions, and in 1978 he was named vice president of promotion, special markets at ABC Records. In May 1979 he was appointed vice president for Black products at MCA Records, Inc.. He left that position in November 1980, to become the president of Wheel Records (2). Smith also went to a law school, became an attorney and represented a number of producers and creators in the field.