Amos Heilicher

The longtime patriarch from the Minnesota record business, Amos Heilicher launched regional acts like Bobby Vee, the Trashmen, as well as the Castaways to nationwide prominence via Soma Records, the Minneapolis label he owned and operated alongside brother Dan. The siblings are believe it or not notable because of their pioneering product sales and distribution initiatives, culminating in the enormously effective Musicland retail string. Blessed in Minneapolis in 1918, Heilicher got into the record sector in his past due teens, functioning as an area jukebox provider distributor before starting his own unbiased low cost distribution business. When youthful sibling Dan came back home from provider in World Battle II, he became a member of Amos’ company, and in 1947 they got handles Mercury Information and Columbia Information, overseeing a retail distribution network that prolonged over the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Michigan’s Top Peninsula. The Heilichers’ business design emphasized “rackjobbing” — i.e., operating record departments for dime shops, shops and other merchants, expanding product sales of singles and LPs into myriad fresh environments. “What sort of Heilicher brothers worked well, Amos was the theory man and Danny was the nut products and bolts man who put everything together,” family members friend and previous K-Tel International GM Owen Husney later on informed Billboard. “Sooner or later, Amos probably stated, ‘We need to get on computer systems,’ and Danny most likely said, ‘I’ll can get on it immediately.’ And he most likely went aside and discovered everything to learn about how exactly to use pc with distribution and most likely was the 1st on the market to get punch credit cards for computer systems.” The Heilichers co-founded Soma Information in 1957 — the name was “Amos” spelled backwards. As the label primarily focused on regional polka music, nation, and jazz performers, in 1959 Heilicher authorized Fargo, ND-born rocker Bobby Vee, who debuted using the Friend Holly-inspired “Suzie Baby.” When the one emerged being a local smash, Liberty Information licensed the professional for nationwide distribution and obtained the singer’s agreement by year’s end. With the amount of money earned in the Liberty offer, Soma certified from Wisconsin label Cuca rockabilly duo the Fendermen’s rendition from the Jimmie Rodgers traditional “Mule Skinner Blues.” The record demonstrated an urgent blockbuster, selling more than a million copies and achieving number three over the Billboard pop graph. Following that the Heilichers rattled off some hits that set up Soma among the top American independent brands from the ’60s — nationwide hits just like the Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Parrot,” the Castaways’ “Liar Liar,” as well as the Gestures’ “Operate, Operate, Operate” remain quintessential types of the browse and garage rock and roll ethos that dominated radio in the initial half from the decade. Using their documenting and distribution systems today firing on all cylinders, the Heilichers obtained Musicland in 1964 , in those days a 15-shop retail string founded eight years previously by Minneapolis business owners Terry Evenson and Grover Sayre. In 1968, with the business enterprise extended to 48 places over the Midwest, the siblings merged Musicland with Pickwick International, the American record label and distributor notorious because of its soundalike produces and bargain-bin reissues. The merger also heralded the demise of Soma, that was consolidated beneath the Pickwick Information aegis. Amos Heilicher appreciated brand-new stature and impact as mind of Pickwick’s retail and low cost functions — a 1970 feature in Esquire mag cited him among the record industry’s most effective figures alongside famous brands Mick Jagger and Motown mind Berry Gordy, Jr., with their top, the shops under his guidance accounted for approximately 10-percent of most recordings bought from the U.S. However in 1976, Heilicher got a falling out in clumps with other people from the Pickwick panel and marketed his stake in the business; Musicland boasted 230 shops in the united states when American Can obtained Pickwick a season afterwards for $102 million, and through the entire quarter century to check out, the string continued to be a fixture from the American retail surroundings, eventually spinning from the Suncoast FILM Company and Mass media Play brands before Greatest Buy bought its resources in 2000 for $865 million. By this time around the Heilichers experienced long since remaining the music market once and for all, channeling their energy and capital into property, including possession stakes in the St. Anthony Primary retail complex as well as the now-defunct Circus Pizza string. They also spent heavily in gear leasing aswell as the coin-operated machine business. Amos Heilicher additionally offered on the planks from the Minnesota Orchestra and Support Sinai Medical center, and raised cash for various nonprofits. Following a very long disease, Dan Heilicher passed away Might 23, 2005 at age 82 — pneumonia stated Amos’ existence on Oct 12, 2008. He was 90 years of age.