Charlie McKenzie

Born and raised in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood, Charles R. “Charlie” McKenzie loved music. A natural entrepreneur, he was booking local bands for CYO dances while still attending Catholic Memorial High School, so he was able to make a little pocket money and be involved with the music he adored. Though not a musician himself, he had an amazing ear for talent and potential hit songs that served him very, very well throughout his career.

WARNER BROS., ABC RECORDS

McKenzie began his illustrious career in the early ‘70s, working for the Warner Bros., Elektra and Atlantic distribution branch in Medford. Starting in the warehouse, he eventually worked his way up to local promotion for Warner Bros., tasked with getting media exposure and airplay on radio for the label’s artists in the New England region.

In 1973, he was part of the team that set up a promotion for the new Alice Cooper album Billion Dollar Babies at Medford’s Bal-a-Roue roller skating rink; to this day, it’s remembered as one of the greatest parties of its kind. While at Warner Bros, McKenzie was responsible for breaking records like Deep Purples’ Machine Head (1972), which included their all-time classic “Smoke on the Water.” He was forced to leave the label due to downsizing but resurfaced almost immediately, handling promotions for ABC Records. While there, he helped propel the careers of the legendary Boston-based band Duke & The Drivers in addition to The Pointer Sisters, Steely Dan and many others.

“MORE THAN A FEELING” DEMO, FIRST BOSTON ALBUM, OTHER PROJECTS

McKenzie always kept his eyes and ears open, looking for a band that would make him rich. One afternoon, while working in his office, he heard a song playing in the branch manager’s office. It was a demo tape the manager received from a relative working at Polaroid who was doing a co-worker a favor. That co-worker was future rock ‘n’ roll legend Tom Scholz of Boston, who worked at Polaroid after graduating from MIT, and the song on the tape was the future #1 hit “More Than a Feeling.”

The branch manager gave McKenzie the cassette, and he immediately sent a copy to his childhood friend from West Roxbury, Paul Ahern, who was working in Los Angeles for Asylum Records at the time, promoting acts including The Eagles and Jackson Brown. They formed a partnership and became co-managers, coming up with the name Boston. Epic’s VP of A&R Lennie Petze signed the band and the label released their debut album in August 1976; it went on to sell over 16 million copies, becoming the most commercially successful debut LP in the history of recorded music at the time. “It was like a movie, hearing that cassette turned into millions of dollars,” McKenzie once said, and he became very wealthy almost overnight.

Unfortunately, as often happens in the music business, McKenzie and Scholz had a falling out; he left the band’s organization after that first album and dissolved his partnership with Ahern. But he was too much of a music fan to stop for good. He went on to manage Willie Alexander & The Boom Boom Band through their major label release on MCA in addition to The Blackjacks and guitarist Dick Wagner while working with Somerville native Dale Bozzio (of Missing Persons fame).

DEATH, TRIBUTES, LEGACY

McKenzie was never able to recreate the success he had with Boston and left the music industry before being killed in a car accident in Yarmouth on Cape Cod on March 5, 2002 at age 54. “Charlie was the first person to hear something in the tapes we sent out,” Boston’s late lead singer Brad Delp told The Boston Globe. “We’ll always be grateful to him for that.” Peter Wolf of The J. Geils Band called McKenzie a “true rock ‘n’ roll character” and said he always asked him to listen to J. Geils Band songs before they were released because he had amazing ears and always seemed to know what made a hit record.

McKenzie was known as a gentle giant, since at 6′4″ he could be an imposing figure. He loved to party like the best of them, but his talents and incredible ear for hits changed his life and the history of the music business in Boston forever.

(by Peter Wassyng)