Arthur Newton Rupe was a record producer and music executive from the United States. In 1946, he founded Specialty Records in Los Angeles, which is known for its recordings of rhythm and blues, blues, gospel, and early rock & roll music. Leo Schwarz was Art’s wife. Beverly Rupe Schwarz, the couple’s daughter, was born to them. He died at his home in Santa Barbara, California, on April 15, 2022. He was 104 years old when he died. Here’s all you need to know about Art Rupe net worth, wife, wedding, family, and more:
Art Rupe net worth: How much he earned from his entire career before his death?
The multi-talented artist worked in the entertainment sector for six decades. He has gained a substantial amount of fame and riches as a consequence of his talent and hard work. Little Richard, a rhythm’n’blues and gospel performer since his teens who had struggled to break through commercially, was Rupe’s most lucrative and significant signing. Art Rupe had a net worth of $5 million before his death.
Specialty grew to popularity as one of the most important independent record companies with global distribution during the next fifteen years. “Boogie #1,” his debut album, was created on a shoestring budget with only three musicians and sold 70,000 copies at the time, making it a regional smash.
Rupe was known for underpaying his musicians and for engaging in a common exploitative tactic among label owners in the early rock era: making performers sign contracts that gave him a large portion or all of the revenues and publication rights. Little Richard would sue him for back royalties in 1959, and the case would be settled out of court for $11,000. Rupe had worked hard his whole life to establish his career, and we feel it had paid off.
Long Worthy career and struggle of Mr. Art Rupe
Rupe was a big fan of gospel music, so he started recording gospel quartets like the Soul Stirrers, Swan Silvertones, Pilgrim Travelers, Alex Bradford, Dorothy Love Coates, and Sister Wynona Carr in 1947. His love of gospel music affected his recording choices, which included Guitar Slim, Don and Dewey, Lloyd Price, Larry Williams, and Little Richard, among others. It taught him to favor emotion over technique in the studio. Concerns over religious objections to gospel music’s secularization, as well as a contract dispute, led to his decision not to release a pop album with gospel singer Sam Cooke. He recorded two songs that later became great singles, “You Send Me” and “Summertime,” but decided not to release them.
Tutti Frutti was a frenetic, but cleaner version of the filthy original, which had rhymes like “Tutti Frutti/good booty,” released in September 1955 and one of rock’n’roll first significant hits. Little Richard’s performance was changed when he accompanied himself on piano, according to Rupe. Rupe was notorious for underpaying his musicians and for engaging in a common exploitative tactic among label owners in the early rock era: making performers sign contracts that gave him a large portion or all of the revenues and publication rights. Little Richard sued him for back royalties in 1959, and the case was settled out of court for $11,000.
Rupe became disillusioned with the “payola” method of bribing broadcasters to get albums played around the same time, and he left the music industry. In the early 1990s, he sold Specialty to Fantasy Records, although he continued to make money through oil and gas interests. He was the director of the Art N Rupe Foundation in recent years, which funded education and research to “bring the light of truth to vital and contentious problems.”
Who was Art Rupe wife? Was he married at the time he died?
Before his death, Art Rupe was married three times. Leo Schwarz was the American music executive and song producer’s second wife. There’s nothing known about his wife or their wedding. Beverly Rupe Schwarz was the couple’s daughter. Mr. Rupe is survived by a granddaughter, a step-grandson, and two step-great-granddaughters, in addition to his daughter from the second of his three marriages, to Lee Apostoleris, which ended in divorce. Dorothy Rupe, his third wife, and three siblings died before him.
Music executive Art Rupe, who helped launch the careers of Little Richard, Sam Cooke and many others, has died https://t.co/zHP4ba06dA
— billboard (@billboard) April 17, 2022
Art Rupe biography: Age, Parents, nationality, Ethnicity, Education
Arthur Newton Goldberg was born on September 5, 1917, in Greensburg, Pa., a Pittsburgh suburb, and grew up in nearby McKeesport, where his father, David, worked as a salesman at a secondhand furniture store and his mother, Anna, was a music lover. He moved to Los Angeles in 1939 after attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Miami University in Ohio. At the time of his death, he was 104 years old. He had three siblings, the names of whom are unknown because they died before Art Rupe.
He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, briefly explored a career in film, but instead chose music, schooling himself by purchasing “race records’ ‘ and listening with a metronome and stopwatch. In the mid-1940s, he co-founded JukeBox Records, but soon left to form Specialty. He also changed his surname to Rupe, the surname of his ancestors.
Art Rupe dead: How did he die? What was the cause of the Specialty Records Founder’s death?
Art Rupe, a music executive whose Specialty Records was a major label in the early days of rock’n’roll and helped establish the careers of Little Richard, Sam Cooke, and others, has died. He was 104 years old. According to the Arthur N Rupe Foundation, Rupe, who was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, died on Friday at his home in Santa Barbara, California. His cause of death was not disclosed by the foundation.
Art Rupe, the Rock Hall-inducted Specialty Records founder who helped shape rock music by releasing classics by Little Richard and Lloyd Price, has died at 104 https://t.co/dc0pCM5RNi
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) April 16, 2022