Draft:Rick Sanjek

Sanjek was born in the Washington Heights, Manhattan neighborhood, and raised in New Rochelle, New York. In high school he was an AFS Intercultural Programs exchange student in Helsinki, Finland.The New Rochelle Standard Star, Sanjek Off To Finland; NRHS First AFS Representative Sails, June 26, 1963. Page 11. During his senior year he covered high school sports for the New Rochelle Standard-Star local newspaper.Ricky Sanjek, Stepinac Ties New Rochelle 13-13 in Grid Debut, The New Rochelle Standard September 28, 1963. Page 22. He attended Yale University. Between college graduation and moving to Nashville, he taught 5^th and 6^th grade in Harlem and the South Bronx.

His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Hrascina, Croatia and his maternal grandparents from County Mayo, Ireland for his grandfather David Tarpey and County Wexford for his grandmother Mary Codd. His father Russell Sanjek worked at BMI in New York from 1940 through 1981 retiring as vice president of public relations and special projects. He was an autodidactic whose eclectic interests ranged across fine art, film, literature, and world history, but especially music where he became a noted record collector, music industry historian, and an authority on pop, jazz, black, and country music.Billboard, Russ Sanjek Dies At 70, June 21, 1986. Page 6. At the end of his life he authored the first comprehensive history of the American music industry, American Popular Music and Its Business: the First Four Hundred Years, a three volume, 1,685 page accounting of "the story of America's popular songs, the people who wrote them, and the business they created and sustained."Russell Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business: the First Four Hundred Years, Oxford University Press (New York:1988) from dust jacket notes. The books were published by Oxford University Press in 1988, two years after the elder Sanjek's death in 1986. His mother Elizabeth (nee Tarpey) Sanjek was an accomplished watercolorist and a registered teacher with the Sumi-e Society of Americahttps://www.sumiesociety.org/ and an academic associate for art of the China Institute of New York. She also studied Chinese cuisine with noted cookbook authors Grace Zia Chu and Florence Lin, and subsequently taught for many years in private lessons and at the Cooks Nook in Nashville TN.The Nashville Tennessean, Elizabeth Betty Sanjek obituary, November 21, 2010.

In October 1972 he moved to Atlantic Records to open a Nashville office specializing in Country Music.Billboard, Atl. Nashville Office Opened, October 14, 1972. Page 3 From 1975 to 1977 he managed business affairs for songwriter/producer Jack Clement. Then in 1978 he became vice president of the record label and publishing companies owned by steel guitar virtuoso Pete Drake.The Nashville Tennessean, Sanjek Joins Pete Drake, November 11, 1978. Page 9. From 1982 through 1986 Sanjek managed recording artist Becky Hobbs and operated his Circle South Music publishing and Rite-Lite video production companies.

From 1986-1992 Sanjek re-joined BMI to became vice president of writer/publisher relations for BMI in the New York corporate headquarters under Frances Preston.Robert K. Oermann, Rick Sanjek To Join BMI New York Staff, Nashville Tennessean, August 8, 1986. Page 42. He also served as a national trustee and the president of the New York Chapter for the Recording Academy.Billboard, And The Winner Is..., January 25, 1992. Page 12.

In July 1992 he resigned from BMI and reopened his own publishing, management, and music licensing businesses in Nashville.Irv Lichtman, Sanjek To Exit BMI For New Ties, May 16, 1992. Page 86. Since then, he has been involved in the creation of and/or licensing for hundreds of audio projects, as well as music clearance, talent supervision, and/or scripting for dozens of video projects.

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In addition to licensing consultation for record labels, publishers, and websites, he wrote a follow-up to his late father Russell Sanjek's three volume opus American Popular Music and its Business: the First 400 Years. His new work is titled American Popular Music and its Business in The Digital Age, 1985-2020 published in August 2024, also by Oxford University Press.{{Cite web |title=American Popular Music And Its Business In The Digital Age |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/american-popular-music-and-its-business-in-the-digital-age-9780197782897?cc=us&lang=en& |access-date=2024-10-25 |website=American Popular Music And Its Business In The Digital Age |language=en-US}} The book "Traces the growth of revenue, changing technologies, and shifts in ownership and leadership of the record, publishing, live performance, and trade press sectors of the music industry."

A 1968 graduate of Yale University with a BA in history, he was also founding partner and co-owner with leading Nashville restauranteur Randy Rayburn of the awarding-winning Sunset Grill, a fine dining, American cuisine eatery and wine bar that operated from 1990-2014.

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• [https://www.americanpopularmusicbusiness.com americanpopularmusicbusiness.com]