Russ Regan (born Harold Rustigian; October 15, 1928 in Sanger, California^[1] – May 27, 2018 in Palm Springs, California)^[2] was an American record executive who was President of both UNI Records and 20th Century Records^[3] and was vice-president of A&R at Motown.^[4] Regan is the rare executive to have seen No. 1 hits in four successive decades.

Career

He started his career in the 1950s as a composer and record producer. His first notable hit was a 1959 Christmas novelty song, inspired by "The Chipmunk Song", titled "The Happy Reindeer" credited to Dancer, Prancer and Nervous (No. 34, Pop) issued by Capitol Records.^[5] In the early 1960s, Regan recorded "Joan of Love", backed with "Adults Only", which was released under the name Russ Regan.^{[citation needed]} He also recorded "Calling All Cars" under the name Davy Summers for Warner Brothers with producer Sonny Bono.^{[citation needed]} In the mid-1960s, he was drafted in to help form a musical direction for Warner Brothers' fledgling pop/soul music subsidiary, Loma Records.^{[citation needed]}

Regan started in record promotion with Motown in the early years of the company.^{[citation needed]} His first project there was the company's first Billboard Hot 100 number one record, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes in 1961.^{[citation needed]} He would go on to promote songs by The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, and Marvin Gaye.^{[citation needed]} He suggested the name of The Beach Boys when a Los Angeles group called Carl & The Passions had just recorded a song called "Surfin'".^[3] He also helped Frank Sinatra record his No. 4 hit, "That's Life" in 1966.^{[citation needed]} He struck a deal with Jimmy Miller Productions when Miller left The Rolling Stones, which resulted in albums from B.B. King, Henry Gross, Bobby Whitlock, and others.^{[citation needed]} Regan also signed Ambrosia and Harriet Schock to 20th Century Records.^{[citation needed]}

Russ Regan played a major role in the careers of a number of recording artists, as he headed up labels such as Uni, 20th Century and Phonogram Records.^[3] Dozens of recording artists, including Elton John, Neil Diamond, Barry White, Olivia Newton-John and The Beach Boys had Regan to thank for opening the doors for their success.^[6] One of his most surprising successes while at UNI was South African trumpeter Hugh Masakela's "Grazing In The Grass" in 1968, which sold over a million and reached the top spot in the Billboard pop chart.^{[citation needed]}

While President of 20th Century Records, Regan was inspired from a dream to create the movie All This and World War II, which saw Fox News footage from WWII backed with various artists singing Beatles songs.^{[citation needed]} The movie was never released on video, and it remains in the vaults of 20th Century Fox.^{[citation needed]} Regan also supervised the soundtracks for the movies Endless Love, Breakin', The Karate Kid, All The Right Moves, Love At First Bite, This Is Spinal Tap, and A Chorus Line.^{[citation needed]} Regan was also the Music Supervisor for four Academy Award-winning songs from the films The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Flashdance, and Chariots of Fire.^{[citation needed]}