Wind-Up Records Founder Dead at 67

Sourced From Wind-up Records

Alan Meltzer, the founder and former chairman of Wind-Up Entertainment, died suddenly over the weekend at age 67. Meltzer, who formed the label with his wife, Diana, after purchasing indie Grass Records in 1997, was instrumental in the success of Wind-Up Records crossover acts such as Evanescence and Creed. He left the company in 2010.

Prior to forming Wind-Up, Meltzer ran CD One Stop, a chain of record stores in New York and Connecticut that evolved into one of the largest wholesale distributors of CDs in the Eighties and Nineties.

Photos: Random Notes

A representative for the label declined to comment on the nature of Meltzer's death, but noted that an autopsy is pending.

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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