Birth name John Frank Rieley III Years active 1960s–2015 | Name Jack Rieley Role Songwriter | |
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Similar People Tandyn Almer, Carl Wilson, Ray Kennedy, Dennis Wilson, Brian Wilson | ||
Jack Rieley & Machiel Botman - America
John Frank Rieley III (November 24, 1942 – April 17, 2015) was an American record producer. He was the manager of the Beach Boys during the early 1970s, and is credited with guiding them back to acclaim. He would also sometimes act as a co-songwriter with the rest of the band, usually penning lyrics.
Contents
- Jack Rieley Machiel Botman America
- The Beach Boys Sail On Sailor Live 1973
- The Beach Boys
- Other work
- Death
- References
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was described by New Statesman as "a radio DJ turned career mentor." Although there are many books and articles about the Beach Boys, Rieley was rarely interviewed before November 2007 when he was interviewed by Flasher.com in relation to the documentary Dennis Wilson Forever. The first seems to have been in summer 1982, for the UK fanzine Beach Boys Stomp.
The Beach Boys - Sail On Sailor (Live) - 1973
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys met Rieley, while promoting their album Sunflower, and hired him as their manager. He wrote and co-wrote lyrics to several of the Beach Boys songs including "Long Promised Road", "Feel Flows", "Sail On, Sailor", and "Funky Pretty". He sang lead vocal on "A Day in the Life of a Tree". He also narrated the bonus disc for the Holland album: "Mt. Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale)".
According to Mark Holbcom, Rieley convinced the band to move their families and studio to Amsterdam for eight months in 1972 to record their album Holland, costing Warner and the Beach Boys a small fortune to produce. Rieley quit his job as manager of the group after their return to the US.
Other work
He worked with Kool and the Gang.
In 1975, Rieley released a solo album, Western Justice: recorded in the Netherlands in collaboration with Machiel Botman, it dealt with the treatment of the old world powers by the newly emerging third world in the context of a global weather crisis. Rieley took the lead vocal on three songs, including the title track.
In the 1990s Rieley collaborated with several artists including Mark Gardener of the UK group Ride as well as with Jaye Muller and Ben Patton of the writing/production team Muller and Patton.
Death
Rieley died on April 17, 2015 while residing in Berlin, Germany.