↙Compilations Vanilla Grits | Name Rob Halprin | |
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↙Studio albums Marathon Lover, It's Good, Eve, The Radical Light, Yelling At Mary, The Nineteen Hundreds. ↙Live albums Midnight Over Honey River ↙Singles Your Lonely Heart, Winners, Midnight Over Honey River, Bitter Rain | ||
Robert David “Rob” Halprin (born January 13, 1958) is an American record producer, executive producer and an independent record label owner. Halprin launched VRP Music, an independent record company, in 2000.
Contents
- Early life
- Career
- Barry Imhoff Productions
- Real estate
- Return to the music industry
- Vesper Alley Records
- YT Entertainment
- VRP Music
- References
Early life
Halprin was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Raymond Halprin, a department store manager, and Dorothy Halprin (nee Weiser), a homemaker. Halprin was a child actor and singer from the age of six, co-starring in a variety of performances both off-Broadway and in summer stock theater.
Halprin is "autodidactic", with a verifiable IQ in the "145 range", as tested on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), despite having only finished the eighth grade.
Career
In 1975, after leaving home at the age of 16, Halprin became an assistant to Barry Imhoff, the promoter responsible for the Bob Dylan "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour.
Barry Imhoff Productions
In 1977, whilst still a teenager, Halprin became Imhoff's silent partner in the merchandising venture, Barry Imhoff Productions. He later spent time as an assistant to Alan Dunn, the Rolling Stones road manager during the 1978 “Some Girls” tour, and Natalie Cole’s road manager, Lyle Baker. Halprin is an uncredited songwriter on the Natalie Cole songs “Your Lonely Heart” and “The Winner” from her 1979 Capitol Records LP record I Love You So.
Halprin played guitar and keyboards, and co-engineered and co-produced two cuts on the 1980 Warner Bros. Records album by Chuck Bynum “Marathon Lover.”
Real estate
In 1984 he took the helm of a mortgage banking and luxury residential real estate firm headquartered in South Florida.
Return to the music industry
In 1992, Halprin became American singer-songwriter Valerie Carter’s business manager, and eventually her executive producer. Carter later joined the artist roster of VRP, Halprin's independent record label.
Vesper Alley Records
Halprin became a partner in Vesper Alley Records in 1996, a record label that was home to American singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard. Halprin financially supported the label's re-release of two of Shepard's albums, It’s Good Eve and The Radical Light. In 1998, Shepard joined the cast of the television series, Ally McBeal, and Sony 550 Music subsequently negotiated with Halprin, and partner Gail Gellman, regarding their financial interests in her music catalog. Both Halprin and Gellman sold their investments with Shepard.
Y&T Entertainment
Halprin became a partner in the Miami, Florida, independent record label Y&T Entertainment in 1999, the original home to American country music performer Raúl Malo and The Mavericks, along with American singer-songwriters, Mary Karlzen and Amanda Green. Halprin financially supported the label's re-release of Karlzen's "Yelling At Mary" album and CD, and Green's album and CD, "The Nineteen Hundreds."
VRP Music
After the sale of Y&T’s headquarters, Criteria Studios, to a company named The Hit Factory in 1999, Halprin financed his current venture, independent record label VRP Music in 2000.
Halprin was the executive producer and label head of VRP Music's 2001 Valerie Carter CD, Vanilla Grits. He produced Carter's single and double compact disc (CD), Midnight Over Honey River, released in 2002 and 2003 respectively by VRP Music. Carter's double CD included a live recording of American rock band, Little Feat, recorded at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg, Florida, on November 2, 2002.
In 2003, Halprin produced the track, “Bitter Rain,” featured on the Universal Music Group CD, Yourself, Myself, The Songs Of Miyuki Nakajima.