An
accountant, by training. Manager of the
Rolling Stones,
1965-1970, as
Andrew Loog Oldham was being phased out. The relationship lasted past 1970, as there were some
lawsuits in subsequent years (and decades) - Klein's company ABKCO (a consolidation of his various holdings, including Cameo-Parkway Records) still owned the rights to some Stones material, with
Metamorphosis being released in 1975, a time when the two camps might not have been on speaking terms.
The Beatles (but not Paul) also signed with ABKCO, roughly a year before breaking up; Apple Corps Ltd. was hemorraging money, and he certainly had the acumen to turn things around. This relationship resulted in lawsuits as well; Paul's choice, IIRC, would have been John Eastman (brother of Linda; this may have been the reason for Paul's non-signing, and the reason for John and Yoko originally bringing Klein - an outsider without a rationale for favoritism - into the picture).
I got to meet Klein a couple of times; he had a son who was a classmate of mine - we all lived in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. I remember him as a scruffy guy in a t-shirt and khakis, but, for all I know, he had on a suit and tie. Memory can be fuzzy sometimes. Had I been older and hipper, I might have yelled You killed the Beatles! You bastard! or something. But I was very young, and he was much bigger than me.
John Belushi's Ron Decline character in The Rutles' rockumentary is based on him. How far (i.e. how little) they had to go to make Decline a parody is up to you to decide; I think Klein was reviled by many, back in those early-70s days.
Everything2 editor's note: Allen Klein died in New York on 2009-07-04.