John Kalodner

Who is John Kalodner?

John David Kalodner is a retired American A&R executive. His achievements included signing Foreigner, AC/DC, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins to Atlantic Records in the 1970s.

He was headhunted as the first A&R executive for David Geffen's new label Geffen Records in 1980, where he worked with Asia, White Zombie, Madness, XTC, Whitesnake, Wang Chung, Nelson and Aerosmith. He brought Jimmy Page and Sammy Hagar success as solo artists and was responsible for the musical collaboration Coverdale•Page.

Kalodner also placed songs on soundtracks of such films as Top Gun and Footloose. Kalodner followed Aerosmith to Columbia in the nineties, where he also worked with Cher, Santana, Journey, Manowar, Chicago, Heart, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Ted Nugent, REO Speedwagon, Mars Electric, and the Black Crowes, among others.

Kalodner's special status was underlined by the fact that he is usually credited on albums for simply being himself.