Renowned Record Label Exec to Publish Book on ‘The Art of Rock Promotion’
by Greg Brodsky
Paul Rappaport, who enjoyed a storied career in rock radio promotion for decades at Columbia Records during the genre’s glory days of multi-Platinum sales and sold-out arena tours, is publishing a book, Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay, and The Art of Rock Promotion. The title, coming April 1, 2025, via Jawbone Press, is Rappaport’s first-hand account of guiding the top label’s promotional efforts to album rock stations for releases by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, Billy Joel, Judas Priest, and scores more. It’s available for pre-order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
Gliders Over Hollywood tells the exhilarating story of a blue-collar kid who grew up in thrall to rock ’n’ roll, who found himself right in the middle of many of his musical heroes’ lives as he became the most renowned rock promotion man in America.
“Rap,” as the artists as well as his friends and colleagues call him, is a gifted storyteller. Over lunch at a favorite restaurant on New York’s Upper West Side in November 2024, he shared a handful of great success stories that flowed from his own creative ideas—all of which appear in the upcoming book. His guest, a fellow record label veteran, had certainly encountered many stars over the years. “Rap,” however, is in a completely different league, having not only played a crucial role in the sustained success of A-listers but in many cases developing game-changing campaigns that led to the establishment of their lengthy careers.
“It’s not a kiss-and-tell book,” Rappaport tells Best Classic Bands. “It’s a celebration about working in a business that was like going to Disneyland every day.”
In that era, from the early ’70s and through the rest of the century, all of the major labels (and plenty of indies) would get “hot,” with a period of success on the charts that would translate to multi-Platinum albums. Only Warner Bros. and Columbia were able to stay on top consistently with the labels’ promotion, sales, A&R, marketing and publicity teams in constant lockstep to establish albums, artists and ultimately careers. At Columbia, if a rock album was in the pipeline, an artist’s manager understood that it would have a shot at rock radio despite the heavy competition thanks to a push that would stand out at the format. “I was always encouraged to be creative and to think out-of-the-box,” says Rappaport. “I have a big imagination,” he adds. “I wanted to do things that no one had ever done.” At one point, after much sustained success, his industry colleagues named him the greatest rock promotion exec of all time.
“Rap” produced jaw dropping marketing events like firing a powerful laser beam off a hilltop into the Los Angeles night sky seen for 30 miles as it “danced” to a radio premiere of a new Blue Öyster Cult album, and launching the Pink Floyd airship, a gigantic psychedelic blimp that crisscrossed the country giving rides to fans as rock radio stations broadcast live from its beautiful pink gondola. Both are featured in the book with photos and will also help explain the book’s subtitle, Airships, Airplay, And The Art of Rock Promotion.
Photo courtesy of Paul Rappaport Archives
Of the book, Floyd founding member Nick Mason writes, “So, you want to work in the music business? How much do you know about it? The answer is clearly not enough—no one in their right mind could countenance such a career! But if you must, then you need this book. Rapper was there. Not only that, but he remembers most of the detail, which is more than can be said for his subjects, who have a tendency to rewrite history as they would have liked it or justify actions that should have put them in jail. It’s about as close as you can get to the action without having that gold Access All Areas pass.”
Rappaport’s book gets off to a great start as he takes the reader behind-the-scenes with his previously untold story of the machinations—over three sleepless days and nights—required for a live broadcast with rock station KMET for a Bruce Springsteen performance at The Roxy in Los Angeles in 1978.
He tells of a feat he accomplished at album radio for Mick Jagger’s 1985 solo debut She’s the Boss that has never been achieved before or since. There’s the time he had to warn Columbia’s president to be prepared for an avalanche of calls from his major label peers when he took a new rocker named Tommy Conwell to #1 (and had his loyal number two call a certain rock superstar pal to warn him that his record was about to be blocked from the top spot by the relative unknown). Rappaport became so tight with David Gilmour that the guitarist invited him to London to perform on stage with Pink Floyd in 1989.
Paul Rappaport on stage with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and Nick Mason (Photo courtesy of Paul Rappaport Archives)
Best Classic Bands will soon share many such tales from “Rap” before Gliders Over Hollywood arrives on April 1. In the meantime, the book is available for pre-order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
“I am beside myself and beyond words that Paul has written this book,” writes Elvis Costello. “He’s The Inventor Of Rapp, you know.”
From the book publisher: The music business from the late 60s through the 90s was an exciting time that mirrored the music and the musicians making it. It was also a time of new and creative ideas on how to market this groundbreaking cultural phenomenon. Eccentric characters were everywhere, and often the managers, promoters, disc jockeys, and record company staff were just as big a show as the performers themselves.
This dynamic, entertaining memoir captures the magic of these times and the people who made it happen, revealing the never-before-heard secrets of the promotion and marketing that turned the music industry on its head. It’s a book packed full of extraordinary adventures with some of the biggest names in rock.
Paul Rappaport (at R) with Best Classic Bands’ founder Greg Brodsky, NYC, Nov. 2024
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