The White Book by Ken Mansfield
The second memoir from record-industry vet Mansfield (The Beatles, the Bible and Bodega Bay), a simple look at a complex happening, recounts his overwhelmingly positive experiences working with the Fab Four (and others) as they put together their late-career masterpiece The White Album. Mansfield relates how a lucky break in the 1960s took him from promotions executive for Hollywood’s Capitol Records to U.S. manager of Beatles-owned Apple Records. One of the few Americans allowed into the group’s inner circle, Mansfield presents revealing one-on-one time with each band member, yielding insight beyond their public personas. Ken Mansfield has experienced a life that most people have only read about. He was in the heart and heat of the music industry when it was young and vibrant—back when creativity and passion made the music. Beginning with being the leader of the successful southern California folk group “The Town Criers” he graduated to becoming a top music industry executive and producer in Hollywood and Nashville. As a Capitol Records executive he had the great fortune of being part of the classic era of pop and jazz working with artists such as Stan Kenton, Peggy Lee, George Shearing, The Four Freshmen, Nancy Wilson, Judy Garland, Lou Rawls, Glen Campbell, Bobbie Gentry, and Al Martino as well as the early careers of legendary country artists Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Sonny James. But then the tempo really picked up and the pace quickened when he began working with bands like The Beach Boys, The Beatles and The Band.
A simple young man from the Indian reservation lands in Northern Idaho Ken found himself propelled into the center of a rock and roll whirlwind when the Beatles asked him to be the US Manager of their Apple Record label as well as acting as their personal liaison between the UK and the US. When the Beatles breakup seemed inevitable he moved on to become a Vice President at MGM Records and then President of a CBS label owned by Andy Williams.
Wanting to fly even higher and faster he left the corporate world to set up his own company Hometown Productions Inc. where he began producing famous artists of that era such as WaylonJennings, Jessi Colter, Don Ho, David Cassidy, Andy Williams, Claudine Longet, The Flying Burrito Bros. and more. His downfall was inevitable but the eventual result was incredible— from the ashes came the beauty and joy of the Risen Lord and in time he was commissioned to produce the renowned Imperials and eventually earned a Grammy and a Dove Award when he produced the Gaither Vocal Band’s classic “Homecoming” album.