Terry Elli

Template:Mergeto-date Terry Ellis has one of the most successful track records in contemporary music for discovering, developing and exploiting the com-mercial potential of young recording artists. With his partner, Chris Wright, he built a small artist booking agency into one of the most successful independent groups of companies in the music industry with subsidiaries involved in artist management, booking, recording studios, record labels, music publishing, concert promotion and venue management. In one capacity or another their company, Chrysalis, represented every important influence in British music in the 1970’s. In addition to artists that it directly managed, Chrysalis booked Led Zepplin, Jeff Beck, Roxy Music, Yes and King Crimson, signed David Bowie to a music publishing contract, entered the recording studio business with Sir George Martin (Beatles producer), directed concert tours and for a time ran London’s legendary Rainbow Theatre. Terry Ellis was born in Hertfordshire, England. He graduated from the University of Newcastle on Tyne with an honours degree in Mathematics and Metallurgy. He began booking concerts at colleges on a part time basis in 1967 and later that year he got into business with Chris Wright forming the Ellis-Wright Agency. In 1968 they expanded their activities to include artist management with Terry managing Jethro Tull and Chris managing Ten Years After and Procol Harum.

By 1969 Terry had started to produce albums, combining his creative vision with his business acumen into a career unique to the contemporary music industry. His productions include all of the early Jethro Tull albums and based on their success, he and his partner formed Chrysalis Records. The label established itself as a reference point for high quality contemporary rock, folk and pop music attracting artists like Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Procol Harum, Robin Trower, Leo Sayer, Spandau Ballet, Steeleye Span and numerous others who achieved significant success through Chrysalis and its licensees around the world.

By the end of 1974, Chrysalis was firmly established as one of the leading independent record labels and music publishers in the world. Terry Ellis moved to Los Angeles to build the American arm of the group and to give it a more focused identity. He continued to build on Chrysalis’ track record for credible music whilst applying his philosophy of maintaining a close personal involvement with all aspects of his signed artists’ careers. By way of examples, having seen an unknown New York based punk rock group, he purchased their contract from a small record label that could not afford to market them properly. That group is Blondie and their first single on Chrysalis was a hit in 35 countries.

Also in New York, he heard Pat Benatar in a small club; she went on to sell millions of records, so did Huey Lewis and The News, a rock band from San Francisco.

  After the break up of UK punk band, Generation X, Terry Ellis took the lead singer to America and launched the career of Billy Idol. In each of these cases, and there are others, the common factor was Terry Ellis’ personal devotion of time, effort and career planning that took the artists to 

international success.

In 1980, Terry Ellis set up a new Chrysalis division, Chrysalis Visual Programming. He made the music industry’s first ever sell-through long form video album with Blondie’s Parallel Lines. He went on to produce other long form videos including one featuring comedian, Billy Connolly, produced two made-for-TV movies and developed the award winning TV series Max Headroom, still considered by critics on both sides of the Atlantic to be one of the most innovative television series in recent history. Reflecting his stature in the music industry, Terry Ellis was elected Chairman of the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) for a two year term and remains the only non-American to have been elected to this prestigious office. He has also held the Chairmanship of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and served for five years as a member of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI). In 1985, Terry Ellis dissolved his association with Chrysalis selling his interests to his partner. Within a few years, the record division, which Terry had been very influential in creating, had been sold off to EMI Records. In 1990, Terry Ellis formed Imago Records, a joint venture with BMG. In its four years of operation Terry signed six artists who sold over 100,000 units of their debut album in the US alone: Baby Animals, Captain Hollywood, The Rollins Band, Aimee Mann, Paula Cole, and Love Split Love. Of those, Baby Animals’ first record sold 500,000 worldwide (4 times platinum in Australia) and the Rollins Band sold 250,000 units in the US on their first and 500,000 on their second albums. The joint venture was dissolved in 1994 with Terry Ellis retaining ownership of the Imago catalogue and artist contracts. Paula Cole’s second album has had two US top ten singles and has achieved double platinum status; that is sales of 2m units. She was nominated for Grammys in seven major categories including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Producer of the Year. She was awarded the Grammy for Best New Artist.

Terry Ellis and his French wife Daniele with their five children divide their time between their homes in Connecticut and the British Virgin Islands. He is a member of the RAC Club in London and the Waccabuc Country Club in New York. He is a member of the Metropolitan Opera Club of New York City and serves on its board of directors. Terry is also a governor of the BRIT School of Performing Arts in Croydon, Surrey. During the 70's dated singer Karen Carpenter.