Peter Bennett (May 10, 1935 – November 22, 2012) was a popular music promoter who worked with several prominent artists including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and the Jackson 5.
Sinatra sought Bennett's assistance in making his 1966 Reprise Records release "Strangers in the Night" his first chart topper in eleven years.
In 1969, at the end of a long career slump, Bennett helped push the single "Suspicious Minds" to number one – Presley's first in seven years.
Bennett was a backstage guest at Presley's opening night comeback to the concert stage at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in July 1969.
In 1970 singer and television personality Perry Como recorded "It's Impossible", a ballad he believed could break through the rock and soul wave that had kept him at the bottom for over a decade.
After the band's break-up in April 1970, Bennett continued to manage promotion for each of the four Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – within his role at ABKCO.
The two-show charity event was organized by Harrison and featured Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Ravi Shankar and Badfinger.
In 1975, with his EMI Records contract due to expire, Lennon asked Bennett to reach out to CBS head Walter Yetnikoff to see if the label was interested in the former Beatle coming on board.
[3] The IRS claimed that Klein and Bennett had sold promotional copies of Beatles and post-Beatles albums, including The Concert for Bangladesh,[4] without declaring the sales on their tax returns.
[5] Having resigned from ABKCO in late 1975, Bennett, through his attorney Martin W. Schwartz of Yonkers and Mineola, negotiated a plea to a single misdemeanor charge and then became a key witness for the IRS in its case against Klein.
He has the distinction of being the only promotions manager to work simultaneously with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.