[4] King Records owner Syd Nathan approached Stein to work for him in Cincinnati, Ohio.

[1] He then became an assistant to impresario George Goldner, who had formed Red Bird Records with songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller in 1963.

[7] The label initially concentrated on licensing European releases with little success, until Dutch progressive rock band Focus had an international hit with the 1973 single "Hocus Pocus".

Gottehrer left the label in 1974 to concentrate on production; Stein then focused on checking new acts in the New York clubs and on his wife's recommendation arranged for the Ramones to do a showcase, signing them in 1975.

Other signings soon followed including Talking Heads, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, the Pretenders in 1980, and foreign punk acts The Rezillos and The Saints.

[8] Other acts signed by Sire include The Replacements, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, The Cure, Ice-T, Ministry, The Undertones, and Echo & the Bunnymen.

Such was Stein's influence in signing and promoting the new wave genre of music that he is sometimes credited with having come up with the name as an alternative to the term "punk", which he found derogatory.

[11] Ice-T wrote about Stein in his autobiography, stating: "He's cut from that cloth of the old-time music executives like Clive Davis, but he's way more eccentric... Just a little more bizarre, a bit more avant-garde, more of an edgy cat.