Jack Rieley
American DJ, record producer, and songwriter (1942–2015)
title: "Jack Rieley" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1942-births", "2015-deaths", "the-beach-boys", "businesspeople-from-milwaukee", "american-music-managers", "record-producers-from-wisconsin", "songwriters-from-wisconsin", "american-expatriates-in-germany", "20th-century-american-businesspeople"] description: "American DJ, record producer, and songwriter (1942–2015)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Rieley" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American DJ, record producer, and songwriter (1942–2015) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Jack Rieley |
| image | Jack_Rieley.jpg |
| landscape | |
| caption | Rieley |
| background | non_performing_personnel |
| birth_name | John Frank Rieley III |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Berlin, Germany |
| occupation | Musician, songwriter, disc jockey, record producer, entrepreneur |
| instrument | Piano |
| years_active | 1960s–2015 |
| associated_acts | Beach Boys, Jaye Muller (aka J., aka Count Jaye), Kool and the Gang, Ride |
| website | |
| :: |
| name = Jack Rieley | image = Jack_Rieley.jpg | image_size = | landscape = | alt = | caption = Rieley | background = non_performing_personnel | birth_name = John Frank Rieley III | native_name = | native_name_lang = | alias = | birth_date = | birth_place = Milwaukee, Wisconsin | origin = | death_date = | death_place = Berlin, Germany | genre = | occupation = Musician, songwriter, disc jockey, record producer, entrepreneur | instrument = Piano | years_active = 1960s–2015 | label = | associated_acts = Beach Boys, Jaye Muller (aka J., aka Count Jaye), Kool and the Gang, Ride | website =
John Frank Rieley III (November 24, 1942 – April 17, 2015) was an American businessman, record producer, songwriter, and disc jockey who managed the Beach Boys between mid-1970 and late 1973. He is credited with guiding them back to popular acclaim and was described by New Statesman as "a radio DJ turned career mentor."
Rieley co-wrote a total of ten songs included on the Beach Boys' albums Surf’s Up (1971), Carl and the Passions – "So Tough" (1972), and Holland (1973). He also sang lead on the Surf's Up track "A Day in the Life of a Tree" and narrated Brian Wilson's fairy tale Mount Vernon and Fairway (1972).
Following his work with The Beach Boys, Rieley made the rock book project Western Justice with Machiel Botman in 1975. He would later go on to collaborate with artists such as Kool & the Gang, Ride, and Jaye Muller (recording as "Count Jaye").
In 1995, Rieley, along with Muller, founded e-fax pioneer J2 Global, Inc., which later became Ziff Davis following its $167 million acquisition of the digital publishing company. He died in 2015 at the age of 72.
Background
Rieley was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys met Rieley, while promoting their album Sunflower, and hired him as their manager. including "Long Promised Road", "Feel Flows", "Sail On, Sailor", "Funky Pretty" and "The Trader". He sang lead vocal on "A Day in the Life of a Tree". He also narrated the bonus disc for the Holland album: "Mt. Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale)".
Rieley falsely claimed to have been a Peabody Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for NBC News. Brian Wilson later wrote a song about Rieley's tendency for falsehoods, titling it "Is Jack Rieley Really Superman?". As of 2014, a recording of the song has not surfaced.
Several months after the release of Holland, Rieley disassociated from the Beach Boys. Ricky Fataar stated, "In the middle of all the in fighting that afflicted the group, Jack was the person trying to hold everything together. [...] Eventually, we realised that Rieley was very much into manipulating the arguments, starting stories and telling tales—a divide and conquer mentality. When that came to light, we had to let him go." Alternatively, biographer Mark Holcomb states that Rieley resigned from the position. Rieley gave his side of the story in a 2013 interview,
::quote
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Biographer Steven Gaines offered, "It was reportedly noticed by members of the group that Jack's young male assistant seemed to be living with him. Whether the relationship was sexual or not was never determined, but in the homophobic enclave of the Beach Boys, enough of a shadow had been cast. ... Carl made the trip back to Holland and fired Rieley."
Although there are many books and articles about the Beach Boys, Rieley was rarely interviewed before November 2007 when he was interviewed by Flasher.com in relation to the documentary Dennis Wilson Forever. The first seems to have been in summer 1982, for the UK fanzine Beach Boys Stomp.
Other work
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Jfax_founders_1996_nyc.jpg" caption="page=52}}"] ::
In the 1990s Rieley collaborated with several artists including Mark Gardener of the UK group Ride as well as with Jaye Muller and Ben Patton of the writing/production team Muller and Patton.
In 1995, Rieley and Muller co-founded JFAX Personal Telecom Inc., also known as JFAX.com. The company later rebranded as J2 Global before acquiring and merging with Ziff Davis. () Today, Ziff Davis operates as a technology holding company, its assets including popular gaming and entertainment news website IGN. Along with Muller, Rieley is recognized as the inventor of the electronic fax.
Death
Rieley died on April 17, 2015, while residing in Berlin, Germany. Brian Wilson's social media posted a memorial, attributed to Wilson, which stated, "Sad to hear about Jack Rieley passing away. Jack was our manager in the early 70s and helped us a lot. My thoughts go out to Jack’s family." However, during the filming of the 2021 documentary Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, Wilson said he had been unaware of Rieley's death, and became visibly upset after being informed of the fact.
References
Bibliography
References
- [http://www.mywire.com/pubs/PRNewswire/2007/11/02/4862655?extID=10051 Jack Rieley Breaks Silence on Beach Boys in Flasher.com Interview]: Interview, PRNewswire, Nov 2, 2007.
- "New Statesman - Washed-up".
- "A Beach Boys Timeline 1917-2009".
- Carlin, Peter. (2006). "Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson". Rodale Books.
- (March 7, 2014). "Busy Doin' Somethin': Uncovering Brian Wilson's Lost Bedroom Tapes".
- Mark Holcomb. (2003). "The Beach Boys (Rock & Roll Hall of Famers) (Chapter: The Rieley Factor)". Rosen Publishing Group.
- (September 6, 2013). "The Life of RIELEY".
- "[Jack Rieley on Dennis Wilson]".
- ''[[Washington Post]]'', Jan 17 1993, online edition [https://archive.today/20130125033838/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-928144.html?refid=gg_x_02] (needs signup)
- (1997). "Understanding rock: essays in musical analysis". Oxford University Press.
- Schlender, Brent. "Cool Companies these Days".
- "Method and apparatus for transmission and retrieval of facsimile and audio messages over a circuit or packet switched network".
- "Jack Rieley has passed...".
- ''[[AllMusic]]'' [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jack-rieley-mn0002324527 Artist page for Jack Rieley].
- (21 April 2015). "Sad to hear about Jack Rieley passing away. Jack was our manager in the early 70s and helped us a lot. My thoughts go out to Jack’s family.".
- (June 7, 2017). "Brian Wilson talks new documentary 'Long Promised Road' ahead of Tribeca Film Festival premiere".
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