C. Winston Simone
C. Winston Simone has been in the entertainment industry for over thirty years. Born in New York City, Winston was raised in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York. Having graduated from the Choate School and Fordham University, Winston joined his father in his family’s private banking company in 1974.
Winston’s entry into the music business came about at the request of his friend, Dean Torrence, half of the legendary surf music group Jan and Dean, to manage their career. This sixties duo had been the subject of a highly successful CBS movie telling of Jan’s miraculous comeback from a near-fatal auto accident. Winston set up their tour in 1978 with the Beach Boys, who were the biggest touring band in the world at the time. From that platform, the opportunities to learn the touring business and to work with the media were unique. Since then, Winston has been involved in virtually every aspect of the entertainment business, with an emphasis on the music industry. His clients as performers, writers, and producers, have had over one hundred hit records around the world at every major record company. Winston has put on shows with his clients at venues ranging from Broadway to the West End, from the Bottom Line to Wembley Stadium, and from Brisbane to Paris. He has also produced television specials for his clients on ABC, BBC, HBO, PBS, the Discovery Channel and Cinemax.
Among the significant events in Winston’s career was meeting songwriter Desmond Child in 1980 and shortly thereafter becoming his manager. Together they have worked on over seventy-five Top 40 hits that Desmond has written and/or produced, including LIVIN LA VIDA LOCA, LIVING ON A PRAYER, DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY. Their association allowed them to become experts in the music publishing field and gave them access to the record industry at the highest level – both with recording artists and within record companies.
In 1999, Winston Simone, David Simoné, and Desmond Child founded Deston Songs, a unique publishing company which had a monster hit with their very first song purchase: “Who Let The Dogs Out”. In 2005, they sold the richly-developed Deston Songs, which now included hit songs for 50 Cent, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, LeAnn Rimes, and more.