Former Bakersfield record store owner launched Janet Jackson
by Bryce Martin

In 1986, Janet Jackson released an album titled Control on A&M Records. "What Have You Done For Me Lately" was the first single from the LP. It was her third album and the first two fared poorly. This one, though, was about to launch her like a moonshot.

The single was brought to Olen Harrison, a record promoter who owned Advance Music in San Francisco, a one stop shop with distribution. From there, the disc, promoted by Harrison, climbed near the top of the local music charts and went on to become a nationwide hit credited with launching the bigtime career Jackson was seeking.

Harrison, a southerner by birth, was living in Palo Alto, Calif., when, in the early 1950s, he made a move to Bakersfield, Calif., where he worked as a disc jockey at radio stations KBIS and KAFY while owning a retail record store called The Record Shop. In 1955 he went to San Francisco and continued in the music business until the 1989 earthquake. He died in 2000.

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