Simon Waronker is dead at 90

LOS ANGELES, June 9 (UPI) -- Liberty Records founder Simon Waronker has died at the age of 90 in his Beverly Hills home.

He died of natural causes Tuesday, his family told the Los Angeles Times.

Liberty Records, founded in 1955, became a successful independent pop music label of the 1950s and '60s whose artists ranged from Eddie Cochran to Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Liberty's other artists included Patience & Prudence, Billy Ward & the Dominoes, the Rivingtons, Dick & Dee Dee and Jan and Dean.

"The Chipmunk Song," released in 1958, sold more than 4 million copies in seven weeks and became a No. 1 hit single in the United States.

The Los Angeles-born Waronker trained as a classical violinist in Europe as a teenager in the early 1930s.

He is survived by a son, a daughter, a sister, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.