Bhaskar Menon, the esteemed record label boss whom Pink Floyd credited with helping make their name, has died at age 86.

Starting out with EMI in 1956 – just as the rock revolution began – he went on to rise to the rank of chairman and then onward to become the president of the parent corporation, including Capitol Records in the U.S., until he started his own business in 1995. During his years with the international conglomerate, he took a personal interest in the careers of many of its artists, including the Beatles, David Bowie, Queen, Iron Maiden and many others.

One of Menon’s most notable achievements was helping break Pink Floyd in the States. He believed in their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon so much that he put the full force of Capitol’s marketing team behind it, placing the firm’s vice president, Al Coury, in charge of the project. Menon persuaded the single-averse band to release 7″ versions of “Us and Them” and “Time” to U.S. radio, leading to the album becoming the fourth best-selling title in history, with several thousand copies a week still retailing to this day.

“The story in America was a disaster,” Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason said in the documentary film The Making of the Dark Side of the Moon in 2003.”We really hadn’t sold records. And so they brought in a man called Bhaskar Menon, who was absolutely terrific. He decided he was going to make this work and make the American company sell it. And he did.”