Seymour Stein record exec who signed Madonna dead at 80

NEW YORK — Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launch the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died Sunday at age 80. Stein, who helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was himself inducted into the Rock Hall in 2005, died of cancer in Los Angeles, according to a statement from his family. Stein was born in New York City in 1942. As a teenager he worked summers at Cincinnati-based King Records, James Brown’s label, and by his mid-20s had co-founded Sire Productions, soon to become…