Eddie Rosenblatt, president of Geffen Records during its days as one of the hottest record labels in the music business, died Tuesday at a hospital in Santa Barbara of pneumonia at 89.

Rosenblatt led Geffen in the 1980s and 1990s, helming a roster that included Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Whitesnake, Peter Gabriel, Sonic Youth and Xtc.

Rosenblatt was born in 1934 in Queens, New York. After serving in the U.S. Army and dabbling in the Macy’s management-training program, he moved to Cleveland to work at Cosnat Distributing.

From there, he moved on to Main Line Distribution, then joined A&m Records in 1967 and then Warner Bros. Records in 1971, where he helped run the company’s distribution arm, Wea.

Rosenblatt’s work at Warner Bros. included working with Joni Mitchell, who was managed by David Geffen, and led Geffen to hire him as president of his newly founded namesake label in 1980.

The Geffen...