Mentored by Lee Gillette,
John Hammond, and
Richard Bock, he worked with such musicians as
Chet Baker,
Lord Buckley,
Nat "King" Cole,
Stan Getz,
Chico Hamilton,
Stan Kenton,
Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross,
Peggy Lee,
Gerry Mulligan,
Ravi Shankar, and
Kay Starr. In his early twenties, he joined
Capitol Records. As well as being a producer, he was head of
A&R at Capitol. Venet produced a number of important Capitol clients, including
Ray Anthony,
The Buddies,
Glen Campbell,
Cashman, Pistilli, and West,
Jim Croce,
Ingrid Croce,
King Curtis,
Karen Dalton,
Bobby Darin,
The Four Preps,
George Gerdes, Jimmie Haskell,
Hearts & Flowers with
Bernie Leadon,
Hedge and Donna,
The Hondells,
The Honeys,
The Kingston Trio,
The Leaves,
the Lettermen,
Lothar and the Hand People,
Mad River, Maffit & Davies,
Ian Matthews and
Matthews Southern Comfort, Onzie Matthews,
Les McCann,
Fred Neil,
Vince Martin,
Ricky Nelson, Dinsmore Payne,
Lou Rawls,
Billy Lee Riley,
Murray Roman,
Linda Ronstadt,
Jack Scott, Maxine Sellers,
Serendipity Singers,
John Stewart,
the Stone Poneys,
Allan Taylor,
Guthrie Thomas, The Vettes,
Wendy Waldman,
The Walker Brothers,
Sammy Walker, and
Timi Yuro. He was executive producer on spoken word albums such as
John G. Neihardt's
Black Elk Speaks produced and recorded by William McIntyre, the Odyssey Theater Players in
The Chicago Conspiracy Trial,
Carl Reiner &
Mel Brooks'
2000 Year Old Man series, and
Orson Welles'
The Begatting of the President. When Capitol Vice President
Alan W. Livingston left to start
Mediarts Records, he took Venet with him. There Venet produced
Dory Previn (who wrote about their romantic relationship in "Lemon Haired Ladies") and
Don McLean. He stayed on a few years when the company was acquired by
United Artists. He also recorded artists including
Sam Cooke and the
Pilgrim Travelers,
Ivory Joe Hunter,
Sarah Kernochan,
Vince Martin and
the Tarriers, the Nashville Street Singers,
Ted Neeley,
Wayne Newton,
Jack Nitzche,
Shorty Rogers, Bonnie Murray Tamblyn,
Harriet Schock,
Gene Vincent,
Waddy Wachtel,
Clara Ward, Sarah Kim Wilde,
Bobby Womack, and
Frank Zappa. He also produced the original cast albums for the
Broadway musical Salvation and the
off-Broadway hit
The Last Session by
Steve Schalchlin - ironically, Venet's last session. Venet shares credits for the music in the skateboard film,
Skaterdater (1965). His brother, Steven, was also employed in the music industry as a songwriter. ==Later life and death==