cracked that formula

That reminds of Frank Zappa in 1987 interview where he talked about "cigar-chomping old guys". The quote is not verbatim and it has some paraphrases. There doesn't seem to be a verbatim source. There's only copypasta with editorializing that annoyed me so I edited it.

"Remember the 60s? That era that a lot of people have these glorious memories of? They really weren't that great, those years. One thing that did happen in the 60s was some music of an unusual and experimental nature did get recorded, did get released. [The executives of the day were] cigar-chomping old guys who looked at the product and said, 'I don't know. Who knows what it is? Record it, stick it out. If it sells, alright!' "

"We were better off with those guys. Than we are with the hip, young executives making decisions about what people should hear. The hippies are more conservative than the conservative 'old guys' ever were."

Frank Zappa explains the decline of the music business - YouTube