If I’d have continued it might have killed me. My doctor said I should stick to wine.
AHMET ERTEGUNIf I’d have continued it might have killed me. My doctor said I should stick to wine.
AHMET ERTEGUNI’ve been in the studio when you go through a track and you run down a track and you know even before the singer starts singing, you know the track is swinging.
AHMET ERTEGUNPeople like Clyde McPhatter who came out of the black churches – like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin – were all church singers who became great pop singers because gospel singing is very close to the blues.
AHMET ERTEGUNI consider Laura to be one of my best signings, and I am proud to have had such a great singer in my career in the record business. We miss her dearly.
AHMET ERTEGUNMy father believed very strongly in Ataturk. Ataturk was a very powerful man and a man of great vision.
AHMET ERTEGUNI came close to signing Elvis Presley. I offered $25,000 for his contract and they asked for $45,000 and I just didn’t have the other $20,000.
AHMET ERTEGUNMy father was a very religious person. And he prayed five times a day. And he did that throughout his relationship with Ataturk.
AHMET ERTEGUNWhenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write – no matter how bad they are – get recorded.
AHMET ERTEGUNThe first time I heard Clyde McPhatter singing with the Dominoes at the Apollo I just fell off my chair
AHMET ERTEGUNLaura had an instinctive feel for music and melody, and her delivery was sensational.
AHMET ERTEGUNIt is a great life, this life of music.
AHMET ERTEGUNThe songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops.
AHMET ERTEGUNI became a jazz fan quite early and never went off the path thereafter.
AHMET ERTEGUNEveryone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.
AHMET ERTEGUNA singer’s biographical film should have their music and their voice.
AHMET ERTEGUNAt a time when it was very brave to do because Ataturk was cutting off the heads of the imams. And people thought that that was foolhardy of my father.
AHMET ERTEGUN