I used to drink a bottle of vodka a day, every day, for about 40 years and it never occurred to me it’d kill me.
AHMET ERTEGUNThe first time I heard Clyde McPhatter singing with the Dominoes at the Apollo I just fell off my chair
More Ahmet Ertegun Quotes
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Another one is Eric Clapton. Another one is Phil Collins. Eminem, Kanye West I like all those people.
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Ataturk saw where history was going. He really did in Turkey what we are all hoping somebody will do in [Islamic] countries where fundamentalists thrive, that they get somebody today that has the vision that Ataturk had in 1915.
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My father was a very religious person. And he prayed five times a day. And he did that throughout his relationship with Ataturk.
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I 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.
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I first heard Laura Branigan sing live in my brother Nesuhi’s apartment, where we had gone because he had a very good piano. I immediately realized that she had a great pop voice, in the classical sense.
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Theres two kinds of music: black soul music, and the white imitation thereof.
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The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops.
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A singer’s biographical film should have their music and their voice.
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My father believed very strongly in Ataturk. Ataturk was a very powerful man and a man of great vision.
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At 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.
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The all-time greatest Atlantic group – The Drifters
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The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame will provide a center where the lives and the artistry of the greatest jazz musicians will be celebrated, and where people will come to learn about jazz, something to which my brother devoted his lifes work.
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Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.
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People 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.
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The main thing is that Ataturk saw the desperate condition of the countries that had not had an industrial revolution.
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