I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.
AHMET ERTEGUNI did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.
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 ERTEGUNLaura had an instinctive feel for music and melody, and her delivery was sensational.
AHMET ERTEGUNI should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.
AHMET ERTEGUNMy father believed very strongly in Ataturk. Ataturk was a very powerful man and a man of great vision.
AHMET ERTEGUNIf I’d have continued it might have killed me. My doctor said I should stick to wine.
AHMET ERTEGUNThe first time I heard Clyde McPhatter singing with the Dominoes at the Apollo I just fell off my chair
AHMET ERTEGUNThe main thing is that Ataturk saw the desperate condition of the countries that had not had an industrial revolution.
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 ERTEGUNYou know you have a multimillion-seller hit – and what you’re working on suddenly has magic.
AHMET ERTEGUNI 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 ERTEGUNWhenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write – no matter how bad they are – get recorded.
AHMET ERTEGUNI 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.
AHMET ERTEGUNAtaturk 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.
AHMET ERTEGUNThe all-time greatest Atlantic group – The Drifters
AHMET ERTEGUN