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.
AHMET ERTEGUNEveryone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.
More Ahmet Ertegun Quotes
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Everybody at Atlantic knew that we had a winner in this young lady, and she came through with great hits that will be remembered for many years to come.
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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 should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.
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There are still many great surviving talents: Stevie Winwood. Another great talent is Stevie Wonder.
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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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There’s been so much bad blood between the Kurds and the Turks.
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The all-time greatest Atlantic group – The Drifters
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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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Whenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write – no matter how bad they are – get recorded.
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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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I’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.
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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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Another one is Eric Clapton. Another one is Phil Collins. Eminem, Kanye West I like all those people.
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A singer’s biographical film should have their music and their voice.
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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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