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 ERTEGUNMy first wife was a theater person.
More Ahmet Ertegun Quotes
-
-
You know you have a multimillion-seller hit – and what you’re working on suddenly has magic.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
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.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
I became a jazz fan quite early and never went off the path thereafter.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
Another one is Eric Clapton. Another one is Phil Collins. Eminem, Kanye West I like all those people.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
It is a great life, this life of music.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
If I’d have continued it might have killed me. My doctor said I should stick to wine.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
The main thing is that Ataturk saw the desperate condition of the countries that had not had an industrial revolution.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
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.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
I should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.
AHMET ERTEGUN -
The first time I heard Clyde McPhatter singing with the Dominoes at the Apollo I just fell off my chair
AHMET ERTEGUN -
I 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 ERTEGUN -
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 ERTEGUN -
There are still many great surviving talents: Stevie Winwood. Another great talent is Stevie Wonder.
AHMET ERTEGUN