I should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.
AHMET ERTEGUNI should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.
AHMET ERTEGUNTheres two kinds of music: black soul music, and the white imitation thereof.
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 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 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 did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.
AHMET ERTEGUNThe songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops.
AHMET ERTEGUNIt is a great life, this life of music.
AHMET ERTEGUNThe main thing is that Ataturk saw the desperate condition of the countries that had not had an industrial revolution.
AHMET ERTEGUNI became a jazz fan quite early and never went off the path thereafter.
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 ERTEGUNEveryone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.
AHMET ERTEGUNMy father believed very strongly in Ataturk. Ataturk was a very powerful man and a man of great vision.
AHMET ERTEGUNA singer’s biographical film should have their music and their voice.
AHMET ERTEGUN