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 ERTEGUNLaura had an instinctive feel for music and melody, and her delivery was sensational.
More Ahmet Ertegun Quotes
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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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If I’d have continued it might have killed me. My doctor said I should stick to wine.
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Theres two kinds of music: black soul music, and the white imitation thereof.
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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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It is a great life, this life of music.
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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 believed very strongly in Ataturk. Ataturk was a very powerful man and a man of great vision.
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Laura had an instinctive feel for music and melody, and her delivery was sensational.
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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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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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I should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.
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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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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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A singer’s biographical film should have their music and their voice.
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I became a jazz fan quite early and never went off the path thereafter.
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There’s been so much bad blood between the Kurds and the Turks.
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I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.
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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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You know you have a multimillion-seller hit – and what you’re working on suddenly has magic.
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My first wife was a theater person.
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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.
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The all-time greatest Atlantic group – The Drifters
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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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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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The first time I heard Clyde McPhatter singing with the Dominoes at the Apollo I just fell off my chair
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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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