Ahmet Ertegun Quotes

The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops. That includes the Irving Berlins and the Hoagy Carmichaels, the Harold Arlens, Cole Porter.

I think it's better to burn out than to fade away ... it's better to live out your days being very, very active - even if it destroys you - than to quietly ... disappear.

My father was in Ataturk's closest group. They lived together during the War of Liberation in Turkey.

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. Laura had an instinctive feel for music and melody, and her delivery was sensational. 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. 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.

Theres two kinds of music: black soul music, and the white imitation thereof.

Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.

Fifty years from now, people will still be listening to Led Zeppelin. They won't even remember me.

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.

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. If I'd have continued it might have killed me. My doctor said I should stick to wine.

There is a certain sort of excess that is interesting, don't you think? And America is, of course, the most excessive place.

I'd be happy if people said that I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.

My first wife was a theater person.

Soul lyrics, soul music came at about the same time as the civil rights movement, and it's very possible that one influenced the other.

I've lived very well all my life, even when I had no money, and there's very little I can't afford.

Whenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write - no matter how bad they are - get recorded.

Jesse Stone did more to develop the basic rock-and-roll sound than anybody else.

I love Ray Charles. He can still teach everybody a lot about how to make great music. Not necessarily how to make hits, but how to make great music. Of course, part of it is his incredible talent. Who are the greatest jazz singers in the world? Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Ray Charles.

It is a great life, this life of music,

I became a jazz fan quite early and never went off the path thereafter.

When I first heard Ray Charles, he was a flop artist on a small label in California. He hadn't sold any records. And I bought his contract for $2,500.

There's been so much bad blood between the Kurds and the Turks.

As I grew up, I began to discover a little bit about the situation of black people in America and experienced an immediate empathy with the victims of such senseless discrimination. Because although the Turks were never slaves, they were regarded as enemies within Europe because of their Muslim beliefs.

Flashy people aren't everything, you know. Even when they have frizzled hair.

It is very important that the world know that there have been 500 years of peaceful coexistence in Turkey between the Jews and Moslems.

I don't use the computer. But my secretary does. I want to take some computer courses because I'm interested in some of the access to some of the illegal things on the Internet. I'm just kidding.

The main thing is that Ataturk saw the desperate condition of the countries that had not had an industrial revolution. 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.

You know what I'd really like to do? I'd like to record some white Chicago jazz.