Don Kirshner

Don Kirshner (born April 17, 1934 in New York City , † January 17, 2011 in Boca Raton , Florida ) was an influential American music publisher , producer and promoter from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Beginnings

Kirshner began as a composer in 1957 and wrote the songs Talk to Me Something and Wear My Ring (recorded in May 1957), Pretty Baby , Don't Call My Name and So Mean (August 21, 1957) for the still unknown Bobby Darin and Lost Love (July 16, 1958). At that time he also acted as the manager of Darin. The Wear My Ring , co-authored with Darin, was taken over by Gene Vincent as the B-side of Lotta Lovin ' (August 1957).

LaVern Baker took over from both Love Me Right as B-side of Humpty Dumpty Heart in October 1957 . Then he met Al Nevins, who left the instrumental trio Three Suns in 1954 . Of this trio, also the original of the later dates Platters -Covers Twilight Time , written by Al Nevins and his brother; the song sold over 3 million times in 1944.

Aldon Music Publishing

Don Kirshner and Al Nevins decided in May 1958 to found the music publisher Aldon Music Publishing (composed of the first letters of the partners). The offices were located in the 1650 Broadway building, New York, across from the famous Brill Building . In Howard Greenfield (text) and Neil Sedaka (music), the partners found two ambitious, albeit unsuccessful, authors.

Both wrote in July 1958 for Connie Francis Stupid Cupid , which reached No. 17 as the highest ranking. This was followed by the worse placed Fallin ' (October 1958) for Francis , the following song Frankie made ninth place after its release in May 1959. In the same year Kirshner got his pupil Sedaka a record deal with RCA Records. There Kirshner / Nevins produced 17 singles for Sedaka, from The Diary in December 1957 to Bad Girl in November 1963. Greenfield provided the lyrics to nine songs not sung by his partner Sedaka, whereby he strictly adhered to the publisher's strategy, trivial teenage issues to describe: Stairs to heaven, 16th birthdays and love for the neighbor boy formed the textual framework of the mass products.

It took until May 1960 for the publishing house to book its first million-seller and at the same time its first No. 1. Everybody's Somebody's Fool , composed by Howard Greenfield and his Aldon colleague Jerry Keller, by Connie Francis became a transatlantic hit, and in the German version "Love is a strange game" it was No. 1 in Germany. Sedaka / Greenfield provided the publisher with 50 hits with their teenage ballads by 1963, with an estimated turnover of around 20 million records.

Shortly after Sedaka / Greenfield, Aldon signed Barry Mann , who wrote with constantly changing authoring partners, before entering into a permanent writer and private partnership with Cynthia Weil. Only Gerry Goffin and Carole King came to Aldon as authoring partners. In 1962, Aldon had 18 songwriters between the ages of 19 and 26. This also included Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and other employed composers such as Jack Keller, Larry Kolber, Tony Wine or Gary Sherman, who appeared as co-authors alongside their regular colleagues.

The music publisher received 2 US cents per single, 50% of which went to the authors. To improve this income, the authors were often used as producers, so that a total of around 10% of sales were collected as " royalties ". By founding the record label "Dimension Records" (here many Goffin / King compositions appeared) in June 1962, Kirshner / Nevins were also able to skim off the profits due to a record company.

The years 1962 and 1963 were the most successful in Aldon publishing history, as around 300 songs registered for Aldon came onto the market in 1962 alone. Dimension released 13 songs in the first year after it was founded, eight of which reached the top 40. Kirshner sold the successful label on April 12, 1963 for two million US dollars to Columbia-Screen Gems Records.

Monkees and Archies

When his partner Nevins died in 1965, Kirshner neglected his music publishing company, especially as the market for romantic teen music weakened. The reason was the " British Invasion " of the Beatles , Rolling Stones or Animals . Kirshner has been named deputy record boss at Screen-Gems-Colpix. In April 1965 they bought the rights to an idea based on the Beatles film Yeah Yeah Yeah for a sitcom series about a fictional rock group called " The Monkees ". On September 8, 1965, the band members were searched for by the star magazine " Variety ".

After the casting , there were four boys left who - after lengthy singing and recording rehearsals - made their debut on the NBC series on September 12, 1966. The song material for the inexperienced group came from Aldon composers. In addition, Kirshner took the team Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart under contract, so that enough compositions were ready. With a strong vehicle for a weekly national television series on NBC , success should then be possible despite the musical weaknesses.

Test was their first single (written by Boyce / Hart), Last Train to Clarksville , which was released in August 1966 when the series began. Instrumented by professional session musicians , the song sold 1.9 million copies and reached the US No. 1. Four of the six singles were awarded a gold record. A dispute over his share of the Monkees' income and the release of the song A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You , composed by Neil Diamond for the Monkees, prompted Kirshner to leave Screen-Gems in March 1967. The group's success also clearly waned.

Kirshner was looking for a copy of this success story. When CBS premiered the cartoon series The Archies on September 14, 1968 , he gave the cartoon characters a musical identity. In the same month, a group of session musicians took over Sugar, Sugar , written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim , a subsequent transatlantic No. 1. This song was sung by Ron Dante , accompanied by Toni Wine, co-author Andy Kim and Ellie Greenwich (Author's wife of Jeff Barry). The television series as a promotional vehicle brought the Archies record sales of over 6 million copies and made the song the anthem of the music genre of bubblegum music.

Rock on TV

Kirshner has been hired by ABC to produce and consult with the weekly evening show In Concert ; the first television show aired on November 24, 1972. But already in September 1973 he got out to produce his own television show Kirshner's Rock Concert , on whose premiere show on September 27, 1973 the Rolling Stones (recorded in London) performed. The show, which was sold to local stations, was broadcast throughout the USA until 1981. During this time Kirshner contributed to the reunification of the Greenfield / Sedaka team, which enabled Sedaka's rise as a recognizable mature interpreter (LP The Tra-la-la Days Are Over , August 1973).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/don-kirshner-bubblegum-music-promoter-dies-at-77/
2. ↑ Ken Emerson, Always Magic In The Air , 2005, p. 74
3. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 276

Web links

• Portrait of Don Kirshner (English)
• Portrait Three Suns (English)
• Don Kirshner in the Internet Movie Database (English)