Post by Rob Durkee on Jan 18, 2011 17:30:10 GMT -5
By ROCKIN' ROBIN
Don Kirshner, the entertainment mogul whose credits include the Brill Building songwriters, forming the Monkees, having a record label with the biggest single of 1969 and a series of TV rock concert shows in the 1970’s, died Monday (January 17, 2011) of heart failure in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 76.
Kirshner helped get the career of Bobby Darin started in the late 1950’s, then helped form the Brill Building songwriters who included Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond and the songwriting teams of Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil and Carole King-Gerry Goffin.
Kirshner dreamed of the Monkees as America’s answer to the Beatles in the mid-60’s. Though Kirshner lost a famous battle to the Monkees over creative control, he went on to form his own record label. The result included “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies, the #1 single of 1969 and the biggest bubble-gum single ever.
His “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” series included acts ranging from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Lynyrd Skyinyrd to Sly and the Family Stone.
Don Kirshner, the entertainment mogul whose credits include the Brill Building songwriters, forming the Monkees, having a record label with the biggest single of 1969 and a series of TV rock concert shows in the 1970’s, died Monday (January 17, 2011) of heart failure in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 76.
Kirshner helped get the career of Bobby Darin started in the late 1950’s, then helped form the Brill Building songwriters who included Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond and the songwriting teams of Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil and Carole King-Gerry Goffin.
Kirshner dreamed of the Monkees as America’s answer to the Beatles in the mid-60’s. Though Kirshner lost a famous battle to the Monkees over creative control, he went on to form his own record label. The result included “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies, the #1 single of 1969 and the biggest bubble-gum single ever.
His “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” series included acts ranging from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Lynyrd Skyinyrd to Sly and the Family Stone.
