Post by Rob Durkee on Jan 18, 2011 20:00:32 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 Cash Box's biggest single of 1969 and a series of TV rock concert shows in the 1970’s, died Monday of heart failure in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 76.
Don Kirshner's ability to develop and nuture music acts caused Time Magazine to call him "The Man With The Golden Ear." The list of performers Kirshner was behind is endless, but here's a partial list...Bobby Darin, the Eagles, Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Joel, the Police, the Archies and the Monkees. Kirshner also 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. Hundreds of musicians tried out for the Monkees. One of them was a then-unknown man in his early 30's named Charles Manson.
The Monkees exploded onto the music scene in the fall of 1966 with their own TV show and two straight Cash Box #1's, "Last Train to Clarksville" and "I'm A Believer." However, a dispute over the next single release and creative control led to Kirshner's being fired and ending his ties with the Monkees. Even though the song also went to #1 on the Cash Box chart, "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" was released without the Monkees' persmission...and it led to a knock-down drag-out meeting.
During that meeting, Monkee Michael Nesmith reportedly punched a hole in the wall. As fellow Monkee Micky Dolenz noted in an interview with The Washington Post in 2004, "Don was basically presenting us with the money when he said 'Why don't you shut up and cash the check?' but that's not the kind of thing you said to Michael Nesmith at the time. To be honest, I couldn't have cared less. I was 20 years old and making money. But Michael led the revolt and the rest of us went along with it."
Though Kirshner lost that famous battle to the Monkees, he went on to form his own record label, Kirshner Records. The result included “Sugar Sugar” by the studio group the Archies. It was Cash Box Magazine's #1 single of 1969 and the biggest bubble-gum single ever. According to Wikipedia, Kirshner headed two other record labels--Chairman and Dimension.
Kirshner's voice was even sampled in a Blue Oyster Cult LP cut entitled, "The Marshall Plan." In the recording, you hear him saying "This is Don Kirshner. And tonight on Don Kirshner's rock concert..."
His “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” series included acts ranging from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Sly and the Family Stone.
Don Kirshner isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but hopefully that will change. He expressed his disappointment about it in a 2004 interview, saying, "I don't want to sound like sour grapes, but I believe I should've been one of the first three to five inducted. Serously, I mean, they've got people in there that I trained...and I'm not in? It bothers me, on principle."
Don Kirshner, the entertainment mogul whose credits include the Brill Building songwriters, forming the Monkees, having a record label with Cash Box's biggest single of 1969 and a series of TV rock concert shows in the 1970’s, died Monday of heart failure in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 76.
Don Kirshner's ability to develop and nuture music acts caused Time Magazine to call him "The Man With The Golden Ear." The list of performers Kirshner was behind is endless, but here's a partial list...Bobby Darin, the Eagles, Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Joel, the Police, the Archies and the Monkees. Kirshner also 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. Hundreds of musicians tried out for the Monkees. One of them was a then-unknown man in his early 30's named Charles Manson.
The Monkees exploded onto the music scene in the fall of 1966 with their own TV show and two straight Cash Box #1's, "Last Train to Clarksville" and "I'm A Believer." However, a dispute over the next single release and creative control led to Kirshner's being fired and ending his ties with the Monkees. Even though the song also went to #1 on the Cash Box chart, "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" was released without the Monkees' persmission...and it led to a knock-down drag-out meeting.
During that meeting, Monkee Michael Nesmith reportedly punched a hole in the wall. As fellow Monkee Micky Dolenz noted in an interview with The Washington Post in 2004, "Don was basically presenting us with the money when he said 'Why don't you shut up and cash the check?' but that's not the kind of thing you said to Michael Nesmith at the time. To be honest, I couldn't have cared less. I was 20 years old and making money. But Michael led the revolt and the rest of us went along with it."
Though Kirshner lost that famous battle to the Monkees, he went on to form his own record label, Kirshner Records. The result included “Sugar Sugar” by the studio group the Archies. It was Cash Box Magazine's #1 single of 1969 and the biggest bubble-gum single ever. According to Wikipedia, Kirshner headed two other record labels--Chairman and Dimension.
Kirshner's voice was even sampled in a Blue Oyster Cult LP cut entitled, "The Marshall Plan." In the recording, you hear him saying "This is Don Kirshner. And tonight on Don Kirshner's rock concert..."
His “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” series included acts ranging from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Sly and the Family Stone.
Don Kirshner isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but hopefully that will change. He expressed his disappointment about it in a 2004 interview, saying, "I don't want to sound like sour grapes, but I believe I should've been one of the first three to five inducted. Serously, I mean, they've got people in there that I trained...and I'm not in? It bothers me, on principle."
