Remembering Don Kirshner - The Cultute of Pop, DVD, Movie, TV, Pop Culture Review

Remembering Don Kirshner

Posted: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 6:29:21 PST

LEGENDARY MUSIC MOGUL PASSES AT AGE 76

*"There's nothing like a song..."-Don Kirshner (1934-2011)

At first, Donald Kirshner wanted to excel in sports while growing up, but as a great rock and roll philosopher once sang, “You can't always get what you want”. Instead, the Bronx born boy found his calling in another role: A true pop and rock music impresario.

Songwriter, manager, producer, mentor, music publisher...about the only thing “The Man With The Golden Ear” couldn't do was write songs very well or sing. Such disadvantages proved moot having the likes of Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Carole King amongst others to take care of the former. Handling the latter?: Bobby Darin, The Coasters, The Shirelles, The Drifters,The Shangri-La's, The Crystals, The Ronettes, The Righteous Brothers, Elvis Presley and many more including the band many referred to as the American Beatles: The Monkees.

Don Kirshner died Monday of heart failure at the age of 76 in Boca Raton, Florida leaving behind a musical legacy that began in the 1950's courtesy of a friendship with fellow local Robert Cassotto, a brash, ambitious drummer who wanted to get into songwriting. Working the commercial jingles route along with attemptss at pop music, nothing really jelled until Robert composed one on his own: A novelty type song called Splish Splash...by which time Cassotto had changed his name for the stage to a more marquee friendly Bobby Darin.

Kirshner proved equally driven, and after his partnership with Darin ended, he invested in an office building with local musician Al Nevin, christening their new venture Aldon, Offering a place for struggling songwriters to hone their craft, very little time passed before they tapped into a goldmine of ever expanding talent courtesy of the songwriters noted above, and in the pre-Beatles era of 1959 to 1963, the hits that emerged reads like a jukebox crammed with classics: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, Spanish Harlem, Up On The Roof, On Broadway, Leader Of The Pack, The Loco Motion, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Da Doo Ron Ron, and dozens more that made Kirshner one of the richest music publishers in the world.

Yet, he and Nevin chose to sell their company to Screen Gems, a television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures which opened up a new set of doors for Kirshner. Becoming music supervisor to the company, amongst hie first contributions were two now classic television theme songs composed by his songwriting teams: I Dream Of Jeannie and Bewitched. But those proved tiny to the music mogul's next assignment.

In 1965, television producers Bert Schneider and Robert Rafelson aspired to create a half hour comedy in the vein of A Hard Day's Night, the feature film debut by worldwide musical sensations The Beatles. Months later following auditions, a Pre-Fab Four comprised of Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork assembled to record with The Man With The Golden Ear overseeing all aspects from the picking of material to the assigning of producers.

Shortly before their TV debut, Kirshner's new record label Colgems released the self-titled album of The Monkees, supported by its debut single which caught listener's ears from the start of a Beatles by way of The Byrds guitar lick: Last Train To Clarksville, which became one of the biggest records in the fall of 1966...and the album was one of the fastest selling long players knocking the Fab Four out of the number one slot. Kirshner sensed a goldmine, wanting to strike again while the iron was hot, thus More Of The Monkees arrived literally weeks later, despite the fact that several of the tunes were rejects for the first album. 

Success aside, little did Kirshner suspect that storm clouds were brewing....for one thing, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork wanted more creative control over the music they were recording, rather than letting studio musicians and staff songwriters do it all. So strong were opinions of the sole musicians of the make believe musical television quartet, that they convinced Dolenz to master the drum kit for real and Jones taking up occasional keyboard work in addition to percussion duties. In the end, The Monkees were no longer a pretend project...They were ready to hit the road.

But a stumbling block appeared as 1967 began, for the band no clue that their second album had been released until a member of their concert touring part­y grabbed it from a shop. To say they were shocked is putting it mildly...Artwork, the content, Kirshner's slightly condescending liner ­notes; needless to say, Camp Monkees wasn't happy. Ironically in the midst of their dissatisfaction, what would prove to be the biggest selling single of their career was in the midst of a near two month stand at number one: I'm A Believer backed by the top 20 smash, the equally classic (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone.

During some time off from shooting their television show and recording a few weeks later, Kirshner arranged for a big photo op moment to present the band with royalty checks and gold record awards at the famed Beverly Hills Hotel. Such symbolism did nothing to deter Nesmith from seeking answers from Kirshner for musical control...and the mood quickly shifted from pleasant to profane as the angry guitarist rammed his fist into a hotel room wall, reportedly saying to Kirshner, “That could have been your face”, storming out in the process.

Believe it or not, that wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back...for a short time later after the band recorded two songs on their own for the first time for single release, Kirshner talked Jones into doing vocals for some pre-recorded backing tracks during a New York session. Against the wishes of Colgems and the band, one of those songs became the B-side to A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You in Canada instead of the group recorded The Girl I Knew Somewhere, which backed the former song in most other record label territories.

Combined with the band's dissatisfaction and anger from the powers that be over his actions, Kirshner got his walking papers and found himself without a steady industry gig for the first time in his career. Instead of moping about, he found inspiration in a comic book his son was reading: Archie.

Thus began another make believe band in the form of a weekly Saturday morning cartoon series, and better yet for Kirshner, one that wouldn't talk back. Along with singer/songwriter Ron Dante, The Archies proved to be a smash success with both television audiences and record buyers for the better part of two years with Top 40 hits Bang Shang A Lang, Who's Your Baby, Jingle Jangle and a 1969 smash that became one of the biggest records of that year, and a certified bubblegum pop classic: The aptly named Sugar, Sugar.

Before Archie-mania subsided, Kirshner moved on to another project: A newly self-titled record label whose first major signing came in the form of a most unusual bar band that specialized in progressive music in the vein of Yes and King Crimson. It took a few albums before all the elements clicked, but Kirshner's continued faith in the rock sextet known as Kansas gave the the rock world one of its finest bands of the late 1970's-early 1980's courtesy of classic albums including Leftoverture and Point Of Know Return, and many rock radio smashes, among them Carry On Wayward Son, What's On My Mind?, Portrait (He Knew) and Dust In The Wind.

Kansas also benefited via another one of Kirshner's ventures, the creation of Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, a weekly 90 minute TV extravaganza that featured a wide array of rock and roll artists, many of whom had never appeared on the small screen before; KISS, The Ramones, David Bowie, The Eagles, Black Sabbath, Journey, Billy Joel, The Police and countless others.

Additionally, Kirshner's ground breaking program featured stand-up comedy appearances by future legends including Arsenio Hall, Billy Crystal and David Letterman, the latter of whom paid tribute to him on his late night talk show Tuesday night during commercial break segues via Late Show musical director Paul Shaffer. A long time fan/personal friend of Kirshner's whose impersonation of his stilted, stiff Rock Concert introductions on Saturday Night Live drew laughs not only from viewers, but also from no less the source himself.

With the dawn of disco overtaking both rock and pop as the public's musical fancy, Kirshner's influence began to wane in the 1980's as both Rock Concert and Kirshner Records came to an end. As the new millinieum approached, bad financial investments forced him to declare bankruptcy while his legacy continued to be ignored by the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. But the pain of that snub was lessened somewhat by Kirshner's induction into the Songwriter's Hall Of Fame in 2007, an honor he humbly accepted before former protegees including Sedaka, Dante, Tony Orlando and Toni Wine.

 At the time of his death, Krishner was set to take his knack for discovering talent to the web as chief creative creative officer for the forthcoming online company Rockrena, which was scheduled to launch later this year. Funeral services were still pending at the time of this writing

 Kirshner is survived by his wife Sheila (married for  50 years), son Ricky, `daughter Daryn and five grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to the Don Kirshner Scholarship Fund: 70 West 36^th Street, Suite 701, New York, NY 10018)

-J.R.

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*Quote from Rolling Stone, 2009