Support for LAist comes from
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Stay Connected
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen

Share This

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

News

Lighters Held High: Music Biz Legend Don Kirshner Dies

With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today. 

Don Kirshner, a commanding musical authority, groundbreaking rock n' roll publisher and visionary television producer died yesterday of heart failure in Boca Raton, Florida. He was 76 years old. The multi-industry mogul launched songwriting talent in the 1960s, made the Monkees the Monkees, and gave a non lip-synced, live-music stage to many pre-legends of the 1970s on his late-night TV series "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert."

Bronx-born Kirshner reportedly "met Robert Cassotto at a candy shop in Washington Heights and the two wrote songs together, including Cassotto's first single, My First Love, which he recorded under the name Bobby Darin, reports NPR.

With publisher Al Nevins, Kirshner co-founded Aldon Music in 1958. Darin's "Splish Splash" went Top 10 that year and Aldon scored top songwriting teams Carole King/Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil, and Neil Sedaka/Howard Greenfield, notes NPR. Kirshner launched Dimension Records, sold Aldon to Screen Gems/Columbia and then became president in 1964. There, Kirshner began conceiving of a musical television hybrid. Enter: the Monkees and The Archies.

Kirshner later became the executive producer for ABC-TV's "In Concert" series in the early 1970s -- featuring The Allman Brothers Band, Alice Cooper, Curtis Mayfield and similar caliber performers -- before launching his own syndicated concert show in 1973 bringing in the likes of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Ramones, Sly & the Family Stone, Black Sabbath, ABBA, Sparks, Devo, Kansas, Lynyrd Skynyrd and, "countless others over its nine-year run," notes the L.A. Times.

Support for LAist comes from

Kirshner remained active in the music industry until the end of this life through music publishing and with a company called Rockrena but expressed disappointment that he was not inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of its many nonperformer honorees. "I don't want to sound like sour grapes," he said in 2004, notes the L.A. Times, "but I believe I should have been one of the first three or first five inducted. Seriously. I mean, they've got people in there that I trained, and I'm not in? It bothers me, on principle."

At LAist, we believe in journalism without censorship and the right of a free press to speak truth to those in power. Our hard-hitting watchdog reporting on local government, climate, and the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis is trustworthy, independent and freely accessible to everyone thanks to the support of readers like you.

But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.

We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.

Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.

Chip in now to fund your local journalism
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
(
LAist
)

Trending on LAist