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Don Kirshner dies at 76


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  • Kirshner, the veteran music mogul who shepherded the work of monstrously talented young songwriters to the top of the pop charts in the 1960s, launched the career of the Monkees, then made his face familiar to millions of rock fans as impresario of his late-night live-music TV series in the 1970s, died Monday of heart failure in Boca Raton, Fla., where he had lived for several years, his family members said. He was 76.

"Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" brought the biggest names in rock and pop music in the 1970s to television in "Rock Concert" in live performances instead of the usual lip-synced sessions that often characterized rock music on television. Each week Kirshner, in his distinctive Bronx accent, dryly introduced acts, including the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sly & the Family Stone, Devo and countless others over its nine-year run. His monotone style led to a famous parody that musician and bandleader Paul Shaffer delivered a number of times on "Saturday Night Live."

He helped dream up the Monkees, a fabricated pop-rock quartet designed to emulate much of the appeal of the Beatles for weekly viewers of the group's TV show, which also yielded a string of hit singles and albums. But the group members' struggles to inject their own musical sensibilities into the show led to a famous battle over creative control with Kirshner.

Guitarist and songwriter Michael Nesmith famously put his fist through the wall of Kirshner's bungalow during one of the more heated sessions.

"Donny was there with his attorney," Monkees drummer and singer Micky Dolenz told the Washington Post in 2004, "basically presenting us with this money and saying, in so many words, 'Why don't you shut up and cash the check?' And that's not the sort of thing you said to Mike Nesmith at the time. To be honest, I couldn't have cared less. I was 20 years old, making money. But Mike led this revolt, and out of camaraderie, we all went along."

The Monkees won, and eventually Kirshner was fired from his role with the group. He went on to form the Archies, one of pop's quintessential bubblegum acts targeting teen and preteen fans. The Archies logged four weeks at No. 1 in 1969 with their effervescent hit "Sugar, Sugar."

Even before the Monkees got started in 1965, Kirshner was already a music business heavyweight, having helped get a career going for his friend Bobby Darin, then starting a music publishing company that hired rising songwriters, including Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka and the teams of Gerry Goffin and Carole King and Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann.

Those writers crafted dozens of pop hits in the early to mid-'60s, many of them since lauded as classics of the Brill Building era. After "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" ended its run in the early 1980s, supplanted in some respects by the new kid on the block, MTV, Kirshner went into virtual retirement and moved to Florida, where he lived for decades in seclusion with his wife.

A series of bad business deals led him to file for bankruptcy in 2000. He also periodically expressed his disappointment that he was never inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as its many nonperformer honorees.

"I don't want to sound like sour grapes," he said in 2004, "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."

Kirshner is survived by his wife of 50 years, Sheila, children Ricky and Daryn and five grandchildren. Services are pending.

-- Randy Lewis

More at Pop & Hiss, The Times' music blog, and later at latimes.com/obituaries.

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Sad news to hear. Don Kirshner was a man some people found easy to dislike. But like other music moguls, his contributions and achievements far outweigh the negatives. I loved Rock Concert and for that alone, I salute the man and wish him well on journey, wherever it may take him.

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Sad day for the rock and roll world. Don bought music to us that noone else would. A true pioneer in the history of rock and roll.

Will never forget as a kid watching Don Kirchner's Rock Concert. Finally a show that rocks. No pop, no country no soultrain, no Bullshit. Finally the music I like.

and you are right Don, the RRHOF sucks ass. or should we just call it the music hall of fame and get it over with.

RIP sir. You will always be remembered.

For those about to rock, we salute U.

Here's a partial list of performers on his show(from Wikipedia):

ABBA

The Allman Brothers Band

Argent

Bad Company

Badfinger

Bachman-Turner Overdrive

Black Sabbath

Brownsville Station

Joan Baez

Bee Gees

Pat Benatar

Black Oak Arkansas

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blue Öyster Cult

Brooklyn Dreams

David Bowie

The Byrds

Harry Chapin

Cheap Trick

Alice Cooper

Jim Croce

Devo

Dixie Dregs

The Doobie Brothers

Eagles

Earth, Wind & Fire

Edgar Winter Group

Electric Light Orchestra

Bryan Ferry

Fleetwood Mac

Foghat

Rory Gallagher

Golden Earring

The Guess Who

George Harrison

The Hollies

James Gang

Billy Joel

Journey

James Gang

Kansas

B. B. King

KISS

Gladys Knight and the Pips

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Mahavishnu Orchestra

Mahogany Rush

Melissa Manchester

Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Frank Marino

Don McLean

Molly Hatchet

Montrose

Ted Nugent

New York Dolls

Ohio Players

Outlaws

The Police

Billy Preston

Prince & The Revolution

Ramones

Lou Rawls

Helen Reddy

The Rolling Stones

Linda Ronstadt

Todd Rundgren

Rush

Rose Royce

Santana

The Sex Pistols

Seals & Crofts

Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Slade

Sly & the Family Stone

Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes

Sylvester

Sparks

The Stampeders

Steely Dan

Steve Miller Band

Cat Stevens

Marc Bolan and T.Rex

Ike & Tina Turner

UFO

Uriah Heep

Village People

Joe Walsh

[(Bay City Rollers)]

Walter Murphy

War

Weather Report

Wishbone Ash

Stevie Wonder

that is one amazing list of talent!!!

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yeh......was on very late saturday nights here (12:30 i think) ...was always cool to watch.........introduced me to a lot of bands back then

REO speedwagon actually wasn't bad.....the chubby dude on guitar could crank at the time

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  • 1 year later...

Well yesterday I dug up some old Magazines with some Zep stuff in them, which would have been the reason for me buying them. I came across a Led Zeppelin quiz in a magazine and one of the questions was "What early 70's television show provided Zeppelin with thier first American TV exposure?"...and the answer was Don Kirshners Rock Concert.

Now I have read quite a few interviews about Zep throughout the years and was under the impression that Peter Grant would not allow them to do TV shows in the 70's. So I went to the website donkirshner.com and low and behold Led Zeppelin are on the list of bands that had performed on the show. Luckily you could clik on the name Led Zeppelin to find out the details of thier performance on the show. IT turns out that they did not perform live, but instead, gave the show permission to air footage from Zeppelin's 1976 film The Song Remains The Same. The footage was aired on September, 29, 1976.

It was a real good show, as I do remember watching it when I was alot younger. There was no lip syncing and it had a who's who of rock acts at the time. If you have some time take a look at donkirshner.com just to check out the very impressive list of bands that performed on the show from 1973 to 1981.

Rest in peace Don you did a great job. Northstar.

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I didn't mean to mislead you Dazedcat, or anyone else for that matter, but Don Kirshner actually passed away January 17, 2011. I in fact had no idea that he had passed away until I added to this thread about Zep's contribution to his show Rock Concert. I also had no idea that Davy Jones passed away today,... strange thing is Don Kirshner had quite alot to do with the music that the Monkee's did. Rest in peace Davy Jones. Northstar.

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I didn't mean to mislead you Dazedcat, or anyone else for that matter, but Don Kirshner actually passed away January 17, 2011. I in fact had no idea that he had passed away until I added to this thread about Zep's contribution to his show Rock Concert. I also had no idea that Davy Jones passed away today,... strange thing is Don Kirshner had quite alot to do with the music that the Monkee's did. Rest in peace Davy Jones. Northstar.

Oh, ok I had no idea he passed until I read this thread. Thanks for the post anyway, his Rock Concert used to mean something back in the day.

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