Ahmet Ertegun Quotes

When I first went out on the road with Larry Williams, there was also, like, The Coasters, The Drifters, and The Flamingos.

My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you'll see you had to be sharp onstage.

The groups, though, were my inspiration way back then. I liked Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers.

When I was a backup singer, I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed every minute of what I was doing with sessions, because The Blossoms, the group that I was singing with, they were the first black background singers. There weren't any.

Doo-wop is the true music to me, man. Doo-wop was what nurtured me and grew me into who I am, and I guess even when I was in school, the teacher probably thought I had ADD or something every day, because I'd be beating on the desks, singing like the Flamingos or the Spaniels or Clyde McPhatter or somebody.

Guys like Clyde McPhatter used to sing their tail ends off!

Ricky Washington is from a Baptist church in Miami, Florida, and he can pretty much sing anything. We just started working it up at soundcheck, and holy smokes, it's just great! The audience gets to singing. So there's that stuff to do - find some old obscure R&B stuff - because we can do it justice.

I'd had it as a member of a group. I sang with the Moonglows for two years, and that was enough.

The first record I was really into was the Drifters' 'When My Little Girl Is Smiling.'

Jagged Edge is one of my favorite R&B groups.

My grandfather was actually a doo-wop singer in Panama. They were called The Dominos. He was the high soprano voice.

When I was a reporter in Bristol, which I was between the years 1954 and 1960, the newspaper would get tickets for whoever showed up to play a gig at the big hall down the road, so I saw some wonderful people. The Everly Brothers, for example.

The first piece of music that captured my imagination was probably Ray Charles Live At Newport.

When I go to a gig and I hear a song that I really like, a song that hits home to me or hits an emotional nerve, if I could ever recreate that for someone, that would be the ultimate goal.

The most memorable moment was playing drums with Bob Dylan.

Doo-wop is special music to me because it's so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.

I love inspirational R&B, like Mary J. Blige and Jennifer Hudson. I want to do that. That kind of music stays with you.

I have never done any other job. I have sung in bands since I was 15. I left school completely unqualified. I have no other training.

I've sung background for a couple of bands.

I'd love to a duet with Luther Vandross.

But I love singing, and I've been singing backup for friends' bands.

I grew up loving Etta James and Aretha Franklin and Al Green and Otis Redding, and I just love old-school R&B. It's just music that moves you and grooves you, and it was very important, I think, for music.

I was at the Apollo Theater all the time, skipping school, and I worked in a barbershop. That's how I started with doo-wop. Now I've come full circle. I did all kinds of music. I used to work on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley.

It would be neat to sing with Roger Miller.