54 Quotes by Ahmet Ertegun

Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.

Flashy people aren't everything, you know. Even when they have frizzled hair.

There is a certain sort of excess that is interesting, don't you think? And America is, of course, the most excessive place.

You know what I'd really like to do? I'd like to record some white Chicago jazz.

America is remarkable, don't you think so? When I came to Washington, I was twelve years old. I spoke English with an English accent. It was assumed that it would go on in that way.

I love Ray Charles. He can still teach everybody a lot about how to make great music. Not necessarily how to make hits, but how to make great music. Of course, part of it is his incredible talent. Who are the greatest jazz singers in the world? Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Ray Charles.

I've been in the studio when you go through a track and you run down a track and you know even before the singer starts singing, you know the track is swinging ... you know you have a multimillion-seller hit - and what you're working on suddenly has magic,

The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops.

It is very important that the world know that there have been 500 years of peaceful coexistence in Turkey between the Jews and Moslems.