A singer's biographical film should have their music and their voice.

Whenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write - no matter how bad they are - get recorded.

The first time I heard Clyde McPhatter singing with the Dominoes at the Apollo I just fell off my chair

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

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.

People like Clyde McPhatter who came out of the black churches - like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin - were all church singers who became great pop singers because gospel singing is very close to the blues.

I came close to signing Elvis Presley. I offered $25,000 for his contract and they asked for $45,000 and I just didn't have the other $20,000. I should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.