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.

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

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

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

It is a great life, this life of music.

The main thing is that Ataturk saw the desperate condition of the countries that had not had an industrial revolution. Ataturk saw where history was going. He really did in Turkey what we are all hoping somebody will do in [Islamic] countries where fundamentalists thrive, that they get somebody today that has the vision that Ataturk had in 1915.

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.