Hit Maker Kirshner

Don Kirshner was lauded in the music business for his "golden ear" and claimed to have sent 500 records up the pop charts starting in the late 1950s. Known to a later generation primarily as the late-night impresario and host of the syndicated "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert," Mr. Kirshner was one of the seminal forces behind the rise of rock music, especially bubblegum pop. Mr. Kirshner, who died Thursday at age 76, was at first a music publisher who purchased songs and matched them up with performers.

WSJ obit: Thanks in part to his efforts, Little Eva had a hit with "The Locomotion," The Shirelles topped the charts with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," and the Righteous Brothers scored with "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling," said by BMI to be the most-broadcast song of the 20th Century. Mr. Kirshner in person bore next to no resemblance to the stiff, monotonic television host, parodied by Paul Shaffer on "Saturday Night Live." He was instead a profane fast-talker with a reputation for honesty in a business that wasn't always on the level.
 
Raised in Manhattan and the Bronx, N.Y., Mr. Kirshner was the son of a tailor whose clients included Dina Washington and Pearl Bailey. He caught the music bug at an early age, and while attending Upsala College in East Orange, N.J., teamed with a young performer named Robert Walden Cassotto to write songs. The pair met with little success outside of selling an advertising jingle to a New Jersey furniture store, and the partnership soon foundered, though the friendship endured. Both parties were headed for pop-music glory. Mr. Cassotto soon became famous, renamed Bobby Darin.

 Mr. Kirshner put under contract a stable of young writers who were identified with Manhattan's Brill Building, including Carole King, Gerry Goffin and Neil Diamond.

And the obit in the Times: Don Kirshner, Shaper of Hit Records, Dies at 76