Don Kirshner - Thanks for all you've done

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Well this totally sucks folks! YouTube has taken down all of the Don Kirshner Rock Concert videos rendering this show useless. Sorry about that! I hope you caught it before it went down.

Update 2/9/11 - Some of the videos have now been magically restored - I'll be looking for new links to fill in the blanks.

During the '70s hardly a week went by that my friends and I sat down to watch Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. The show featured live performances of all the greatest bands of the day.

In his early years Don started off writing songs for Bobby Darin, although none became hits. During that time he also met Connie Francis while doing TV commercials with Darin.

In 1958, at age 21, he teamed up with Al Nevins to form Aldon Music. Soon afterwards they were producing songs for Neil Sedaka and Connie Francis. Eventually they formed their own independent recording company producing teen hits. He also hired such greats as Carol King and Barry Mann as song writers and produced the hits of Carol King, Neil Diamond and Bobby Darin among others and discovered the rock band Kansas.

Eventually he was asked to produce music for the TV show The Monkees and after that the animated show The Archies.

Don is perhaps best know for his ground breaking TV show In Concert With Don Kirshner which with its long format live performances was a refreshing break from the over-practiced, lip-synced music shows of the time.

Don passed away earlier this week. In memory tonight I bring you a selection of performances from Don's show running the gamut from ABBA to The Ramones, from Return to Forever to Johnny Winter and everyone in between, finishing with none other than The Monkees and a surprise ending.



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