Remembering Don Kirshner

The man who brought us The Monkees and The Archies and later hosted the weekly TV show called Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, died Monday in Florida.  He was 76. People who lived in South Orange in the ‘60s and ‘70s may remember that Don Kirshner lived here, too.

When my husband, Alan Goldstein, moved to the area in 1974, his family looked at Kirshner’s Newstead home, which was on the market at the time.

“It had an amazing music room in the basement, which we thought was cool,” he said.

For those too young to remember the '70s and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, it was a show long before MTV that brought live performances to TV audiences by bands as varied as The Rolling Stones, Sly and the Family Stone, ABBA and The Ramones.

Long before that, in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, Kirshner put together great songwriters and singers to produce big hits, including Will You Love Me Tomorrow, written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin and recorded by the Shirelles.

Some of the talent  that Kirschner worked with also lived in this area.  In the '60s, King and Goffin lived in West Orange, which inspired the The Monkees’ hit Pleasant Valley Sunday.  Dionne Warwick lived in Maplewood in the 1970s, and I still get mail at my South Orange home for Shirley Alston Reeves of the Shirelles, who lived here until several years ago. I wish I knew where to forward it to!

If you lived here when Kirshner did, we hope you will share some memories of him in the comments section.