[Dixielandjazz] Irving Green Obit.

[Steve Barbone]

Who was Irving Green? Well, he co-founded the record company that recorded
Louis Armstrong's "Hello Dolly". That record became #1 on the charts
displacing the Beatles back in 1964.

Yeah, yeah, I know, most of us pooh pooh that because it isn't "artistic"
Dixieland. Nonsense. It was, by any other standard, a great accomplishment
by Mercury Records as well as fresh music from Pops:-) VBG.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone 


Irving Green, 90, a Founder of Record Label, Is Dead

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - July 3, 2006

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., July 2 (AP) ‹ Irving Green, a co-founder of Mercury
Records, who helped break the industry's color barrier by promoting artists
like Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington and the Platters, died here on
Saturday. He was 90.

His grandson Jonathan Ross said Mr. Green died of natural causes.

In 1945, Mr. Green founded Mercury along with Berle Adams and Arthur
Talmadge and helped turn the independent outfit into a major label. Mercury
recorded Louis Armstrong's first No. 1 hit, "Hello, Dolly!" in 1964, as well
as hits by other artists, including Frankie Laine and Patti Page.

In 1964, Mercury became the first major label to have a high-level executive
who was black when Mr. Green hired the trumpeter Quincy Jones as vice
president.

After Mercury was sold to Polygram Records, in the mid-1970's, Mr. Green
turned to land development, building hundreds of homes in Iran. After the
1979 Iranian revolution, he became a developer in Palm Springs.

Mr. Green is survived by his wife, Pamela; two daughters, Kelli and Roberta;
three grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.