Artie Kornfeld (song writer , musician, performer, rock and roll executive and Father of the Woodstock Music Festival) and I met when we were students at Adelphi University in Garden City NY. He was a talented musician and was trying to break into the music business. He would take me to the iconic Brill Building in Manhattan where he first started working as a writer of rock and roll music for Don Kirschner.
Don Kirschner (Aldon Records) his boss gave him a draw of $50 a week until he produced some music that would propel him into higher income. At the Brill building I was able to see the rehearsals and meet some of the future rock and roll greats who were not yet stars but were part of the background singers not the lead singers. Later they became famous and great entertainers. I did not realize the magnitude of what was happening around me and in front of me.
I remember within a short time Artie was driving a new Chevy Corvette. I was driving a $250 Chevy Belair. He dropped out of college and started his new life in the world of rock and roll. I was working my way through college doing different jobs. Stocking shelves in Food Fair on the weekends at night, working in the summer on the East River in the hot warehouses moving goods and then going home eating dinner and then working at the Main Street movie theater till midnight as an usher . My first night on the job at the movie theater I was trained by the mother of Fran Drescher of the TV sitcom “The Nanny”. Great lady.
I remember whatever floor in the Brill building you went to there was some young ambitious talented artist who was dreaming of becoming a star. I did not know any of them. Some of the talent walking around were Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Carol King, Tony Orlando, The Angels, The Shirelles, Toni Wine, Phil Spector, Neil Sedaka, Burt Bacharach, Neil Diamond, Connie Francis, The Shangri-Las, Gene Pitney and so many more. I did not know or recognize most of them . They were still building their futures.
I hung around with Artie not realizing where I was and what was happening right in front of my eyes. To me it was just another office building with musical instruments, sound rooms and young talented rock and roll guys and gals trying to make it in music. At one point there were over 160 music businesses in the building.
The Brill Building offered a unique environment where a songwriter could find a publisher, get a demo cut, and promote a record, all within the same building or its immediate vicinity. Young, talented , charismatic Artie was sent out to the West Coast to work with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Jan of Jan and Dean, Hence the first big hit for Artie was “Dead Man’s Curve” a collaboration. Artie went on and became the youngest VP of Rock and Roll for Capital Records or any company. He evolved into a prolific composer, publisher, producer, and promoter with over 150 albums and 75 Billboard-charted songs to his name.
Later on in his career he left there to produce one of the largest outdoor music festivals in history known as The Woodstock Music Festival in Bethel NY collaborating with Michael Lang.. That is why Artie is called “The Father of Woodstock”.