Ahmet Ertegun discovered Ray Charles, introduced Eric Clapton to Aretha Franklin, signed the Rolling Stones and founded Atlantic Records.

Ahmet Ertegun, a young Turk - literally  - had a passion for the African-American music he heard in segregated clubs in Washington, DC, in the 1940s. He sent these sounds to England, where they merged with the European sensibility, and he brought this revolutionary new genre back across the ocean. He found Ray Charles, he introduced Eric Clapton to Aretha Franklin, he signed the Rolling Stones. He created talent and taste, he defined careers, he changed lives - Ertegun and his small Atlantic Records label determined the course of what we have listened to for decades.