I wonder if he knew that his epitaph would always be ” the guy who created the Monkees and the Archies”?
A rather unfair and shallow synopsis of Don. Being a GenXer, he’s more well known to my age bracket for his syndicated show Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. How vividly I remember him introducing Kansas with what would become their first (mainstream) hit “Dust in the Wind” at a sleepover. Kirshner’s show was also my first encounter with Van Halen (David Lee Roth being interviewed between videos), Adam & the Ants (my initial reaction wasn’t positive due to me being only 13) and Bowie sans my parents’ ongoing commentary of “what a freak!” One could argue, his program was a precursor to MTV (circa 1981-84, the good years) alongside HBO’s Video Jukebox and Mike Nesmith’s Elephant Parts; rather funny how the former Kirshner “creation” was labeled the grandfather of MTV, not the Svengali.
More details are here in his obit.