Quoted in The Greatest Record Man of All Time ↑

The sort of record we need to make

Here’s the sort of record we need to make. There’s a black man living in the outskirts of Opelousas, Louisiana. He works hard for his money, he has to be tight with a dollar. One morning he hears a song on the radio. It’s urgent, blusesy, authentic and irresistible. He can’t live without this record. He drops everything, jumps in his pickup and drives twenty-five miles to the first record store he finds. If we can make that kind of music, we can make it in the business.

Ahmet Ertegun, as quoted in “The Greatest Record Man of All Time”