A Hidden Gem Among Manhattan Skyscrapers

Walking through midtown Manhattan, you’ll see hundreds of different buildings. Odds are, you’ll be a lot more focused on the places that you see in Times Square than on a random building with an Italian restaurant and a nail salon on West 56th Street. What you would then miss is the significance that seemingly insignificant building held for the people who once frequented it. The building on West 56^th Street has not only been around for over one hundred years, but starting in 1947, it also called itself the original home of one of the biggest record companies in the world: Atlantic Records (Ertegun). In a time when people of color suffered racial discrimination, Atlantic Records and its owner Ahmet Ertegun did not discriminate, producing records for anyone who loved music. Music legends such as Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles walked the halls of this building. The original home of Atlantic Records embodies New York City’s social progression to include all people in music regardless of race. Such progress is possible because of the efforts of Ertegun, who had himself experienced racism, and the artists he signed to his record label. Atlantic Records started as a small, struggling company, but grew exponentially through the years with the help of Ahmet Ertegun, to become a successful model of social justice and inclusion in the music industry.

In order to truly get a feel for the building where Atlantic Records spent its early days, I took some time out of my Saturday afternoon to visit it. As I walked through midtown Manhattan, staring up at all of the skyscrapers, I was reminded of how 234 West 56th Street may not be the most aesthetically pleasing of buildings, but considering how short it is compared to most other buildings in this part of Manhattan, it is certainly unique.  This building has been around since 1905, and just by looking at it, I could tell that it was old (“Actions”). As opposed to the newer buildings with sleek, modern exteriors, the five-story building is covered in dark brown bricks that seem to have been worn down over the years.

Atlantic Records was unique: “It remained one of the only record labels of the 1940s to survive the multibillion-dollar mergers and acquisitions of the 1990s in more than name only, with its founder still in charge” (Weiner). Over the course of 60 years, it has maintained not only its independence, but also its owner, Ahmet Ertegun. Under the leadership of Ertegun, Atlantic Records has remained one of the most successful record companies in the world. Standing across the street from 234 West 56th Street and seeing how it is now just a building with an Italian restaurant and a nail salon, I would have no idea how unique this building actually is, nor would I know music legends have frequented this building.

Atlantic Records started as a tiny, unknown company, and slowly became one of the biggest record companies in the world. Atlantic Records saw its early days in its original home of 234 West 56th Street where the tiny space was used as both an office and a recording studio.  It definitely wasn’t the nicest of places on the inside since “the floor sagged and creaked”  (“The “B” Side: Herbie Mann.”). Atlantic Records started out as a place with no more than “two desks in the room, one for Ahmet and one for Herb—later used by Jerry when he joined. And there was a miniature piano, so when people came to the office with a song, they could play it” (Gillett 108).  Ertegun was willing to work as hard as he needed to get Atlantic Records to be successful. When it came to writing songs, Atlantic Records was such a “hole-in-the-wall company” that music producers weren’t interested in wasting their time on them, but Ertegun didn’t let that stop him.  He would write the music for his artists (Greenfield). Ertegun had a passion for music, and he wanted to be able to help artists to share that music with the world. Ertegun wasn’t just a hard worker; he also had a knack for finding musicians who would be wildly successful. With artists like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and The Rolling Stones signed to his label, Atlantic Records grew from a company no one wanted to associate with to an established record company.

Atlantic Records and the artists Ertegun signed to it didn’t just achieve success in terms of selling music; they were also able to break down prejudice found in New York City. Not only did Ahmet feel a responsibility to help put a stop to racial discrimination in the music industry, he could also understand and relate to how black people felt since he faced discrimination in his home country of Turkey. As he grew up, he “began to discover a little bit about the situation of black people in America and experienced an immediate empathy with the victims of such senseless discrimination. Because although the Turks were never slaves, they were regarded as enemies within Europe because of their Muslim beliefs” (Greenfield). As an ally to black artists, Ertegun signed artists like Ruth Brown and the blues singer who would come to define Atlantic Records: Ray Charles (Greenfield). Through his music, Ray Charles focused on conveying “that black culture was strong enough to survive the direst social and economic circumstances… and thus demonstrated the existence of a long-standing and vibrant tradition of black cultural agency” (O’Connell). Another Atlantic Records artist who was working towards improving race relations was Aretha Franklin, an extremely popular singer of soul music. This genre of music “became a rallying flag for the black nationalist movement” (Scaruffi). Arguably, Ertegun’s ethos of inclusion in the music industry may have helped New York move towards the accepting, socially conscious, and ethnically diverse place it is today.

Most tourists walking the streets of New York City will dismiss buildings like this one and prefer the fancy skyscrapers that you’ll find all over the city. While those buildings may be the most interesting from the outside, what you’ll find if you look into the history of the building may not be nearly as interesting as the history of a tiny, worn-down brick building on 56th Street. If you peel back the layers of history of the original home of Atlantic Records, you’ll see that this building witnessed a crucial moment in music history. The blues and soul music created from Atlantic Records by African American artists in the 50’s and 60’s reflects the heroic fight against racism and the social power of music.

Works Cited

“Actions.” Actions. NYC Buildings, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.

“The “B” Side: Herbie Mann.” The “B” Side. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

“Civil Rights Movement” History.com. A&E Television Networks, 01 Jan. 2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.

Ertegun, Ahmet, (Author), and David, (Intro.) Fricke. “The Story Of Atlantic Records: Ahmet Ertegun ‘In His Own Words’.” Rolling Stone (USA) 867 (2001): 46-50. RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1967 to Present only). Web. 15 Oct. 2015.

Gillett, Charlie. Making Tracks; Atlantic Records and the Growth of a Multi-billion-dollar Industry. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1974. 108-09. Print.

Greenfield, Robert. “Ahmet Ertegun 1923-2006: The Greatest Record Man Of All Time.” Rolling Stone (USA) 1018 (2007): 52-56. RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1967 to Present only). Web. 15 Oct. 2015.

Scaruffi, Piero. “A History of Soul Music.” A History of Soul Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Weiner, Tim. “Ahmet Ertegun, Music Executive, Dies at 83.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Dec. 2006. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.