Goddard Lieberson

Lieberson was born to a Jewish family^[3] on April 5, 1911, in Hanley in Staffordshire; his father was a manufacturer of rubber shoe heels who took his family to the United States when Lieberson was a child.^[4] He studied classical piano and composition at the Eastman School of Music in the 1930s and after graduating he wrote classical concert reviews under the pseudonym "Johann Sebastian".^[5] He was married to actress/dancer Vera Zorina from 1946 until his death in 1977. They had two sons: Peter Lieberson, a composer, and Jonathan Lieberson. Lieberson was noted for his personal elegance, taste and style, and was renowned as a wit, bon vivant and international traveller, whose circle of friends and acquaintances included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Rodgers, W. Somerset Maugham, Noël Coward and John Gielgud.^[5]

Lieberson began working for the CBS group of labels in 1938 – the same year the company was acquired by the CBS broadcasting empire – and he began his career at Columbia as an A&R Manager. Before becoming president of the company, Lieberson was responsible for Columbia's introduction of the long-playing record.^[6] The LP was particularly well-suited to Columbia's long-established classical repertoire, as recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Leonard Bernstein. Lieberson was also a lifelong friend of musician, recording artist, TV personality and Columbia A&R manager/producer Mitch Miller, having met Miller when the two were studying music at the Eastman School of Music in the 1930s^[7]

He was promoted to president of Columbia Records from 1956 to 1971 and again from 1973 to 1975. In 1957, Temple University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music degree.^[8] In 1966, in a reorganization, Columbia Records became subsidiary to the newly formed CBS/Columbia Group.^[9] In 1967, Lieberson promoted Clive Davis to president of Columbia Records.

In 1977, Lieberson co-wrote and produced the CBS-TV special They Said it with Music: From Yankee Doodle to Ragtime, a salute to American songwriters throughout the ages, starring Bernadette Peters,^[10] Tony Randall, Jason Robards,^[11] Jean Stapleton^[12] and Flip Wilson,^[13][14] with appearances by Thurl Ravenscroft and Jimmy Griffin, a founding member of the soft-rock band Bread.^[15] The show aired July 4,^[16] thirty-seven days after Lieberson died of cancer in New York City on May 29, 1977, aged 66.^[6]