Remembering Morris Diamond

• Our industry has lost a genuine legend — Morris Diamond recently passed away at the amazing age of 97. Diamond’s lengthy and colorful career in the music industry began at the tender age of 15, when he was hired to be the “band boy” (gofer) for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Turns out Diamond’s timing was impeccable — one month later, Dorsey hired a then unknown singer named Frank Sinatra, and the rest is history.

After serving in the Air Force during World War II, Dorsey offered Morris a job at his music publishing company, which set him on a successful course — in the early ’60s he was National Promotion Director for Mercury Records, and later served as a music supervisor for movies and TV. Eventually he would own a publishing company and launch his own record label, Beverly Hills Records.

Diamond’s fascinating 70-year career and the lifelong friendships he made along the way with many of the top recording artists of the time generated enough fodder to fill a book — The Name Dropper, or “People I Schlepped With” was published in 2011 and recounts his musical experiences with everyone from Peggy Lee to Michael Jackson. [Photo: screen-grab from NAMM’s oral history of Morris Diamond]