There may be no person better suited for this year’s SESAC Visionary Award then Richard Gotterher whose bona fides over the past five decades seem almost Forrest-Gump-like in both scope and importance. The songwriter, producer, manager and digital music entrepreneur, who will receive the honor at this Monday’s (May 5) SESAC 2014 Pop Awards, has participated in and had front row seats to some of music history’s most iconic moments.
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“As I get older my vision is actually improving,” Gottehrer cracks about the Visionary Award. That may or may not be true, but certainly his perspective on the music industry has only gotten keener with time. Few if any music executives can rival Gottehrer’s breadth, depth and longevity of music industry experience, which includes: working as a songwriter in the landmark Brill Building, co-writing classic pop songs like “My Boyfriend’s Back” “I Want Candy” and “Hang on Sloopy” with his FFG Productions company; performing with his pseudo-pop faux Australian band the Strangeloves; producing albums by everyone from Richard Hell, Blondie and The Go-Gos to working with more contemporary bands the Ravonettes, Dum Dum Girls and Au Revoir Simone; co-founding Sire Records with Seymour Stien (whose roster came to include the Ramones, Madonna, Talking Heads); and launching the digital music distribution company The Orchard in 1997 with Scott Cohen. (See the full-video on Gottehrer's career below.)