Elroy D. Kahanek (March 27, 1941 – March 11, 2014) was a record industry official and songwriter. He was involved with promoting various successful musicians and their work for

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

, Sunbird Records,

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

, and Bang II Records. He also helped write several hit songs including " Somebody Paints the Wall", " She's Playing Hard to Forget", " The Fool Who Fooled Around", and " Tryin' to Beat the Morning Home". In the 1970s he worked for RCA Records and was involved in its “outlaw music” era, promoting works by artists including

Waylon Jennings Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the Outlaw country, outlaw movement in country music. Jennings started playing ...

. He worked with

Earl Thomas Conley Earl Thomas Conley (October 17, 1941 – April 10, 2019)Wood, Gerry. (1998). "Earl Thomas Conley". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 108. was an American country music singer-songwriter. Between ...

at Sunbird and

Tracy Lawrence Tracy Lee Lawrence (born January 27, 1968) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born in Atlanta, Texas, and raised in Foreman, Arkansas, Lawrence began performing at age 15 and moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 19 ...

and

John Michael Montgomery John Michael Montgomery (born January 20, 1965) is an American country music singer. Active from 1992 to 2025, he has had more than 30 singles on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' country charts. This total includes seven number-one singles ...

at Atlantic. He was a robbery victim. Late in his career he worked for Bang II Records in Nashville.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahanek, Elroy 2014 deaths American country songwriters 1941 births