Irving B. Green (also known as Irvin B. Green) (February 6, 1916 – July 1, 2006Palm Springs Cemetery District, "Interments of Interest"
/ref>) was an American record industry executive, and founder and president of

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

Biography

Green was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, the son of Sylvia (née Langler) and Albert "Al" Green, the founder of National Records. His father was

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. He was instrumental in promoting African-American artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington and the Platters. In 1945, he founded Mercury Records, in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, along with Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge, and helped turn the independent outfit into a major label. In 1962, Green sold Mercury to Consolidated Electronics Industries Corporation (Conelco) an American affiliate of Dutch electronics giant Philips of the Netherlands but he remained Mercury Records' President. Green continued to run Mercury for five years after selling the company. In 1964, Mercury Records became the first major record label to have a black high-level executive, when Green hired the trumpeter

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

as vice president. After leaving Mercury, he became a successful real estate developer in Palm Springs and built over 18,000 homes in southern Iran with real-estate developer Bill Levitt.

Personal life

Green died on July 1, 2006, at the Desert Regional Medical Center in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

. He was survived by his wife Pamela and two daughters, Roberta Green Hunt and Kelli Green Ross. Services were held at Temple Isaiah in Palm Springs. He is buried in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.

References

External links

* 1916 births 2006 deaths Burials at Desert Memorial Park Businesspeople from Chicago Record producers from New York (state) American people of Jewish descent People from Brooklyn 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-music-bio-stub