Goddard Lieberson

Goddard Lieberson was born on April 5, 1911, in Hanley, Staffordshire, England, to a Jewish family. His father, a manufacturer of rubber shoe heels, relocated the family to the United States when Lieberson was a child. He pursued formal training in classical piano and composition at the Eastman School of Music during the 1930s, where he also met fellow student Mitch Miller, with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. He later studied with composer George Frederick McKay at the University of Washington in Seattle. Following his graduation from Eastman, Lieberson wrote classical concert reviews under the pseudonym "Johann Sebastian."

Lieberson joined the CBS group of labels in 1938, the same year the company came under the ownership of the CBS broadcasting empire, beginning his tenure there as an A&R Manager. He played a central role in Columbia's development of the long-playing record, a format that proved especially well-suited to the label's established classical catalog, which included recordings by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Artur Rodziński, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Leonard Bernstein. He was elevated to president of Columbia Records in 1956, a position he held until 1971 and again from 1973 to 1975. In 1964, he became president of the Recording Industry Association of America. Temple University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music degree in 1957. A reorganization in 1966 made Columbia Records a subsidiary of the newly formed CBS/Columbia Group, and in 1967 Lieberson promoted Clive Davis to the presidency of Columbia Records.

Lieberson appeared on Broadway in 1973 in Sondheim: A Musical Tribute. That same year he returned to the presidency of Columbia Records for his second term. In 1977, he co-wrote and produced the CBS television special They Said it with Music: From Yankee Doodle to Ragtime, a salute to American songwriters featuring Bernadette Peters, Tony Randall, Jason Robards, Jean Stapleton, and Flip Wilson, with additional appearances by Thurl Ravenscroft and Jimmy Griffin, a founding member of the band Bread. The special aired on July 4, 1977, thirty-seven days after Lieberson died of cancer in New York City on May 29, 1977, at the age of 66.

In 1946, Lieberson married actress and dancer Vera Zorina, and the marriage lasted until his death. The couple had two sons: Peter Lieberson, who became a composer, and Jonathan Lieberson. His circle of acquaintances included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Rodgers, W. Somerset Maugham, Noël Coward, and John Gielgud.