He was the mentoring hand behind Leiber and Stoller and Lee Hazlewood. Behind the scenes, he paved the way for The Wall of Sound and many of the musicians on his roster would become members of The Wrecking Crew.

He challenged racial barriers in music, bringing us T-Bone Walker, Ray Sharpe, The Coasters, The Pentagons, The Crystals and more. Starting from the modest roots of delivering records to disk jockeys and jukebox operators, he recognized the truly talented and built independent labels to ensure they were heard. He was ultimately elevated to the level of president of Screen Gems-Columbia Music, COO of Motown Records publishing division and senior consultant at Jobete Music.

Although this WWII combat engineer did not read music, nor play an instrument, he had an innate musical ear and sought out the writers, Boyce and Hart, Carol King, Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Mac Davis and David Gates to name a few more; he provided them with what they needed to ply their craft and publish their works for posterity.

Lester Sill (January 13, 1918 – October 31, 1994). Well played Chief, well played.

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Hollywood: (L-R): Don Kirshner, Mike Nesmith, Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz, Davy Jones, Lester Sill - Circa 1966

Radio Interview: Lester Sill on The Monkees

Lester Sill: The Screen Gems Days