Rock industry giant fights for life after fall at Clinton's party

Record mogul Ahmet Ertegun - who signed the band in the early Seventies at a time of uncertainty for them - had been backstage as Mick Jagger and Co performed at Bill Clinton's 60th birthday party last Sunday in Manhattan.

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But just before they went onstage, the 83-year-old record label boss slipped and fell, badly injuring his head.

When Jagger - who had begged Ertegun to sign the band 30 years ago - came offstage he was devastated to find his mentor missing. The Mail on Sunday understands Ertegun was put into an induced coma before being taken to hospital.

"Mick was terribly upset," a Stones aide said. "Ahmet was unconscious in the intensive care unit and the doctors at first didn't give him much of a chance. But they are now listing him as stable.

Although his condition is still seriousm they are more optimistic because he has come round under his own steam. He has now been taken off the respirator, is breathing on his own and has even started to say a few words."

At Ertegun's home, his wife Mica, an internationally renowned interior decorator, was too upset to comment.

Turkish-born Ertegun's career has been extraordinary - both in its success and longevity within a notoriously fickle business.

He was studying philosophy at Georgetown University when he borrowed £6,000 from his family dentist to found Atlantic Records with Herb Abramson, who had a few contacts in the record business, in 1947.

Today the New York-based Atlantic catalogue reads like a Who's Who of jazz, R&B and rock 'n' roll. Ertegun also signed Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin and Led Zeppelin.

Ertegun recalled in an interview in 2002 the night that led to him signing the Stones. He said: "I met Mick at midnight at the Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles. I thought we were just getting together socially.

"Then Mick started to talk about how the Stones contract was up and how they wanted to be on Atlantic somehow I dozed off, which I think impressed him quite a lot."

Atlantic landed the Stones but the label couldn't meet the £25,000 asking price for Elvis Presley's contract in the mid-Fifties. The King signed with RCA Victor instead.

Atlantic is still going strong. In the same interview, Ertegun quipped: "I'm proud of two things - I'm still alive and still employed. I had no idea I would end up spending my life in the music business. I was a great music fan... I thought I knew enough to make a success of it - at least for a while."

Ertegun's fall is the latest setback for the Stones. Jagger, 63, had to overcome laryngitis to sing at Clinton's party and last Friday Art Wood, older brother of Ronnie, died of pneumonia.

In addition, drummer Charlie Watts has fought throat cancer and Keith Richards underwent brain surgery last spring after banging his head falling out of a coconut tree in Fiji.