Nat Tarnopol (January 26, 1931 – December 25, 1987) was an American record producer. He played a vital role in producing and shaping R&B music throughout the 1960s and 1970s as the president of Brunswick Records, a subsidiary label of Decca Records. Responsible for launching the careers of The Chi-Lites, Jackie Wilson, Tyrone Davis, Barbara Acklin and The Young-Holt Unlimited, Tarnopol scored 150 songs on the Billboard charted singles between 1957 and 1981. Early life Tarnopol was the younger of two sons born to first generation Americans from Eastern Europe on January 26, 1931, in Detroit, Michigan. As a young man, Tarnopol's two passions were baseball and R&B music. His mother, Pearl Tarnopol, died shortly after his twelfth birthday, which forced Tarnopol to spend the remainder of his childhood in the home of his Aunt Lena. His parents originally wanted him to become a rabbi. As a star shortstop, Tarnopol was scouted by, and was offered deals to sign with, both the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox. After considering the low wages earned by ballplayers at that time, and the anti-Semitism that afflicted Jewish athletes such as Detroit's Hank Greenberg, Tarnopol passed on both offers. Without money for college, Tarnopol took a job with Detroit's Union Tire company and began spending his spare time at the Flame Show Bar in Detroit's Black Bottom district. In a late-fifties interview, Detroit's most popular deejay, Mickey Shorr gave Tarnopol credit for leading him toward rock 'n' roll music. After Mickey had spent a few nights playing the same white pop records as everyone else, a tire salesman and part-time song plugger named Nat Tarnopol dropped by the station. Tarnopol was white but he loved r&b music and spent a lot of time hanging around Al Green's Flame Show Bar, a showcase for black entertainment in the Motor City. Shore said "Nat came in and said, 'Mickey, I haven't got a single song that is any good right now, but I want to give you a tip-get with rock 'n' roll music'. Tarnopol came down to the JBK studios every evening for a couple of months and helped pick the records." Shorr became the first Detroit deejay to ever play an Elvis Presely recording. Jackie Wilson It was at the Flame Show Bar in 1956 where Tarnopol met and began working with Al Green (not be confused with singer Al Green or