Don Kirshner arrives for the 2007 Songwriters Hall of Fame gala in New York. (Louis Lanzano/Associated Press) Music impresario Don Kirshner, dubbed the "man with the golden ear" for his talent at sussing out hit songs and musical stars, has died at the age of 76.

Kirshner, who was hospitalized with an infection in Boca Raton, Fla., last week, died of heart failure on Monday, according to his associate, Jack Wishna.

The Bronx-born Kirshner wore many hats over the years, including promoter, songwriter, producer, music supervisor, music publisher and host of an eponymous live concert TV show.

"Donny Kirshner would take a kid off the street, bring him up to his office in the Brill Building and turn him into Neil Diamond, Carol King, James Taylor, on and on," Wishna said.

"I haven't spoken to anyone in the music business that Donny hasn't either discovered, promoted or touched in some way.

During the 1950s and 1960s, through the Aldon Music publishing company he formed with partner Al Nevins, Kirshner helped launch the careers of a host of songwriter-musicians. Many worked from New York's famed Brill Building, where many prestigious music industry firms were located.

The duo's stable of talent included such artists as Bobby Darin, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

Veteran singer-songwriter Sedaka, who was discovered at 18 by Kirshner, called him "a great friend, a pioneer, and a father figure for many of us young songwriters. "He will be missed."

Kirshner, who started music labels such as Calendar Records, also established the success of TV bands such as the Monkees and the Archies.

As producer and presenter of his namesake syndicated 1970s-era music show, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, he unveiled live, long-form performances by a wide-range of artists — including Billy Joel, Black Sabbath, the Police, Rolling Stones, ABBA, Rush, the Ramones, Blue Oyster Cult and Kansas — to a national U.S. TV audience.

Kansas "owes its 38-year career to Don Kirshner, who signed us to his label in 1973," the band's drummer and manager Phil Ehart posted on the band's website.

"We were six bumpkins for Topeka … and our music was complicated with all kinds of time signature changes. But he saw and heard something in us that no one else realized, and we as a band are very grateful that he did."

Though Kirshner's show was acclaimed for its ecclectic mix of musical offerings, his deliberately wooden hosting style was notorious and even inspired a Saturday Night Live skit by former colleague Paul Shaffer, with whom he worked on the short-lived sitcom A Year at the Top.

To recognize his contributions to popular music, Kirshner was inducted into the U.S. Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.

Kirshner is survived by his wife, Sheila, two children and five grandchildren. Funeral services are being arranged.

With files from The Associated Press