Brill Building Pop is a subgenre of pop music originating from the Brill Building in New York City, where numerous teams of professional songwriters penned material for girl groups and teen idols in the early 1960s. The term has also become a catch-all for the period in which those songwriting teams flourished. In actuality, most hits of the mid 1950s and early 1960s were written elsewhere.
The Brill Building’s music was more sophisticated than other pop styles of the time, combining then-modern sounds with classic Tin Pan Alley songwriting. Its productions often featured orchestras and bands with large rhythm and guitar sections, while its lyrics focused on idealized romance and adolescent anxieties, only rarely exploring more mature themes.
The genre dominated the American charts in the period between Elvis Presley’s army enlistment in 1958 and the onset of the British Invasion in 1964. It declined thereafter, but demonstrated a continued influence on British and American pop and rock music in subsequent years, having introduced the concept of professional songwriters to traditional pop and early rock and roll, and helping to inspire the girl group craze of the era. Other reasons for the style’s decline was the tendency among writers and producers to duplicate earlier successes, resulting in many records that sounded the same, as well the changing nature of society and consumer markets. Many of the genre’s composers went on to further success as part of the singer-songwriter movement later in the 1960s and 1970s
Brill Building
The Brill Building’s music was more sophisticated than other pop styles of the time, combining then-modern sounds with classic Tin Pan Alley songwriting. Its productions often featured orchestras and bands with large rhythm and guitar sections, while its lyrics focused on idealized romance and adolescent anxieties, only rarely exploring more mature themes.
The genre dominated the American charts in the period between Elvis Presley’s army enlistment in 1958 and the onset of the British Invasion in 1964. It declined thereafter, but demonstrated a continued influence on British and American pop and rock music in subsequent years, having introduced the concept of professional songwriters to traditional pop and early rock and roll, and helping to inspire the girl group craze of the era. Other reasons for the style’s decline was the tendency among writers and producers to duplicate earlier successes, resulting in many records that sounded the same, as well the changing nature of society and consumer markets. Many of the genre’s composers went on to further success as part of the singer-songwriter movement later in the 1960s and 1970s
Big Band era
Even before World War II it became a center of activity for the popular music industry, especially music publishing and songwriting. Scores of music publishers had offices in the Brill Building. Once songs had been published, the publishers sent song pluggers to the popular bands and radio stations. These song pluggers would sing and/or play the song for the band leaders to encourage bands to play their music.
During the ASCAP strike of 1941, many of the composers, authors and publishers turned to pseudonyms in order to have their songs played on the air.
Brill Building songs were constantly at the top of Billboard’s Hit Parade and played by the leading bands of the day:
- The Benny Goodman Orchestra
- The Glenn Miller Orchestra
- The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra
- The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
Publishers included:
- Leo Feist Inc.
- Lewis Music Publishing
- Mills Music Publishing
Brill Building Sound
The Brill Building’s name has been widely adopted as a shorthand term for a broad and influential stream of American mainstream popular song (strongly influenced by Latin music, Traditional black gospel, and rhythm and blues) which enjoyed great commercial success in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. Many significant American and international publishing companies, music agencies, and recording labels were based in New York, and although these ventures were naturally spread across many locations, the Brill Building was regarded as probably the most prestigious address in New York for music business professionals. The term “The Brill Building Sound” is somewhat inaccurate, however, since much of the music so categorized actually emanated from other locations — music historian Ken Emerson nominates buildings at 1650 Broadway and 1697 Broadway as other significant bases of activity in this field.
By 1962 the Brill Building contained 165 music businesses: A musician could find a publisher and printer, cut a demo, promote the record and cut a deal with radio promoters, all within this one building. The creative culture of the independent music companies in the Brill Building and the nearby 1650 Broadway came to define the influential “Brill Building Sound” and the style of popular songwriting and recording created by its writers and producers.
Don Kirshner
was an American music publisher, rock music producer, talent manager, and songwriter. He was best known for managing songwriting talent as well as successful pop groups, such as The Monkees, Kansas, and the Archies.
Don Kirshner was born to a Jewish family in The Bronx, New York, the son of Gilbert Kirshner, a tailor, and Belle Jaffe. He graduated from George Washington High School in Manhattan, and went on to study at Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey. After graduation he went to work for Vanderbilt Music, a small music publishing company owned by former Tin Pan Alley lyricist Al Lewis. Kirshner brought Lewis together with Sylvester Bradford, a blind African-American songwriter. Lewis and Bradford wrote “Tears on My Pillow”, which was a big hit for Little Anthony and the Imperials in 1958.
Aldon Music
Kirshner achieved his first major success in the late 1950s and early 1960s as co-owner of the influential New York-based publishing company Aldon Music with partner Al Nevins, which had under contract at various times several of the most important songwriters of the so-called “Brill Building” school, including Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, Phil Spector, Howard Greenfield, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Jack Keller.
As a producer-promoter, Kirshner was instrumental in launching the careers of singers and songwriters, including Bobby Darin, with whom he collaborated on a number of advertising jingles and pop “ditties” – their first was called Bubblegum Pop. He was also responsible for finding Tony Orlando, Neil Diamond, Carole King, and Sarah Dash of Labelle, as well as discovering the occasional rock act, such as Kansas.
Don Kirshner’s record labels
Kirshner had three record labels. The first was Chairman Records, a subsidiary of London Records. Although he was responsible for scores of hits in the 1960s, he was only to have one on the Chairman label – 1963’s “Martian Hop” by The Ran-Dells – which reached number 16 nationally. Kirshner later had two other record labels: Calendar Records, which had early hits by the Archies, and later morphed into the Kirshner label, which had later hits by the Archies and Kansas. In the 1990s, Calendar Records was acquired by Tom Ficara and Combined Artists. Calendar/Kirshner recordings were first distributed by RCA Records, then CBS Records. Kirshner was also involved in Dimension Records.
The Monkees
In the early 1960s, Kirshner was a successful music publisher as head of his own company, Aldon Music, which later was sold to Screen Gems-Columbia Music. With Al Nevins, Kirshner brought performers such as Bobby Darin together with songwriters and musicians. He’d later became president of COLGEMS, a subsidiary of the COLPIX label, in 1966.
Kirshner was hired by the producers of the Monkees to provide hit-worthy songs to accompany the television program, within a demanding schedule. Kirshner quickly corralled songwriting talent from his Brill Building stable of writers and musicians to create catchy, engaging tracks which the band could pretend to perform on the show. This move was not because of any lack of the Monkees’ talent but was required in order to keep up with the demanding schedule to churn out ready-to-go recordings to give each week’s episode its own song. While Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork were already experienced musicians – and Davy Jones was an established musical performer – as a working band, they had little experience; and Micky Dolenz was completely new to drums. Each Monkee was retained for vocal duties but they did not actually play instruments on the records.
The formula worked phenomenally well – the singles “Last Train to Clarksville”, written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and “I’m a Believer” written by Neil Diamond and the first two Monkees albums were produced and released in time to catch the initial wave of the television program’s popularity. The lead guitar on “Last Train To Clarksville”, “Valleri” and the Monkees theme was written and played by Louie Shelton. After a year, the Monkees wanted a chance to play their own instruments on the records. They also wanted more control over which songs would be released as singles. Further, when word belatedly came out that the band had not played on the first season’s songs, a controversy arose, and the public expressed a desire to hear the television stars perform their own music.
The matter reached a breaking point over a disagreement regarding the Neil Diamond-penned “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” in early 1967. The song’s release by Kirshner as a single without Columbia Pictures’ consent, led to his dismissal. The planned B-side was replaced with “The Girl I Knew Somewhere”, a song written by Nesmith and performed by the Monkees. They also performed on the next year’s recordings, which were featured in the show’s second season.
Kirshner’s later venture was the Archies, an animated series where there were only the studio musicians to be managed.
Kirshner served as a music consultant or music supervisor for almost two dozen TV series between 1966 and 1977, such as Bewitched
Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert
In the fall of 1972, Kirshner was asked by ABC Television to serve as executive producer and “creative consultant” for their new “In Concert” series, which aired every other week in the 11:30 p.m. slot normally showing The Dick Cavett Show. The following September, Kirshner left “In Concert” to produce and host his own syndicated weekly rock-concert program called Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. With its long-form live performances, as compared to rehearsed, often lip-synced performances that were the staple of earlier television shows like Shindig!, it was a new direction for pop music presentation. The last show aired in 1981, the year that MTV was launched.
Writers
Many of the best works in this diverse category were written by a loosely affiliated group of songwriter-producer teams—mostly duos—that enjoyed immense success and who collectively wrote some of the biggest hits of the period. Many in this group were close friends and/or (in the cases of Goffin-King, Mann-Weil and Greenwich-Barry) married couples, as well as creative and business associates—and both individually and as duos, they often worked together and with other writers in a wide variety of combinations. Some (Carole King, Paul Simon, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Boyce and Hart) recorded and had hits with their own music.