Burt Bacharach and Hal David
Burt Bacharach, is an American composer, songwriter, record producer, pianist, and singer who has composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach’s songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists. As of 2014, he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits. He is considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music.
His music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, influenced by his background in jazz harmony, and uncommon selections of instruments for small orchestras. Most of Bacharach & David’s hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick, but earlier associations (from 1957 to 1963) saw the composing duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels, and Jerry Butler. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach went on to write hits for Gene Pitney, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, Bobbie Gentry, Tom Jones, Herb Alpert, B. J. Thomas, the Carpenters, among numerous other artists. He arranged, conducted, and produced much of his recorded output.
Songs that he co-wrote which have topped the Billboard Hot 100 include “This Guy’s in Love with You” (1968), “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (1969), “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (1970), “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (1981), and “That’s What Friends Are For” (1986).
Hal David, was an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York City. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick.
David was born in New York City, a son of Austrian Jewish immigrants Lina (née Goldberg) and Gedalier David, who owned a delicatessen in Brooklyn, and younger brother of American lyricist and songwriter Mack David. He is credited with popular music lyrics, beginning in the 1940s with material written for bandleader Sammy Kaye and for Guy Lombardo. He worked with Morty Nevins of The Three Suns on four songs for the feature film Two Gals and a Guy (1951), starring Janis Paige and Robert Alda.
In 1957, David met composer Burt Bacharach at Famous Music in the Brill Building in New York. The two teamed up and wrote their first hit “The Story of My Life”, recorded by Marty Robbins in 1957. Subsequently, in the 1960s and early 1970s Bacharach and David wrote some of the most enduring songs in American popular music, many for Dionne Warwick but also for The Carpenters, Dusty Springfield, B. J. Thomas, Gene Pitney, Tom Jones, Jackie DeShannon and others.
In the UK, a version of “The Story of My Life” recorded by Michael Holliday reached #1 in 1958 before being replaced by Perry Como’s “Magic Moments”, the first time any songwriter had consecutive #1 hits in the UK charts.
Bacharach and David hits included “Alfie”, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”, “This Guy’s in Love with You”, “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”, “Walk On By”, “What the World Needs Now Is Love”, “I Say a Little Prayer”, “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me”, “One Less Bell to Answer” and “Anyone Who Had a Heart”.
The duo’s film work includes the Oscar-nominated title songs for “What’s New Pussycat?” and “Alfie”, “The Look of Love”, from Casino Royale; and the Oscar-winning “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In addition, “Don’t Make Me Over”, “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and “Walk On By” have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
David’s work with other composers includes Albert Hammond for Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias’s “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before”; Sarah Vaughan’s “Broken Hearted Melody”, with Sherman Edwards; the 1962 Joanie Sommers hit “Johnny Get Angry” also with Edwards; and “99 Miles From L.A.” with Albert Hammond, recorded by Hammond and later Art Garfunkel. With Paul Hampton, David co-wrote the country standard “Sea of Heartbreak”, a hit for Don Gibson and others.
David contributed lyrics to three James Bond film themes: in addition to “The Look of Love” from Casino Royale with Bacharach, he wrote “We Have All the Time in the World”, with John Barry and sung by Louis Armstrong for the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and in 1979, “Moonraker”, also with Barry, sung by Bond regular Shirley Bassey for the film of the same name.
David and Bacharach were awarded the 2011 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, bestowed by the Library of Congress, the first time a songwriting team was given the honor. David was recuperating from a recent illness and was unable to attend the Washington D.C. presentation ceremony in May 2012.
David died in the morning hours of September 1, 2012, of a stroke. He was 91
Bert Berns
was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. A pioneer of 1960s rock and soul, Berns made numerous contributions to popular music, including “Twist and Shout”, “Piece of My Heart”, “Brown Eyed Girl” (as a producer), “Here Comes the Night”, “Hang on Sloopy”, “Under the Boardwalk” and “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”.
Born in the Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Berns contracted rheumatic fever as a child, an illness that damaged his heart and would mark the rest of his life, resulting in his early death. Turning to music, he found enjoyment in the sounds of his African American and Latino neighbors. As a young man, Berns danced in mambo nightclubs, and made his way to Havana before the Cuban Revolution.
Music career
Beginnings (1960–1963)
Shortly after his return from Cuba, Berns began a seven-year run from an obscure Brill Building songwriter to owner of his own record labels. He signed as a $50/week songwriter with Robert Mellin Music at 1650 Broadway in 1960. His first hit record was “A Little Bit of Soap”, performed by the Jarmels on Laurie Records in 1961. Berns himself had a short-lived career as a recording artist, and in 1961, under the name “Russell Byrd”, Berns scored his only Billboard Hot 100 appearance with his own composition, “You’d Better Come Home”, which peaked at Number 50. That song would later be recorded by the Isley Brothers, and featured as the B-side of their 1962 single “Twistin’ With Linda”. Also in 1962, the Isley Brothers recorded “Twist and Shout” on Wand Records, written by Berns and Phil Medley. Berns also hit the charts in late 1962 with the Exciters’ “Tell Him” on United Artists, and with Solomon Burke’s “Cry to Me” on Atlantic Records. As an independent producer working with myriad record labels, Berns also made important records with Garnet Mimms (“Cry Baby”) and Gene Pitney (“If I Didn’t Have a Dime (to Play the Jukebox)”).
Atlantic Records (1963–1965)
Berns’s early work with Solomon Burke brought him to the attention of Atlantic label chiefs Ahmet Ertegün and Jerry Wexler. In 1963, Berns replaced Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as staff producer at Atlantic, where he wrote and produced hits for Solomon Burke (“Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”), the Drifters (“Under the Boardwalk” and “Saturday Night at the Movies”), Barbara Lewis (“Baby I’m Yours” and “Make Me Your Baby”), Little Esther Phillips (“Hello Walls”), Ben E. King, Wilson Pickett and LaVern Baker.
British Invasion (1964–1965)
With many of Berns’s songs being recorded by British Invasion bands such as the Beatles (“Twist and Shout”), the Rolling Stones (“Cry to Me”) and the Animals (“Baby Let Me Take You Home”), Berns became the first American record producer to travel across the Atlantic to work in London. He went to England three times between 1964 and 1965, where he produced a number of British Decca artists such as Van Morrison’s Them (“Here Comes the Night”, “Baby Please Don’t Go”) and Lulu.
BANG Records (1965–1967)
Berns formed his own record label, BANG Records, in 1965. BANG Records was founded with his Atlantic Records partners, with the label’s name derived from the initials of each of their respective personal names—in order, Bert Berns, Ahmet Ertegün, Nesuhi Ertegün, and Gerald (Jerry) Wexler. BANG was home to such artists as the McCoys (“Hang on Sloopy”), the Strangeloves (“I Want Candy”), Them’s ex-lead singer Van Morrison (“Brown Eyed Girl”), and, most notably, Neil Diamond (“Solitary Man” and “Cherry Cherry”).
Shout Records (1966–1967)
With BANG Records releasing predominantly rock and roll, Berns formed Shout Records in 1966 as an outlet for his greatest passions of R&B and soul music, recording artists such Freddie Scott (“Are You Lonely for Me Baby”) and Erma Franklin (“Piece of My Heart”). “Piece of My Heart”, one of his last songs, was covered shortly thereafter by Big Brother and the Holding Company, which the then unknown Janis Joplin fronted.
Otis Blackwell
was an African-American songwriter, singer, and pianist, whose work significantly influenced rock and roll. His compositions include “Fever”, recorded by Little Willie John; “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless”, recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis; “Don’t Be Cruel”, “All Shook Up” and “Return to Sender” (with Winfield Scott), recorded by Elvis Presley; and “Handy Man”, recorded by Jimmy Jones. He is not to be confused with the songwriter and record producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell.
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such crossover hit songs as “Hound Dog” (1952) and “Kansas City” (1952). Later in the 1950s, particularly through their work with The Coasters, they created a string of ground-breaking hits—including “Young Blood” (1957), “Searchin'” (1957), and “Yakety Yak” (1958)—that used the humorous vernacular of teenagers sung in a style that was openly theatrical rather than personal. They were the first to surround black music with elaborate production values, enhancing its emotional power with the Drifters in “There Goes My Baby” (1958), which influenced Phil Spector, who studied their productions while playing guitar on their sessions.
Leiber and Stoller wrote hits for Elvis Presley, including “Love Me” (1956), “Jailhouse Rock” (1957), “Loving You”, “Don’t”, and “King Creole”. They also collaborated with other writers on such songs as “On Broadway”, written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil; “Stand By Me”, written with Ben E. King; “Young Blood”, written with Doc Pomus; and “Spanish Harlem”, co-written by Leiber and Phil Spector. They were sometimes credited under the pseudonym Elmo Glick. In 1964, they launched Red Bird Records with George Goldner and, focusing on the “girl group” sound, released some of the greatest classics of the Brill Building period
Gerry Goffin and Carole King
Gerry Goffin, was an American lyricist. Writing initially with his wife Carole King, he co-wrote many international pop hits of the early and mid-1960s, including the US No.1 hits “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, “Take Good Care of My Baby”, “The Loco-Motion”, and “Go Away Little Girl”. It was later said of Goffin that his gift was “to find words that expressed what many young people were feeling but were unable to articulate.”
After he and King divorced, Goffin wrote with other composers, including Barry Goldberg and Michael Masser, with whom he wrote “Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)” and “Saving All My Love for You”, also No.1 hits. During his career Goffin penned over 114 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including eight chart-toppers, and 72 UK hits. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, with Carole King.
Carole King, is an American composer and singer-songwriter. She is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1955 and 1999. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1952 and 2005.
King’s career began in the 1960s when she and her first husband, Gerry Goffin, wrote more than two dozen chart hits, many of which have become standards, for numerous artists. She has continued writing for other artists since then. King’s success as a performer in her own right did not come until the 1970s, when she sang her own songs, accompanying herself on the piano, in a series of albums and concerts. After experiencing commercial disappointment with her debut album Writer, King scored her breakthrough with the album Tapestry, which topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than six years.
King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry, which held the record for most weeks at No. 1 by a female artist for more than 20 years. Her most recent non-compilation album was Tapestry: Live in Hyde Park in 2017. Her record sales were estimated at more than 75 million copies worldwide.
Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman
Doc Pomus, Was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1992, the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), and the Blues Hall of Fame (2012).
Born Jerome Solon Felder in 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, he was the son of Jewish immigrants. Felder became a fan of the blues after hearing a Big Joe Turner record. Having had polio as a boy, he walked with the help of crutches. Later, due to post-polio syndrome, exacerbated by an accident, Felder eventually relied on a wheelchair.
His brother is New York attorney Raoul Felder.
Career
Using the stage name “Doc Pomus”, teenager Felder began performing as a blues singer. His stage name was not inspired by anyone in particular; he just thought it sounded better for a blues singer than the name Jerry Felder. Pomus stated that more often than not, he was the only Caucasian in the clubs, but that as a Jew and a polio victim, he felt a special “underdog” kinship with African Americans, while in turn the audiences both respected his courage and were impressed with his talent. Gigging at various clubs in and around New York City, Pomus often performed with the likes of Milt Jackson, Mickey Baker and King Curtis. Pomus recorded approximately 40 sides as a singer in the ’40s and ’50s for record companies such as Chess, Apollo, Gotham and others.
In the early 1950s, Pomus started writing magazine articles as well as songwriting for artists such as Lavern Baker, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner to earn more money to support a family, after he had married Willi Burke, a Broadway actress. His first big songwriting break came when he chanced upon the Coasters’ version of his “Young Blood” on a jukebox while on honeymoon. Pomus wrote the song, then gave it to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who radically rewrote it. Still, Pomus had co-credit as author, and he soon received a royalty check for $2,500 (US$22,302 in 2018 dollars), which convinced him that songwriting was a career direction worth pursuing. By 1957, Pomus had given up performing for full-time songwriting.
He collaborated with pianist Mort Shuman, whom he met when Shuman was dating Pomus’s younger cousin, to write for Hill & Range Music Co./Rumbalero Music at its offices in New York City’s Brill Building. Pomus asked Shuman to write with him because Pomus didn’t then know much about rock and roll, whereas Shuman was familiar with many popular artists of the day. Their songwriting efforts had Pomus write the lyrics and Shuman the melody, although often they worked on both. They wrote the hit songs “A Teenager in Love”, “Save The Last Dance For Me”, “Hushabye”, “This Magic Moment”, “Turn Me Loose”, “Sweets For My Sweet” (a hit for The Drifters and then The Searchers), “Go Jimmy Go”, “Little Sister”, “Can’t Get Used to Losing You”, “Suspicion”, “Surrender” and “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame”.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Pomus wrote several songs with Phil Spector (“Young Boy Blues”; “Ecstasy”; “What Am I To Do?”), Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber (“Young Blood” and “She’s Not You”), and other Brill Building-era writers. Pomus also wrote “Lonely Avenue”, a 1956 hit for Ray Charles.
In the 1970s and 1980s, in his eleventh-floor, two-room apartment at the Westover Hotel at 253 West 72nd Street, Pomus wrote songs with Dr. John, Ken Hirsch and Willy DeVille for what he said were “…those people stumbling around in the night out there, uncertain or not always so certain of exactly where they fit in and where they were headed.” These later songs (“There Must Be A Better World”, “There Is Always One More Time”, “That World Outside”, “You Just Keep Holding On”, and “Something Beautiful Dying” in particular)—recorded by Willy DeVille, B.B. King, Irma Thomas, Marianne Faithfull, Charlie Rich, Ruth Brown, Dr. John, James Booker, and Johnny Adams—are considered by some, including writer Peter Guralnick, musician and songwriter Dr. John, and producer Joel Dorn, to be signatures of his best craft.
The documentary film A.K.A. Doc Pomus (2012), conceived by Pomus’ daughter Sharyn Felder, directed by filmmaker Peter Miller, edited by Amy Linton and produced by Felder, Hechter and Miller, details Pomus’ life.
Pomus died on March 14, 1991 from lung cancer, at the age of 65 at NYU medical center in Manhattan.
Mort Shuman, was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including “Viva Las Vegas”. He also wrote and sang many songs in French, such as “Le Lac Majeur”, “Allo Papa Tango Charlie”, “Sha Mi Sha”, “Un Eté de Porcelaine”, and “Brooklyn by the Sea” which became hits in France.
Shuman was born in Brooklyn, New York City, of Polish Jewish immigrants and went to Abraham Lincoln High School, subsequently studying music at the New York Conservatory. He became a fan of R&B music and after he met Doc Pomus the two teamed up to compose for Aldon Music at offices in New York City’s Brill Building. Their songwriting collaboration saw Pomus write the lyrics and Shuman the melody, although occasionally each worked on both. Their compositions would be recorded by artists such as Dion, The Flamingos, Andy Williams, Bobby Darin, Fabian, Ajda Pekkan The Drifters, and Elvis Presley, among others. Their most famous songs include “A Teenager in Love”, “Turn Me Loose”, “This Magic Moment”, “Save The Last Dance For Me”, “Little Sister”, “Can’t Get Used to Losing You”, “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame”, “Viva Las Vegas” and “Sweets for My Sweet”.
Pomus often drew on life events which inspired his creativity. It was after a break-up with his girlfriend that Pomus, who had been driving in his car, was struck in awe by the sounds of the car horns blaring amidst his thoughts. Arriving at the studio, Pomus attempted to assimilate the sound of the horns and penned an introduction to a piece he initially titled “A Crowded Avenue”. Later, the work progressed with Shuman, who helped finalize the draft. A chorus was added and the name of the song was changed to “Can’t Get Used to Losing You”, which became one of the biggest hits for Andy Williams in 1963.
With the advent of the British invasion, they moved to London where they penned songs for a number of British musicians. After the partnership with Doc Pomus ended in 1965, Shuman moved to Paris, France, where he wrote songs for Johnny Hallyday and embarked on his own recording career. One of his hits in the early 1970s was “(Il Neige Sur) Le Lac Majeur”. He also wrote a couple of hits in the UK (including one for The Small Faces, “Sha-La-La-La-Lee” co-written with Kenny Lynch), as well as a musical, Budgie (lyrics by Don Black). With the Welsh songwriter Clive Westlake, he wrote “Here I Go Again”, which was recorded by The Hollies. Billy J. Kramer enjoyed success with another Shuman song, “Little Children”.
In 1968, Shuman teamed with Eric Blau and adapted the French lyrics of songs by the Belgian composer Jacques Brel used as the basis of the successful off-Broadway production Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Some of the songs from the show were subsequently recorded by Scott Walker, including “Jackie” and “Mathilde”. Shuman appeared in both the stage revue and the 1975 film adaptation. This was followed the next year with work on the soundtrack of the film Sex O’Clock U.S.A., which is notable for featuring one of the earliest known gay songs, “You’re My Man,” while another one of his compositions from the soundtrack, “Baby Come On” (billed under the Sex O’Clock U.S.A. name during its chart run) become a modest hit on Billboard’s Disco chart, peaking at number 37 in July 1977. He also did many collaborations with the Israeli singer Mike Brant, and composed film scores, often French movies, including A Day at the Beach (1970), Romance of a Horsethief (1971), Black Thursday (1974), À nous les petites Anglaises (1976), Monsieur Papa (1977) and The More It Goes, the Less It Goes (1977).
Shuman was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. He also worked occasionally as an actor, notably appearing with Jodie Foster in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (for which he was also musical supervisor).
He died of cancer on November 2, 1991, leaving his wife, Maria-Pia and their four daughters, Maria-Cella, Barbara, Maria-Pia and Eva-Maria. Doc Pomus had died in March of the same year.
Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry
Ellie Greenwich, was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote “Be My Baby”, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, “Da Doo Ron Ron”, “Leader of the Pack”, “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, and “River Deep – Mountain High”, among others.
Greenwich was born Eleanor Louise Greenwich in Brooklyn, New York, to electrical engineer and former painter William, a Roman Catholic of Russian descent and Russian Jewish department store manager Rose (née Baron). She was not raised in either religion. She was reportedly named for Eleanor Roosevelt. Her musical interest was sparked as a child when her parents played music in their home and she listened to artists including Teresa Brewer, The Four Lads and Johnnie Ray, and she learned how to play the accordion at a young age. At age ten, she moved with her parents and younger sister, Laura, to the suburb of Levittown, New York.
By her teens, Greenwich was composing songs and said in a 1973 article, “When I was 14, I met Archie Bleyer who liked my songs but told me continue my education before trying to invade the songwriting jungle”;. In high school, Greenwich and two friends formed a singing group, The Jivettes, which took on more members and performed at local functions. While attending high school, she started using the accordion to write love songs about her school crush. After graduating high school, Greenwich enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music but was rejected because the school did not accept accordion players, and she subsequently enrolled at Queens College. Eventually she taught herself to compose on the piano rather than the accordion.
At 17, around the time she began attending Queens College, Greenwich recorded her first single for RCA Records, the self-written “Silly Isn’t It”, backed with “Cha-Cha Charming”. The single was issued under the name “Ellie Gaye” (which she chose as a reference to Barbie Gaye, singer of the original version of “My Boy Lollipop”). However, a biography about Greenwich claimed that the name was changed by RCA Records to prevent mispronunciations of “Greenwich”. “Cha-Cha Charming” was released in 1958 and indirectly led to her decision to transfer from Queens College to Hofstra University after one of her professors at the former institution belittled her for recording pop music.
Partnership with Jeff Barry
In 1959, still at college, Greenwich met the man who became her husband and main songwriting partner. Although it is possible they had been acquainted as children, since they shared a relative, the first time Greenwich and Jeff Barry met formally as adults was at a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by her maternal uncle, who was married to Barry’s cousin. Greenwich had brought her accordion, and she and Barry recognized their mutual love of music. Romance was not yet in the air as Barry was married to his first wife, who was at the dinner. Yet within a couple of years, the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich were among the most successful and prolific of Brill Building composers.
Greenwich and Barry began dating after his marriage was annulled, but musically they continued separate careers. Still in college, in 1962, Greenwich got her first break in the business when she traveled to the Brill Building to meet John Gluck, Jr., one of the composers of the Lesley Gore hit “It’s My Party”. Needing to keep another appointment, Gluck installed Greenwich in an office and asked her to wait. The office turned out to be that of songwriter-producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Hearing piano music from the cubicle, Leiber poked his head in and, expecting Carole King, was startled to see Greenwich, who introduced herself and explained her reasons for being there. Recognizing her potential as a songwriter, Leiber and Stoller agreed to allow her to use their facilities as she wished in exchange for first refusal on songs she wrote. They eventually signed Greenwich to their publishing company, Trio Music, as a staff songwriter.
Before marrying Barry, Greenwich wrote songs with different partners, including Ben Raleigh (co-writer on Barry’s first hit as a composer, “Tell Laura I Love Her,” in 1960) and Mark Barkan. She was also a session singer, recording so many demos that she became known as New York’s Demo Queen. Her biggest hits during this period were written with Tony Powers. The Greenwich-Powers team made the charts with tunes such as “He’s Got The Power” (The Exciters), “(Today I Met) The Boy I’m Gonna Marry” (Darlene Love), and “Why Do Lovers Break Each Others’ Hearts?” (Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, with Love on lead vocal). These last two were co-written and produced by Phil Spector, who had been introduced to the songs, and to Greenwich, by music publisher Aaron Schroeder.
On October 28, 1962, Barry and Greenwich married, and shortly afterwards decided to write songs exclusively with each other — a decision that disappointed Tony Powers as well as Barry’s main writing partner, Artie Resnick. Barry was subsequently signed to Trinity Music, and he and Greenwich were given their own office with their names on the door. Before the end of 1963, Barry-Greenwich had scored hits with songs such as “Be My Baby” and “Baby, I Love You” (The Ronettes), “Then He Kissed Me” and “Da Doo Ron Ron” (The Crystals), “Not Too Young To Get Married” (Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans), and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love, all co-written and produced by Phil Spector. Greenwich and Barry also recorded singles and an album under the name The Raindrops, with Greenwich providing all the female vocals through overdubbing, and Barry singing backgrounds in a bass voice. In addition to “What A Guy” (actually a demo, with Greenwich on piano and Barry on drums, sold to Jubilee Records and released as the first Raindrops single) and the U.S. Top 20 hit “The Kind Of Boy You Can’t Forget,” the couple wrote and recorded “Hanky Panky”, which later became a hit for Tommy James and the Shondells in 1966 and, in 1964, “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, was taken to the No. 1 spot on the charts, in both the UK and the US, by Manfred Mann. Toward the end of 1963, the Raindrops recorded “That Boy John”, a catchy fusion of jazz and rhythm and blues that reached the middle of the charts; President John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated and, according to Barry and Greenwich, radio stations were loath to play the song. Barry and Greenwich also penned songs for Connie Francis and in 1964 charted with two Lesley Gore hits, “Maybe I Know” and “Look of Love.”
When Red Bird Records was founded in 1964 by Leiber and Stoller, Barry and Greenwich were brought in as songwriters and producers. The label’s first release was The Dixie Cups’ “Chapel of Love” (written with Phil Spector and originally recorded by The Ronettes), which sailed up the U.S. charts to No. 1. Barry and Greenwich continued to write and/or produce hits for Red Bird, including several other releases by The Dixie Cups (“People Say”) as well as The Ad-Libs (“He Ain’t No Angel” and “Remember”), The Jelly Beans (“I Wanna Love Him So Bad”), and The Shangri-Las (“Leader of the Pack”), co-written by George “Shadow” Morton. Morton, Barry and Greenwich penned “You Don’t Know,” which Greenwich recorded on Red Bird under her own name in 1965, at the same time Barry recorded and released another Barry–Greenwich tune, “Our Love Can Still Be Saved”.
However, the couple’s marriage could not be saved; before the end of the year, Barry and Greenwich divorced. The couple continued to work together for much of 1966, partly due to Greenwich’s discovery of a talented singer-songwriter named Neil Diamond. Barry, Greenwich and Diamond joined to form Tallyrand Music to publish Diamond’s songs. Diamond was subsequently signed to Bert Berns’s Bang Records, and had a number of hits such as “Cherry Cherry” and “Kentucky Woman”, all produced by Barry and Greenwich, who also sang backgrounds on many tracks. In addition, Barry and Greenwich teamed with Phil Spector one last time to pen “I Can Hear Music”, recorded by The Ronettes in 1966, which was their final single for the Philles label, and by The Beach Boys in 1969; and “River Deep – Mountain High”, which Spector produced for Ike and Tina Turner, although Ike was officially banned from the studio recording. Although “River Deep” peaked at #3 in the UK, the song was a commercial failure in the US, stalling at #88. A few years later, in 1970-71, The Supremes and The Four Tops had a No. 14 (U.S. charts) hit with their revival of “River Deep”
Jeff Barry, is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer. Among the most successful songs that he has co-written in his career are “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, “Da Doo Ron Ron”, “Then He Kissed Me”, “Be My Baby”, “Chapel of Love”, and “River Deep – Mountain High” (all written with his then-wife Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector); “Leader of the Pack” (written with Greenwich and Shadow Morton); and “Sugar, Sugar” (written with Andy Kim).
arry and Greenwich married in October 1962 and shortly afterward decided to write songs exclusively with each other. Greenwich introduced Barry to her latest partner, songwriter-producer Phil Spector, and the threesome went on to help define the “Girl Group” sound of the early 1960s. The Barry-Greenwich-Spector team composed several of Spector’s biggest hits, including The Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Then He Kissed Me,” and The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and “Baby, I Love You”, as well as the holiday perennial “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love.
In early 1963, Barry and Greenwich had chart success with “What A Guy” and “The Kind of Boy You Can’t Forget”, recorded by the couple under the name The Raindrops for Jubilee Records, with Greenwich providing all the female vocals through the process of overdubbing, while Barry sang backgrounds in a bass voice. (Greenwich’s sister, Laura, was drafted for live performances by The Raindrops, though she was little more than a prop, singing into a dead microphone.) The Raindrops also recorded a Jubilee single in late 1963 called “That Boy John” a catchy fusion of jazz and rhythm and blues that reached the middle of the charts; President John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated and, according to Barry and Greenwich, radio stations were loath to play the song. However, in a twist of fate, the B side written by Barry and Greenwich was “Hanky Panky”, which would resurface in 1966 as a No. 1 cover version for Tommy James & The Shondells, giving that group its first hit.
In 1964, Leiber and Stoller brought Barry and Greenwich onboard their new label, Red Bird Records, as songwriter-producers. Of Red Bird’s first 20 releases, 15 hit the charts; all were written and/or produced by the Barry-Greenwich team, including “Chapel of Love”, “People Say”, and “Iko Iko” by The Dixie Cups, and “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)” (co-produced by Artie Ripp) and “Leader of the Pack” by The Shangri-Las. In 1964 alone, the duo were responsible for writing 17 singles that reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart. One of these was “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, originally recorded by the girl group The Exciters, but reworked for a No. 1 pop hit by the British Invasion group Manfred Mann. In 1964, Barry and Greenwich also penned songs for Connie Francis and charted with two Lesley Gore hits, “Maybe I Know” and “Look of Love.”
Barry and Greenwich released solo singles under their own names for Red Bird in 1965, Greenwich the haunting “You Don’t Know” and Barry the uptempo “I’ll Still Love You”. However, 1965 was difficult for the pair, since unbeknownst to many, Barry and Greenwich’s marriage had begun to unravel. The couple divorced in late 1965 but would continue to work together for much of the following year, and sporadically after that until the late 1960s. Their professional and personal partnerships were the subject of the 1985 Broadway jukebox musical Leader of the Pack.
In early 1966 Barry and Greenwich discovered a talented young singer-songwriter named Neil Diamond and brought him to the attention of Bert Berns, one of the principals of Bang Records. Diamond was signed to the label, and Barry and Greenwich produced Neil’s first hits, including “Solitary Man”, “Cherry, Cherry”, “Kentucky Woman”, and “Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon”. Barry and Greenwich can be heard singing backgrounds on many of Diamond’s Bang recordings.
During the same period, the pair teamed with Phil Spector to write the classics “River Deep, Mountain High”, by Ike and Tina Turner and “I Can Hear Music” by The Ronettes and The Beach Boys. Penning songs (especially love songs) together was awkward at best given the circumstances, and Barry and Greenwich’s writing partnership soon came to its end. Among Barry’s new collaborators were Marty Sanders, a member of the pop group Jay and the Americans, and Bang label CEO Bert Berns, with whom he wrote “Am I Groovin’ You?”, a top R & B single for Freddie Scott in 1967. Also in 1967, Reparata and the Delrons had a minor hit with Barry’s “I’m Nobody’s Baby Now”.
In late 1966, Barry was asked to produce tracks for the Monkees, a music group put together specifically as the stars of an NBC sitcom, also called “The Monkees”. Drafted by the show’s musical supervisor, Don Kirshner, Barry brought with him a few Neil Diamond-penned tunes for the group to record. One among them, “I’m a Believer”, under Barry’s production, would sail up the U.S. charts to No. 1 and become one of the biggest-selling records of all time. The group also had a hit with another Diamond-composed, Barry-produced single, “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You”. After Kirshner’s dismissal from Colgems Records, however, Barry would not produce songs for the Monkees again until 1970’s Changes, which contained many songs co-written by Barry, and their 1971 single Do It in the Name of Love, which he also co-wrote.
Having been removed from the Monkees project, Kirshner became music supervisor for a new Saturday morning cartoon, The Archie Show, in 1968, and enlisted Barry as producer and main songwriter. During the next three years, Barry composed dozens of songs for the fictional Archies group, including the show’s theme, “Everything’s Archie”, and the “Dances of the Week” (a staple of the show’s first season). Barry had also recently founded his own label, Steed Records, and one of his most successful recording artists was Montreal native Andy Kim, who had hits with remakes of Barry’s Ronettes tunes “Be My Baby” and “Baby, I Love You.” Barry and Kim collaborated on several tunes for The Archies to record, including their best-known single, “Sugar, Sugar”, which hit No. 1, became the RIAA Record of the Year for 1969, and earned the group a gold record.
In 1970, Barry wrote and produced singles and albums for Archies lead singer Ron Dante; Bobby Bloom (“Montego Bay”), and Robin McNamara (“Lay a Little Lovin’ On Me”), among others. In addition, Barry penned his first music for motion pictures (Hello Down There (1969) and Where It’s At) and wrote the music for and produced Tom Eyen’s hit off-Broadway revue The Dirtiest Show in Town. In 1975 he produced “Ooh, I’m Satisfied” for short-lived mid-’70s pop singer-turned-session vocalist Polly Cutter.
Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
Barry Mann, is an American songwriter, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil.
His first successful song as a writer was “She Say (Oom Dooby Doom)”, a Top 20 chart-scoring song composed for the band the Diamonds in 1959. Mann co-wrote the song with Mike Anthony (Michael Logiudice). In 1961, Mann had his greatest success to that point with “I Love How You Love Me”, written with Larry Kolber and a no. 5 scoring single for the band the Paris Sisters, (seven years later, Bobby Vinton’s version would score in the Top 10). The same year, Mann himself reached the Top 40 as a performer with a novelty song co-written with Gerry Goffin, “Who Put the Bomp”, which parodied the nonsense words of the then-popular doo-wop genre.
Despite his success as a singer, Mann chose to channel his creativity into songwriting, forming a prolific partnership with Weil, a lyricist he met while both were staff songwriters at Don Kirshner and Al Nevin’s company Aldon Music, whose offices were located in Manhattan near the famed composing-and-publishing factory the Brill Building. Mann and Weil, who married in 1961, developed some songs intended to be socially conscious, with successes such as “Uptown” by the Crystals, “We Gotta Get out of This Place” by the Animals, “Magic Town” by the Vogues, and “Kicks” by Paul Revere & the Raiders. (Mann and Weil were disturbed when “Only In America”, a song they had written with the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and conceived originally for and recorded by the Drifters as a protest against racial prejudice, was re-worked by Leiber and Stoller into an uncontroversial success for Jay & the Americans.)
As of May 2009, Mann’s song catalog lists 635 songs. He has received 56 popular music, country, and Rhythm&Blues awards from Broadcast Music Incorporated, and 46 Millionaire Awards for radio performances numbering more than one million plays. The song “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'”, co-written with Weil and Phil Spector, was the most played song of the 20th century, with more than 14 million plays.
Mann has composed songs for movies, most notably “Somewhere Out There”, co-written with Weil and James Horner, for the 1986 animated movie An American Tail. Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram performed the song as a duet during the movie’s closing credits; their version was released as a single, which scored No. 2 on the Billboards charts and became a “gold”-scoring record. “Somewhere Out There” would win two 1987 Grammy Awards, as Song of the Year and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or Television. “Somewhere Out There” was also nominated for a 1986 Oscar as best song, but lost to “Take My Breath Away” from “Top Gun” (a film that featured the Weil-penned “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” in a key scene). Mann’s other movie work includes the scores for I Never Sang for My Father and Muppet Treasure Island, and songs for National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Oliver & Company.
Cynthia Weil, is an American songwriter who wrote many songs together with her husband Barry Mann. Weil was born in New York City, and was raised in a Conservative Jewish family. Her father was Morris Weil, a furniture store owner and the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, and her mother was Dorothy Mendez, who grew up in a Sephardic Jewish family in Brooklyn. Weil trained as an actress and dancer, but soon demonstrated a songwriting ability that led to her collaboration with Barry Mann, whom she married in August 1961. The couple has one daughter, Dr Jenn Mann, AKA “Dr. Jenn”. Weil became one of the Brill Building songwriters of the 1960s, and one of the most important writers during the emergence of rock and roll.
She and her husband went on to create songs for many contemporary artists, winning several Grammy Awards as well as Academy Award nominations for their compositions for film. As their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography put it, in part: “Mann and Weil’s… [works went from] epic ballads (‘On Broadway’, ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin”) to outright rockers (‘Kicks’, ‘We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place’) [and they also] placed an emphasis on meaningful lyrics in their songwriting. With Weil writing the words and Mann the music, they came up with a number of songs that addressed such serious subjects as racial and economic divides[,] ‘Uptown’, …and the difficult reality of making it in the big city (‘On Broadway’). ‘Only in America’… tackled segregation and racism, making it rather too controversial for the Drifters, who were the intended artists. ‘We Gotta Get out of This Place’ became an anthem for [the] Vietnam soldier, antiwar protesters, and young people who viewed it as an anthem of greater opportunities.
Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield,
Neil Sedaka is an American pop singer, pianist, composer and record producer. Since his music career began in 1957 as a short-lived founding member of the Tokens, he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and others, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard Greenfield and Phil Cody.
Howard Greenfield was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building. He is best known for his successful songwriting collaborations, including one with Neil Sedaka from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, and a near-simultaneous (and equally successful) songwriting partnership with Jack Keller throughout most of the 1960s.
Andy Kim
is a Canadian pop rock singer and songwriter. He grew up in Montreal, Quebec. He is known for hits that he released in the late 1960s and 1970s: the international hit “Baby, I Love You” in 1969, and “Rock Me Gently”, which topped the US singles chart in 1974. He co-wrote “Sugar, Sugar” in 1968 and sang on the recording as part of The Archies; it was #1 for four weeks and was “Record of the Year” for 1969.
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart
were a prolific songwriting duo, best known for the songs they wrote for The Monkees.
Hart’s father was a church minister and he himself served in the Army after leaving high school. Upon discharge, he travelled to Los Angeles seeking a career as a singer. Boyce was separately pursuing a career as a singer. After being rejected numerous times, Boyce took his father’s suggestion to write a song called “Be My Guest” for rock and roll star Fats Domino. He waited six hours at Domino’s hotel room to present him with the demo, and got Domino to promise to listen to the song. The song hit #8 in the US and #11 in the UK, becoming Domino’s biggest hit there in several years, and sold over a million copies. Boyce met Hart in 1959, and the following year played guitar on Hart’s single “Girl in the Window”, which flopped, but marked the first time he used the name Bobby Hart, since his manager shortened it to fit the label.
Their partnership made a breakthrough with a song recorded by Chubby Checker, “Lazy Elsie Molly”, in 1964. They went on to write hits for Jay & the Americans (“Come a Little Bit Closer”), Paul Revere and the Raiders (“(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”), and The Leaves (“Words”). The latter two songs provided the Monkees with hit B-sides in 1967. The duo also wrote the theme song of the daytime soap Days of Our Lives. At one point in this period, Hart also co-wrote “Hurt So Bad” for Little Anthony & the Imperials with Teddy Randazzo and his regular songwriting partner, Bobby Weinstein.
The Monkees]
In late 1965, they wrote, produced and performed the soundtrack of the pilot for The Monkees, including singing lead vocals (which were later replaced, once the show was cast). In 1966, despite some conflicts with Don Kirshner, who was the show’s musical supervisor, they were retained in essentially the same role. It was Boyce and Hart who wrote, produced and recorded, accompanied by their backing band, the Candy Store Prophets, backing tracks for a large portion of the first season of The Monkees, and the band’s accompanying debut album.
The Monkees themselves re-recorded their vocals over Boyce and Hart’s when it came time to release the songs, including both “(Theme from) The Monkees” and “Last Train to Clarksville”, the latter being a huge hit. Kirshner suddenly relieved Boyce and Hart as producers, by claiming they were using studio time booked for Monkees songs to record tracks for their own solo project.
After their departure from the Monkees, and the negative publicity that erupted when word got out that the band hadn’t played the instruments on their early records, Boyce and Hart were unsure how the Monkees felt about them personally. Attending one of their concerts, though, the duo were spotted in the audience, and singer Davy Jones invited them onstage to introduce them: “These are the fellows who wrote our great hits — Tommy and Bobby!” Every original Monkees album (except for the Head soundtrack) included Boyce and Hart songs.
Other successes
While working with The Monkees, Boyce and Hart embarked on a successful career as recording artists in their own right, releasing three albums on A&M Records: Test Patterns, I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight, and It’s All Happening on the Inside (released in Canada as Which One’s Boyce and Which One’s Hart?). The duo also had five charting singles; the most well-known of these was “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight”, which reached #8 in early 1968. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. “Out and About” (#39) and “Alice Long” (#27) were their other Top 40 hits. The duo also performed “I’ll Blow You a Kiss in the Wind” on the television show Bewitched in one of several TV series appearances that included guest spots on The Flying Nun and I Dream of Jeannie (“Jeannie the Hip Hippie”, and all of these shows were produced by Screen Gems, the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures. In each of the three sitcom guest appearances, their music was featured including two covers (unreleased) they did on The Flying Nun.
Boyce and Hart also had filmed video promos for their songs “Out and About” and “Alice Long”.
Boyce and Hart also were involved in producing music for Columbia Pictures’ motion pictures during the mid-late 1960s, including two Matt Helm movies (The Ambushers and Murderer’s Row), Winter A-Go-Go and Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows. They also provided the music score for a TV movie called Three’s a Crowd starring Larry Hagman and Jessica Walter. Boyce and Hart also did promos for the U.S. Army Reserve and Coca-Cola. This included the creation of two Coca-Cola commercial jingles, one being a powerful psychedelic song, “Wake Up Girl”, while the other was their single “Smilin'” with totally different lyrics.
In 1971 a sitcom named Getting Together appeared on ABC-TV, starring Bobby Sherman and Wes Stern as two struggling songwriters, who were friends of The Partridge Family (and were introduced on their show in the last episode of the show’s first season). The series was reportedly based loosely on Boyce and Hart’s partnership. At this point, they decided to work on various solo projects.
Phil Spector
is an American record producer, musician, and songwriter who developed the Wall of Sound, a music production formula he described as a Wagnerian approach to rock and roll. Spector was dubbed the “First Tycoon of Teen” by writer Tom Wolfe and is acknowledged as one of the most influential figures in pop music history. After the 1970s, Spector mostly retired from public life. In 2009, he was convicted of second-degree murder and has remained incarcerated since.
Born in the Bronx, Spector began his career in 1958 as the co-founder of the Teddy Bears, performing on guitar and vocals, and penning their US number-one single “To Know Him Is to Love Him”. In 1960, he co-founded Philles Records, and at the age of 21, became the youngest ever US label owner to that point. Over the next several years, he wrote, co-wrote, or produced records for acts such as the Ronettes and the Crystals, and later, John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles. He often employed what would become known as “the Wrecking Crew” as his de facto house band while collaborating with arranger Jack Nitzsche, engineer Larry Levine, and various Brill Building songwriters. Spector’s other chart-topping singles include “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” (Righteous Brothers, 1964), “The Long and Winding Road” (Beatles, 1970), and “My Sweet Lord” (Harrison, 1970).