Songs of the Day: Brill Building Brilliance

A great, if rare and expensive, compilation is K-Tel's "Brill Building Sound", a mid 90's box set that looked back at the incredible blizzard of songs that came out of New York's Brill Building in the 1960's.  The roster of talent there was staggering: Neil Sedaka, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Neil Diamond, Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman, Leiber and Stoller, Gerry Goffin, Carole King, not to mention Phil Spector and the list goes on. 

These kids (many were not much older than the artists, or their fans for that matter) literally sat in the Brill Building in cubicle like offices and just cranked out the hits: "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do", "Teenager In Love", "Locomotion", "Stand By Me", "Will You Love Me Tomorrow".  Not only were these genuine pop hits, but many had somber undertones which, in many cases, reflected the real life struggles of the songwriters' own lives.

Here are a few of my faves.

"Magic Town" by the Vogues.  Written by Mann and Weil.


"Needles and Pins".  Before the Searchers came in the British Invasion, Jackie Deshannon recorded the first version of this song co-written by Sonny Bono.


"Hey Girl", a great ballad from the team of Goffin and King.  This is a great cover by Billy Joel.


"It Hurts To Be In Love" by Gene Pitney.  Pitney himself was a songwriter who wrote hits for a number of groups/artists in the early sixties, including "He's a Rebel" for the Crystals and "Hello Mary Lou" for Ricky Nelson.  "It Hurts To Be In Love" was co-written by another Brill Building veteran, Howard Greenfield, and was originally meant for Neil Sedaka.  Sedaka loved it, recorded it, but his record company refused to allow the recording to be released because the rights were owned by a rival.  The song was then given to Pitney.  Sedaka's recording was used, but his vocals were wiped out and Pitney sang over Sedaka's backing track.  The rest is history.


"I'm Into Something Good" by Earl Jean. Earl Jean was the lead singer of the girl group The Cookies when she was given this solo song by Goffin and King. Her version is most notable for inspiring the British Invasion act Herman's Hermits to cover it for their first U.S. hit. Still, this is an interesting glimpse into the song, done in the "girl group" style and very similar to a Cookies treatment.


Howard Greenfield co-wrote a number of hits ("Breaking Up Is Hard To Do", "Love Will Keep Us Together", "Where The Boys Are", "Calendar Girl", "Crying In The Rain", "Venus In Blue Jeans") as well as composing the themes for "Bewitched", "The Flying Nun" and "Hazel".  In his spare time, he also wrote a number of minor hits, including this one for Johnny Crawford of "The Rifleman", "Rumors", presented here as it was heard in 1962.