WEB PAGE NO 810

FIRST PICTURE: ELLIE GREENWICH.


SECOND PICTURE:
IT MIGHT BE A COUPLE OF DAYS EARLY BUT HERE IS A 1960’S VALENTINE CARD FROM ME TO YOU







ELLIE GREENWICH

I bet most of you will have never come across the name Ellie Greenwich! But I bet you know a lot of her music! Ellie Greenwich wrote some of the most memorable pop songs of all time. Songs such as ‘Be My Baby’, ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ and ‘Leader of the Pack’ and in doing so she helped to define the emerging youth culture in the 1960s, the culture that was us!

At first hearing, her songs were little more than the catchy pop songs that we teenagers wanted to hear at the time but many of them have endured to become classics of their time. ‘And Then He Kissed Me’ describes the experience of a young woman being swept off her feet for the first time.(does that ring any bells out there?) ‘Leader of the Pack’, with its trademark revving motorcycle engine, tells of a sensible young girl who falls for a ne'er-do-well biker, until then neither of these subjects were regarded as being suitable for a pop song but once her songs were performed by the Ronnettes and Shangri-Las success soon followed.

Her song writing talent was recognised by Phil Spector who wanted emotional songs that could not easily be replicated. He found tunes such as ‘Be My Baby’, with its dramatic opening drumbeat, suited his Wall of Sound style of recording. He worked with her on many songs and he considered ‘River Deep Mountain High’, by Ike and Tina Turner, to be a masterpiece and called it "the rock 'n' roll symphony of all time".

Ellie Greenwich had a natural talent and she emerged as the creator of some of the generation's best-known hits after forming a partnership with Jeff Barry, whom she later married They set themselves up in what was then called the New York hit factory the Brill Building, along with Carole King, Gerry Coffin, Burt Bacharach and Neil Sedaka. She also formed a group called the Raindrops however her career as a performer did not match her writing talent.

She was born in New York in 1940 to a Catholic mother and Jewish father, both being of Russian origin and grew up in Brooklyn into a music-loving family. The young Ellie was a prolific collector of 45’s and she took lessons on the accordion. At high school she formed a singing group, the Jivettes, and at 17, calling herself Ellie Gaye she recorded and released her first single, ‘Silly Isn't It’/ ‘Cha-Cha Charming’. But it was as a songwriter that she began to flourish and ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’, was her first hit as a composer. This was followed up with a string of hits including ‘He's Got the Power’ and ‘(Today I Met) the Boy I'm gonna marry’.

She was still relatively unknown when in 1962 she arranged to meet one of the Brill Building composers. When he kept her waiting in an office she started to tinkle on the piano and sing. The producer Jerry Leiber was passing and poked his head in, thinking it was Carole King, and spotted her potential immediately.

Other of her compositions are ‘My Baby’, ‘Baby I Love You’ ‘Not Too Young To Get Married’ and ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home’ ‘Chapel of Love,’ ‘Out in the Streets’ and ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ for Manfred Mann a song which which reached No 1 on both sides of the Atlantic.

She and Barry divorced but they continued to write together and the following year they discovered a young Jewish singer-songwriter called Neil Diamond. As the years passed Ellie started an alternative career writing jingles for TV and radio, which I am sure was a great loss to the pop music industry, and she never had a major hit again.

Ellie Greenwich, pop singer, songwriter, was born on October 23rd 1940 and died of a heart attack in August aged just 68.

And she was a name that we had never heard of!!!!!

Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

You Write:
Had this sent to me:-
Ringo Starr has requested that all his fans honour him on his 70th birthday, July 7, by making the "peace sign" V-gesture at Noon that day, wherever they are. So don’t forget !!!!
News and Views:

The U.S. Social Security commission enlisted the aid of Chubby Checker to promote a new "twist" in the prescription assistance law that makes millions more senior citizens eligible.


On this day 13th February 1960-1965
On 13/02/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was Some Like It Hot. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was French test first atomic bomb in Sahara desert.

On 13/02/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 13/02/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 13/02/1963 the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Liz Taylor films Cleopatra.

On 13/02/1964 the number one single was Needles & Pins - Searchers and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 13/02/1965 the number one single was You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Righteous Brothers and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.