Day 8: Brill Building Pop

The Raindrops
The Raindrops

Though frequently derided by rock critics as the lost period between the short-lived explosion of authentic rock & roll in the mid-1950s and the beginning of the British invasion in late 1963, the five-year period that began when Elvis joined in the army and ended upon the US release of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was in reality the second golden age of American popular song. Just as Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter and Harold Arlen spearheaded an age of innovation in popular songwriting at Tin Pan Alley in the 1930s, another crop of predominantly Jewish New Yorkers, this time emerging almost exclusively as composer/lyricist teams, ushered in another period of profound change to pop music in the late 50s and early 60s. Whether critics are willing to acknowledge it or not, by merging the youthful exuberance and r&b roots of rock & roll with genuine pop songwriting chops, these writers proved important inspirations for the Beatles and all those who followed them. For proof, look no further than the Beatles’ early covers of numerous Goffin/King compositions, and John Lennon’s acknowledged reverence of the duo.

The second wave of songwriters included Leiber and Stoller, Pomus and Shuman, Goffin and King, Mann and Weil, Bacharach and David, and Barry and Greenwich, all of whom worked at or near an art deco building at 1619 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan known as the Brill Building. Scholars of the era—such as Ken Emerson, who recently published the definite history, Always Magic In The Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era—are quick to point out that many of enduring classics from the era actually emerged from down the street at the less-prestigious 1650 Broadway, but Brill Building pop has stuck as a descriptor for the idiom of musical expression shared by the pop craftsmen of the entire scene. Those unfamiliar with the history are nevertheless undoubtedly familiar with many of the lasting works the era produced. Among them are Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” the Drifters’ “Up on the Roof,” and Dionne Warwick’s “Walk on By,” to say nothing of the dozens of a.m. gold to which Phil Spector applied his famous wall of sound.

No songwriting team was more successful at writing for Spector’s orchestral sound than that of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. In contrast to say, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil—who wrote such songs as “He’s Sure The Boy I Love” and “(You’ve Lost) That Lovin’ Feelin’” for Spector—Barry and Greenwich had absolutely no pretenses about writing “serious” music, and were instead quite content to churn out song after song of the kind of childish naïveté perfectly suited to Spector’s jukebox grandeur. Among the brilliant results of their collaborations are “Be My Baby,” “Baby I Love You,” and “I Wonder” by the Ronettes, “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Then He Kissed Me” by the Crystals, and “River Deep-Mountain High,” by Ike and Tina Turner.

While best known as songwriters, Barry and Greenwich are also remembered for the demos they recorded and released under the name the Raindrops. Though Greenwich never became a star in her own right, she was a more than competent singer, and the Raindrops’ self-titled 1963 LP features endearing interpretations of Barry/Greenwich songs popularized by other performers as well as a handful of obscure gems. The Raindrops’ “Da Doo Ron Ron” falls short of the Crystals’ famous recording but the ‘drops’ “Not Too Young To Get Married” holds up fairly well against the readings of Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans and Darlene Love. The real highlights, however, are songs that weren’t made famous by stars of the day. “The Kind of Boy You Can’t Forget,” which the Raindrops took to 17 on the Billboard charts, is an unsung gem filled with “diddle-iddle-iddle-it” harmonies and “That Boy’s Messin’ Up My Mind” is a tour-de-force of nearly contrapuntal “do-bop”s and “ooo-wa”s. The Raindrops debut is now widely available on a CD that includes eight bonus tracks, and for collectors, there is also the out-of-print Complete Raindrops, which contains three additional cuts.

To hear audio clips from The Raindrops, click here.