Brill Building
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Brill Building (built 1931 as the Alan E. Lefcourt Building and designed by Victor Bark Jr. ) is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It is famous for housing music industry offices and studios where some of the most popular American music tunes were written. The building has been described as "the most important generator of popular songs in the Western world."
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Notable people
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.
- Burt Bacharach and Hal David
- Bert Berns
- Sonny Bono
- Boyce and Hart
- Neil Diamond
- Andy Kim
- Giant, Baum & Kaye
- Gerry Goffin and Carole King
- Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry
- Marvin Hamlisch
- Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore
- Kander and Ebb
- Artie Kornfeld
- Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
- Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
- Haras Fyre and Gwen Guthrie
- Shadow Morton
- Laura Nyro
- Claus Ogerman<ref>http://bjbear71.com/Ogerman/comments.html#Brill</ref>
- Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman
- Tony Powers
- Beverly Ross
- Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield
- Paul Simon as Jerry Landis<ref>http://www.rockabilly.nl/artists/simongarfunkel.htm</ref>
- Phil Spector
- Eddie Snyder
- Bobby Susser
- Steve Tyrell
Other famous musicians who were headquartered in The Brill Building:
- Elvis Presley
- Bobby Darin<ref>http://darintodream.com/004_02_06.htm</ref>
- The Drifters featuring Ben E. King
- Connie Francis
- Lesley Gore
- Haras Fyre
- Darlene Love
- Liza Minnelli
- Tony Orlando
- Gene Pitney
- The Ronettes
- The Shangri-Las
- The Shirelles
- The Sweet Inspirations
- Doris Troy
- Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
- Dee Dee Warwick
- Dionne Warwick
- The Delicates
Among the hundreds of hits written by this group are "Yakety Yak" (Leiber-Stoller), "Save the Last Dance for Me" (Pomus-Shuman), "The Look of Love" (Bacharach-David), "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (Sedaka-Greenfield), "Devil in Disguise" (Giant-Baum-Kaye), "The Loco-Motion" (Goffin-King), "Supernatural Thing" (Fyre-Guthrie), "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" (Mann-Weil), and "River Deep, Mountain High" (Spector-Greenwich-Barry).
Musicians
The following is a partial list of Studio Musicians who contributed to the Brill Building sound:
- Arrangers/Conductors: Teacho Wiltshire, Garry Sherman, Alan Lorber, Jimmy Wisner, Artie Butler, Claus Ogerman, Stan Applebaum.
- Bass: George Duvivier, Milt Hinton, Russ Savakus, Bob Bushnell, Joe Macho Jr, Al Lucas, Dick Romoff, James Tyrell, Jimmy Lewis, Lloyd Trotman, Wendell Marshal, Chuck Rainey.
- Guitar: Al Gorgoni, Carl Lynch, Trade Martin, Bucky Pizzarelli, Everett Barksdale, Bill Suyker, Vinnie Bell, Al Caiola, Al Casamenti, Art Ryerson, Eric Gale, Ralph Casale, Charles Macey, Hugh McCracken, Wally Richardson, Don Arnone, Charles McCracken, George Barnes, Allan Hanlon, Sal Ditroia, Kenny Burrell, Mundell Lowe, Cornell Dupree.
- Piano/Organ: Ernie Hayes, Paul Griffin, Leroy Glover, Frank Owens, Bernie Leighton, Artie Butler, Stan Free
- Drums: Gary Chester, Buddy Saltzman, Sticks Evans, Herbie Lovelle, David "Panama" Francis, Al Rogers, Bobby Gregg, Sol Gubin Bernard "Pretty" Purdie
- Saxophone: Artie Kaplan, Frank Heywood Henry, Phil Bodner, Jerome Richardson, Romeo Penque, King Curtis, Seldon Powell, Sam "the Man" Taylor, Buddy Lucas (musician).
- Trombone: Jimmy Cleveland, Frank Saracco, Benny Powell, Wayne Andre, Tony Studd, Micky Gravine, Urbie Green, Frank Rehak.
- Trumpet: Jimmy Nottingham, Ernie Royal, Jimmy Maxwell, Bernie Glow, Irwin "Marky" Markowitz, Jimmy Sedlar, Dud Bascomb, Lammar Wright Jr, Burt Collins, Joe Shepley.
- Percussion: George Devens, Phil Kraus, Bobby Rosengarden, Willie Rodriguez, Martin Grupp.
Aldon Music
Many of these writers came to prominence while under contract to Aldon Music, a publishing company founded ca. 1958 by aspiring music entrepreneur Don Kirshner and industry veteran Al Nevins. Aldon was not initially located in the Brill Building, but rather, a block away at 1650 Broadway (at 51st Street). A number of Brill Building writers worked at 1650 Broadway, and the building continued to house record labels throughout the decades.
Toni Wine explains:
- There were really two huge buildings that were housing publishing companies, songwriters, record labels, and artists. The Brill Building was one. But truthfully, most of your R&B, really rock & roll labels and publishing companies, including the studio, which was in the basement and was called Allegro Studios, was in 1650 Broadway. They were probably a block and a half away from each other. 1650 and the Brill Building.
See also
