I Eat Music

Songwriter Ellie Greenwich has died aged 68 from a heart attack, following a bout of pneumonia, her niece told reporters yesterday.

Born in Brooklyn in 1940, Greenwich, with her husband Jeff Barry, became known as one of the most successful pop songwriters of the 60s, working out of the Brill Building in Manhattan, which also provided working space for other songwriters, including Carole King, Burt Bacharach, Hal David and Phil Spector.

Amongst a string of hits, she and Barry penned songs such as ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ and ‘Then He Kissed Me’ for The Crystals, ‘Chapel Of Love’ for The Ronettes (written with Phil Spector), ‘Doo Wah Diddy Diddy’ for Manfred Mann, and ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ for Ike & Tina Turner. One of the couple’s most famous songs was ‘Leader Of The Pack, a collaboration with producer Gordon ‘Shadow’ Morton, which was a hit for The Shangri-Las in 1965. The couple were inducted into the US Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1991.

Greenwich had begun writing songs as a teenager, and her first commercially released work was ‘Silly Isn’t It’ in 1958, which she performed herself under the name Ellie Gaye for RCA. She released her first solo album, ‘Ellie Greenwich Composes, Produces And Sings’ ten years later, as an early project for Pineywood Music, the writing and production company she set up with Mike Kashkow in 1967, following her divorce from Barry. She also provided backing vocals for artists such as Dusty Springfield, Bobby Darin and Frank Sinatra in the 60s and 70s and continued to produce other artists, including Neil Diamond.

In 1984, many of her 60s songs were given a new lease of life by the musical ‘Leader Of The Pack’, written by Anne Beatts, with a story based on Greenwich’s life. It transferred to Broadway’s Ambassador Theater in 1985 and ran for 120 performances.

Greenwich is survived by a sister.

Not a whole lot has gone on in the singles top 10 this week. Calvin Harris remains at number one, while La Roux shifts up from four to two. Lily Allen also moves into the top 10 from last week’s 11 with ‘Not Fair’.

New entries are a little thin on the ground, too. The Enemy are in at 16 with ‘No Time For Tears’, Miley Cyrus climbs up to 24 from 49 with, er, ‘The Climb’, Frankmusic is in at 26 with ‘Better Off As Two’, Green Day go straight in at 30 with ‘Know Your Enemy’, the first single from their new album, and Girls Aloud’s ‘Untouchable’ moves from being just outside the top 40 last week to just inside it this week at 36. ‘Daniel’ by Bat For Lashes is down to 38 this week, which is a travesty if I ever saw one.

The album chart is in a pretty sorry state this week. That woman is still at number one. You know the one. You might have seen her on ‘Friday Night With Jonathan Ross’ on Friday failing to either reply to questions properly or control her own neck. And if that wasn’t enough, the only new entry in the top 10 this week is Chris De Burgh. Chris. De. Burgh.

And there are just three more new entries as we move down the chart. Madeleine Peyroux goes in at 12 with ‘Bare Bones’, there’s a new Dusty Springfield compilation, ‘Just Dusty’, at 18, and Super Furry Animals’ new album, ‘Dark Days/Light Years’, is at 23. Bat For Lashes’ new album is at 11 this week, which is down on last week. This is unacceptable.

The chart is compiled, even though they needn’t have bother this week, by The Official Charts Company.

This article originally appeared in CMU Daily on 20 Apr 2009