Songwriters of the Brill Building

Presented by John Clark and his Great American Music Experience

They were a group of young Jewish couples and partners writing songs for Don Kirshner’s Aldon Publishing in New York, and their creative collaborations influenced American teen-oriented music in the latter half of the 1950s and early 1960s. In many ways they challenged the dominance of 30 years of Tin Pan Alley. Those six talented teams were Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller, Carole King & Gerry Goffin, Doc Pomus & Mort Schuman, Neil Sedaka & Howie Greenfield, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil and Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich. Together they churned out dozens of the landmark hit singles that moved this energetic rock & roll/R&B music into the mainstream; songs like Hound Dog, Breaking Up is Hard to Do, Save the Last Dance for Me, Up on the Roof and A Natural Woman. These are the stories of their careers and the songs they wrote for Elvis Presley, Connie Francis, the Coasters, the Drifters and many, many more. Plus live performances of Jailhouse Rock, Along Came Jones, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Up on the Roof and Be My Baby, among many others. This was music history in the making, as together these lyricists and composers took simple rock & roll and raw R&B to new heights of emotional authenticity, artistic achievement and national popularity. 

About John Clark: Music Historian, Lecturer

Great American Music Experience – Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

John teaches classes on Bob Dylan, American Roots music, fifties and sixties music for community education programs in Newton, Lexington, Brookline and Cambridge and in adult Ed programs at Brandeis and Tufts Universities. He also presents the history of Jewish-American songwriters at various local synagogues.

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