Runner up for Best Brill Building dream team?

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geoff85
Posts: 371
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:55 pm

Runner up for Best Brill Building dream team?

Post by geoff85 »

Obviously Bacharach/David was the best that is not up for debate. Anyone who says otherwise I would personally recommend time in the Russian Gulag. However a more worthy debate would be who was the second best songwriting tandem.. For this purpose Laura Nyro is also disqualified as she is neither a tandem and it seems her status and association with the gilded establishment is still unclear. I will hold my own personal opinion as to not bias the thread.
Blair N. Cummings
Posts: 1123
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:14 pm

Re: Runner up for Best Brill Building dream team?

Post by Blair N. Cummings »

Well, Lieber/Stoller; Greenwich/Barry; Mann/Well; King/Goffin all are contenders who could jostle for second place. Their job was to combine the form of the traditional American pop song with the nascent rock and roll sensibility to snag the new teen market for singles. At this they all succeeded. The problem is that they never really developed as writers beyond that. Yes, Carole King and - to a much lesser extent - Barry Mann had solo careers in the 70s but few of their songs, early or late, have lives beyond the nostalgia market.
Once Bacharach came into his own, his melodic and structural innovations lifted even his early teen laments above the rest. Pop critic Stephen Holden once wrote that Burt had really created his own sub-genre of pop music. It`s hard to argue against that evaluation. Sure, stuff like "I Could Make You Mine" is redolent of many of the tropes of its time but overall, Bacharach was fairly early on - with any lyricist - in a league of his own.
geoff85
Posts: 371
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:55 pm

Re: Runner up for Best Brill Building dream team?

Post by geoff85 »

For me I have hard time deciding between Lieber Stoller/ Goffin King. I think from a commercial standpoint Lieber Stoller might have been the most successful Brill Building pair even more so than Bacharach David. They produced a few Bacharach composed songs ex. Exciters its love that really counts and Jay and the Americans " Look in my eyes Maria" to name a few. That means they must have been well revered by the top execs as they were essentially trusting their instincts more than Bacharach's at one time which almost seems like Blasphemy now. Goffin King are one of the reasons why there were girl groups in the first place or in the least were huge champions of them. I cant decide. Other people come in and help me out.
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