16 Jan 2017

Teen Pan Alley

From Teen Pan Alley, 11:05 am on 16 January 2017
The Monkees

The Monkees Photo: supplied

The songwriters crammed into the Brill Building in New York changed the face of pop song writing forever.

The Brill Building on Broadway was the heart of rock and roll. Eleven floors of offices, some of them not much bigger than a closet, were packed with song writers, publishers, producers, performers and hustlers.

And the influence of their work exceeded even their wildest dreams. Virtually every pop song writer from the Beatles to the present day owes a debt to the Brill alumni.

Burt Bacharach, Goffin and King, Leiber and Stoller, Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry and the rest not only wrote the songs that made the whole world sing, they provided the soundtrack for a generation of teenage dreams.  

Simon Morris presents part five of Teen Pan Alley: 'Neck in noose bye bye'.

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