Barry Mann

Barry Mann

born on 9/2/1939 in Brooklyn, NY, United States

Barry Mann

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Barry Mann

Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman, February 9, 1939, Brooklyn, New York City)[1] is an American songwriter, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil. Mann married Weil in August 1961. The couple has one daughter: Dr. Jenn Berman.

Career

Mann and lyricist Cynthia Weil now operate a publishing company called Dyad Music.[2] Mann's first hit single as a writer was "She Say (Oom Dooby Doom)", a Top 20 song for The Diamonds in 1959. Mann co-wrote the song with Mike Anthony (Michael Logiudice). In 1961, Mann had his biggest hit to that time with "I Love How You Love Me", written with Larry Kolber and a No. 5 single for The Paris Sisters. (Seven years later, Bobby Vinton would take the song into the Top 10.) Also in 1961, Mann himself hit the Top 40 as a performer with a novelty song co-written with Gerry Goffin, "Who Put The Bomp", which parodied the nonsense words of the then-popular doo-wop genre and made the Top 40.[1][3]

Despite his success as a singer with "Who Put the Bomp", Mann chose to channel the bulk of his creativity into songwriting, forming a prolific partnership with Weil, a lyricist he met while both were staff songwriters at Don Kirshner's and Al Nevin's Aldon Music, whose offices were located near the famed composing-and-publishing factory, the Brill Building. Mann and Weil, who married in 1961, helped pioneer the more socially conscious side of the Brill Building-era songbook with hits such as "Uptown" by The Crystals, "We Gotta Get out of This Place" by the Animals, "Magic Town" by the Vogues and "Kicks" by Paul Revere & the Raiders. (Mann and Weil were upset when "Only in America", a song they'd written with the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and originally conceived for and recorded by The Drifters as a cynical broadside against racial prejudice, was re-worked by Leiber and Stoller into an uncontroversial hit for Jay & the Americans.)

As of May 2009, Mann's song catalog lists 635 songs.[4] He has received 56 pop, country, and R&B awards from Broadcast Music Incorporated, and 46 Millionaire Awards for radio performances numbering over one million plays.[5] The song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", co-written with Weil and Phil Spector, was the most played song of the 20th century, with more than 14 million plays.

Mann has composed songs for films, most notably "Somewhere Out There", co-written with Weil and James Horner, for the 1986 animated hit "An American Tail". Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram, who performed the song as a duet over the film's closing credits, saw their version released as a single, which reached No. 2 on the Billboards charts and became a gold record. "Somewhere Out There" would win two 1987 Grammy Awards, as Song of the Year and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or Television. "Somewhere Out There" was also nominated for a 1986 Oscar as best song, but lost to "Take My Breath Away" from "Top Gun". Mann's other film work includes the scores for I Never Sang for My Father and Muppet Treasure Island, and songs for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Oliver and Company.

Mann co-wrote, with Dan Hill, "Sometimes When We Touch," which hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1987, Mann and Weil were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[1] In 2011 they received the Johnny Mercer Award the highest honor from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[6]

Mann and Weil were named among the 2010 recipients of Ahmet Ertegun Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[7]

Songs written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil

  • "Absolutely Green" Dom DeLuise (written for A Troll in Central Park)
  • "Another Goodbye" Donna Fargo (co-written with Scott English)
  • "Black Butterfly" Deniece Williams
  • "Blame It on the Bossa Nova" Eydie Gorme
  • "Brown Eyed Woman" Bill Medley
  • "Christmas Vacation" film title song
  • "Coldest Night of the Year" Twice As Much featuring Vashti Bunyan
  • "Don't Know Much" Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt (written with Tom Snow)
  • "Don't Make My Baby Blue" The Shadows, The Move
  • "Good Time Living" Three Dog Night
  • "Heart Kenny Chandler, Wayne Newton
  • "Here You Come Again" Dolly Parton
  • "He's Sure the Boy I Love" The Crystals
  • "How Can I Tell Her It's Over" Andy Williams
  • "Hungry" Paul Revere & the Raiders
  • "I Just Can't Help Believing" B. J. Thomas, Elvis Presley
  • "I'm Gonna Be Strong" Gene Pitney; Cyndi Lauper
  • "It's Getting Better" Cass Elliot
  • "It's Not Easy" Colin Blunstone
  • "I Will Come to You" Hanson
  • "Just a Little Lovin' (Early in the Morning)" Dusty Springfield, Carmen McRae, Billy Eckstine, Bobby Vinton, Shelby Lynne
  • "Just Once" James Ingram with Quincy Jones
  • "Kicks" Paul Revere & the Raiders
  • "Looking Through the Eyes of Love" Gene Pitney, Marlena Shaw, The Fortunes, The Partridge Family
  • "Love Led Us Here" John Berry, Helen Darling
  • "Magic Town" The Vogues
  • "Make Your Own Kind of Music" "Mama" Cass Elliot
  • "Never Gonna Let You Go" Sérgio Mendes
  • "None of Us Are Free" (Mann, Weil, Brenda Russell) Ray Charles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Solomon Burke
  • "On Broadway" The Drifters George Benson (written with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)
  • "Once Upon a Time in New York City" (written with Howard Ashman for Oliver and Company)
  • "Only in America" Jay and the Americans
  • "Proud" Johnny Crawford
  • "Rock and Roll Lullaby" B. J. Thomas
  • "Saturday Night at the Movies" The Drifters
  • "Shades of Gray" and "Love is Only Sleeping" The Monkees
  • "Shape of Things to Come" Max Frost and the Troopers
  • "She's Over Me" Teddy Pendergrass
  • "Something Better" Marianne Faithfull (written with Gerry Goffin)
  • "Somewhere Out There" Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram (written with James Horner for the film, An American Tail) a double Grammy Award winner
  • "Sweet Sorrow" Conway Twitty
  • "Too Many Mondays" Barry Mann, Wicked Lester (unreleased)
  • "Uptown" The Crystals
  • "Walking in the Rain" The Ronettes
  • "We Gotta Get out of This Place" The Animals
  • "We're Over" Johnny Rodriguez
  • "A World of Our Own" Closing theme song from Return to the Blue Lagoon Surface
  • "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" The Righteous Brothers
  • "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" The Righteous Brothers (written with Phil Spector)

See also

  • Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
  • Grammy Award for Song of the Year
  • Academy Award for Best Original Song
  • List of Christmas carols
  • List of 1960s one-hit wonders in the United States

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 [Barry Mann at All Music Guide Allmusic biography by Steve Kurutz]
  2. Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil Contact Info. Archived from the original on May 8, 2009. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
  3. Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years, 1st, London: Reed International Books Ltd. CN 5585.
  4. Barry Mann Song Catalog. Songwriters Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on May 11, 2009. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
  5. Barry Mann's Bio. Archived from the original on May 20, 2009. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
  6. Garth Brooks, Billy Joel perform together during Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony. Soundspike.com (June 17, 2011). Retrieved on April 16, 2012.
  7. Congratulations to the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees!. Archived from the original on December 23, 2009. Retrieved on December 15, 2009.

External links

  • [Barry Mann at All Music Guide Barry Mann biography] at Allmusic website
  • Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil Official website
  • Audio interview with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil on the Sodajerker on Songwriting podcast
This page was last modified 29.10.2013 08:56:20

This article uses material from the article Barry Mann from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.