skippy the bush kangaroo: skippy's friday nite music club

Friday, August 28, 2009

skippy's friday nite music club - rip ellie greenwich

ellie greenwich, co-writer of the 60's staple da doo ron ron, has died @ age 68.
la times:

ellie greenwich, the new york songwriter behind a string of 1960s hits that gave effervescent voice to unbridled teen romance including "da doo ron ron," "chapel of love" and "be my baby," many of them in collaboration with producer phil spector, died wednesday of a heart attack, according to her niece, jessica weiner. she was 68.

she was being treated for pneumonia and "some other heart issues" at st. luke's- roosevelt hospital center in new york when she suffered the heart attack, weiner said.

"she was the greatest melody writer of all time," brian wilson told the times on wednesday. the chief creative force of the beach boys, whose music was strongly influenced by many of the hits greenwich and her husband jeff barry wrote with spector, has often cited "be my baby" as his favorite record of all time.

so in honor of ms. greenwich, we present a trio of her hits:

the crystals - da doo ron ron

the dixie cups - chapel of love

the ronettes - be my baby

greenwich was also one of the first female record producers in history, having started in the famed brill building stable of artists (watch the flick "grace of my heart" starring illeanna douglas as a highly-fictionalized version of carole king to find out more about this piece of song-writing history). greenwich also wrote for skippy's personal fav, neil diamond, among others.

the times also tells us that "the music publishing rights organization broadcast music inc. lists more than 200 songs she wrote or co-wrote, including 'then he kissed me' (the crystals), ‘i can hear music’ (the ronettes, beach boys), ‘hanky panky’ (a hit for tommy james & the shondells), ‘maybe i know’ (lesley gore) and the song spector considered his greatest recording, ‘river deep, mountain high’ (ike and tina turner)."

her songs were definately a major part of boomer childhood. rest in peace, ellie greenwich.

addendum: amanda @ pandagon is correct: phil spector is evil.

posted by skippy at 11:59 PM |

4 Comments:

my family used to give spectacular Christmas Day open-house parties. by the late evening, there was a lot of music -- the one song that could be counted on to get everyone singing (in harmony!) was Da Do Ron Ron.

commented by

Anonymous, 10:17 PM PDT

God rest her soul. 68 is too young.

I have a set of buttons from the Broadway revue of her songs back in the '80s with the song titles on them. I'll have to wear them this week.

commented by

hamletta, 10:26 PM PDT

Hey skippy

Thanks for posting this as her life seems to have gotten little notice and her death, in the shadow of Kennedy's, even less. I live on LI, so I heard it locally. But her music was huge in my life and I imagine for many others.

commented by

sean, 11:32 AM PDT

she influenced pop culture no other....

commented by

Distributorcap, 11:11 AM PDT

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