Back To Index Songmakers Collection
 Barnes & Noble During the six- or-so-year span between rock n rolls first two seismic events -- Elviss debut and the 60s British invasion -- New Yorks Brill Building was pop musics ground zero. Home to the last gasp of the Tin Pan Alley songsmiths, it housed an unbelievable cavalcade of songwriting and performing talent. The Songmakers is a vibrant, brilliant group portrait of these master craftsmen. This two-DVD box set includes five episodes from A&Es Biography series, profiling just over a dozen of Brills brilliant denizens -- singers, composers, producers, engineers, and publishers -- who turned popular music on its ear with their youthful exuberance, innovation, and primal energy. The best episode is surely The Hitmakers: The Teens Who Stole Pop Music, a 90-minute documentary following the virtual murderers row of talent cultivated by either Don Kirshner or housewife-turned-mogul Florence Greenberg (whose Scepter Records was three doors down from the Brill). Confined to squalid, tiny cubicles with beat-up pianos, they worked competitively, sometimes even hearing and influencing each other through the air vents. The cast of characters -- Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, and peripheral oddball geniuses Phil Spector and George "Shadow" Morton -- created some of the 20th centurys most enduring pop. If the names dont immediately ring a bell, their songs probably will: "Save the Last Dance for Me," "On Broadway," "Up on the Roof," "Walk on By," "Be My Baby," and "Chapel of Love" are just a few of their stellar chart-busters. During the peak years, as narrator John Turturro notes, it seemed that no one in the Kirshner camp wasnt under 26, Jewish, and from Brooklyn -- a remarkable fact, given that the Brill crowd wrote indiscriminately for both black and white artists. The archival material includes demo versions and glimpses at lyric and music sheets. Among the priceless stories told is one about Goffin working in a chemistry lab, burning holes into his jeans while writing "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" with King, and being interrupted mid-shift with the news that he had a runaway hit. The production also offers smoking live performances by the Shirelles, the Ronettes, and the Shangri-Las, among others. The remainder of The Songmakers set is nearly as strong, if less ambitious in scope. It consists of more conventional 40-minute Biography episodes on, respectively, writing-producing titans (and brilliant raconteurs) Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, post-Sinatra lounge sensation Bobby Darin, inimitable diva Dionne Warwick, and immortal pop composer Burt Bacharach. Taken together, the set is a priceless evocation of one of pops greatest eras. Eddy CrouseCustomer ReviewsWrite your own online review > Interested in the song lyrics? - Check out themostlyrics.com! Looking For A DVD? - Check out dvd-a-rama.com! |
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