I’ve been showcasing the various members of the Brill Building group that filled the airwaves in the Fifties and Sixties. (Drumbo did a brilliant job with Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller last year, so I won’t attempt to duplicate his work.) This week, it’s the
Jeff Barry Songbook.
Jeff Barry started out as Joel Adelberg, a kid born into a Jewish working class family who grew up in New York and New Jersey. Although he had written songs since he was a small boy, he never thought of himself as a songwriter. After graduating high school and serving a hitch in the Army, he decided to become an engineer. Then along came the doo-wop sound, and Jeff decided to become a rock and roll singer.
He was introduced to music publisher Arnold Shaw, who got him an RCA recording contract and signed him to a publishing deal with his firm, E. B. Marks Music. Jeff’s records failed, but the songs he wrote caught fire. By the summer of 1960, he had teamed with Ben Raleigh for a Ray Peterson tune. The size of the royalty checks shocked him, and he couldn’t believe he was getting that kind of money for something he considered a hobby. This song was one of the great weepers of the era, a true three-handkerchief song.
Ray Peterson: “Tell Laura I Love Her”
