Cynthia Weil, the songwriter identified for “On Broadway,” “You’ve Misplaced That Lovin’ Feelin’,” and extra, died on Thursday, June 1, The Associated Press experiences, citing Weil’s daughter, Dr. Jenn Mann. A reason behind dying was not disclosed. Weil was 82 years previous.
Weil was born in 1940 and grew up in a Jewish household in New York. She studied piano as a baby and majored in theater at Sarah Lawrence School. In 1960, Weil met Barry Mann, her soon-to-be husband and songwriting associate. The couple shortly grew to become enmeshed in Manhattan’s Brill Constructing songwriting neighborhood alongside pop and rock fixtures like Carole King, Burt Bacharach, and Neil Diamond.
Weil and Mann’s first hit got here in 1961 with the Tony Orlando–sung “Bless You,” which reached No. 15 on the Billboard Sizzling 100. Mann-Weil’s success grew the next yr because the songwriters behind the Crystals’ “Uptown” and “He’s Positive the Boy I Love,” Paul Petersen’s “My Dad,” and James Darren’s “Conscience,” all of which cracked the highest 15.
Then, in 1963, Mann-Weil collaborated with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller on one in every of their first actually iconic songs, the Drifters’ “On Broadway.” The only, which peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Sizzling 100, captured Weil’s lifelong love affair with Manhattan. Fifteen years later, George Benson efficiently lined the track for his album Weekend in L.A.
After “On Broadway” got here extra hits for Mann-Weil and extra work with producer Phil Spector, with whom they’d collaborated on the Crystals’ singles. Spector served because the producer and co-writer for the Ronettes’ “Strolling within the Rain” and “Born to Be Collectively” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Misplaced That Lovin’ Feelin’,” amongst different songs. “You’ve Misplaced That Lovin’ Feelin’” was Mann-Weil’s first track to prime the charts, they usually repeated the feat in 1966 with the Righteous Brothers’ “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration.”
Because the years rolled on, Weil and Mann wrote songs for Dusty Springfield, the Partridge Household, Quincy Jones, Dionne Warwick, Bette Midler, the Pointer Sisters, Ray Charles, Hanson, and extra. In 1986, with James Horner, Mann-Weil wrote “Someplace Out There,” a single that Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram recorded for the soundtrack of the animated film An American Tail. It reached No. 2 on the singles chart, marking the couple’s greatest hit because the Nineteen Sixties. “Someplace Out There” went on to win two Grammy Awards—Track of the 12 months and Greatest Track Written Particularly for a Movement Image or Tv—and it was nominated for Greatest Unique Track on the 1987 Academy Awards.
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