Ellie Greenwich, RIP

Had she done nothing else in life other than pen Be My Baby, Ellie Greenwich would still deserve a revered place in rock and roll history for it is, as Brian Wilson said long ago, “the perfect rock and roll song.”  If you’re a reader of this blog you already know that I agree with this opinion: I declared my own love for the song in this space long ago, and my wife and I considered it “our song” during the early years of our love affair. 

It was my beautiful bride who called me at work yesterday to break the sad news of Ms. Greenwich’s death earlier this week.  When I began to list off for her some of Ms. Greenwich’s other songs - “Chapel of Love,” “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Leader of the Pack,” “Then He Kissed Me,” “Baby, I Love You,” and more, my wife, no great lover of rock and roll but one who has a native instinct for the beautiful, said, “There’s something pure about her melodies.”  Indeed.  Brian Wilson said something similar: “"She was the greatest melody writer of all time."  Wilson’s love for “Be My Baby” is well documented and he would spend his career as leader of the Beach Boys trying to match it.  He famously wrote the Beach Boys finest song, “Don’t Worry Baby,” as an answer, and tribute, to “Be My Baby.”  I’ve always thought The Beatles were also paying tribute to it in “What You’re Doing.”  Both songs are great; neither match “Be My Baby.”  Nothing could.   

Of all The Brill Building writers, only Carole King can be considered an equal.  Both Greenwich and King wrote with their then husbands, Jeff Barry and Gerry Goffin, respectively, the woman writing the tunes and the men the lyrics.  Ms. King is famous now, of course, because she went on to have a very successful solo career, releasing on of the most popular albums of all time, Tapestry.  Ms. Greenwich, while remaining successful in the music business after the Girl Group moment, never achieved anything like the fame Ms. King did.  It is nice to see that she is now being recognized for her supreme talent in so many obituary tributes over the past few days.  This one from the Washington Post sums up her career very nicely, and there are many others available through a simple Google of her name.

While the records ultimately had the names of the girl group or other singer on them (The Ronettes, The Crystals, The Righteous Brothers, The Shirelles, The Shangri-Las, Darlene Love, etc.,) though they were recognized, correctly, as the product of the great authoritarian producers of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s (George Goldner, Shadow Morton, Phil Spector), it was the Brill Building writers who gave them the raw material to craft some of the finest songs ever recorded, songs that would define an era.  As critic Greil Marcus said long ago, if you were looking for rock and roll between Elvis and The Beatles, you found it at the Brill Building.  And no one there did it better than Ellie Greenwich.  Gone, too young, at 69.  RIP.