Wasn't it Brill?

Seeing Carole King on the Jools Holland show tonight reminded me just how much 60s music lovers owe to the songwriters beavering away in the Brill Building on New York's Broadway. As it happens, I was talking to Bill Haines the other night about this incredible music factory. But I've somewhat lost track of Carole over the years and it was good to see that she's still alive and kicking.

Just think: she was the 'Carol' of Neil Sedaka's big hit, a top ten hit maker in 1962 with It Might As Well Rain Until September, and, with Gerry Goffin, wrote some of the greatest 60s pop and soul hits, including Take Good Care of My Baby. Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Some Kind of Wonderful, Halfway to Paradise, Every Breath I Take, Chains, Keep Your Hands off My Baby, The Loco-motion, He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss), Go Away Little Girl, Point Of No Return, Crying In The Rain. Hey Girl, One Fine Day, Up On The Roof, Oh No Not My Baby and I'm Into Something Good.

And that was just the sixties. In the seventies her recording career took off with the top selling Tapestry and her You've Got A Friend was a smash hit for James Taylor.

Of course, it wasn't just Goffin and King who made their living in the Brill Building. Others included Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller , Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman ,Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry , Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Burt Bacharach and Hal David , Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, Hugo & Luigi and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. And other musicians based at Brill included Laura Nyro, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, Bobby Darin, Phil Spector and Gene Pitney.

Now that is quite some line-up!