A Great Songwriter Dies

NFL Quiz: Name the top ten receivers all-time in receptions. [Hint: Four, sort of, are still active.] Answer below. 

On Wednesday, I had had enough of watching CNBC and all the strategists they have who say absolutely nothing original and would convince you that they have been ‘right’ all along, and that they are ‘underweight’ and ‘overweight’ all the appropriate sectors when they’re just running an index portfolio, so I decided to flip on CBS-FM to catch some oldies music and it’s then DJ Bob Shannon informed his listeners that Ellie Greenwich had died. My instant reaction was, ‘She sounds familiar,’ but I couldn’t place her contribution, and then Shannon launched into a series of tunes that she either wrote or produced. My word…what an amazing talent. As I always say, there are two kinds of people I respect more than any other in the world…authors and song-writers. There is nothing better than to leave succeeding generations something memorable. That’s making a difference. 

“When Ellie Greenwich was married in the fall of 1962, she had not yet written her giddy song about married love, ‘Chapel of Love,’ that has been played at thousands of weddings. 

“And still ahead of her were dozens of pop hits, including ‘Be My Baby,’ ‘Da Doo Ron Ron,’ ‘Leader of the Pack’ and ‘River Deep, Mountain High.’ 

“On her wedding day, she was just another 22-year-old hoping for a break in the music world and a happy marriage, said Dorothy Danziger, who worked in an office with her in Midtown Manhattan. ‘We had life in common, not music,’ Mr. Danziger said Thursday. ‘Hopes and dreams, that kind of thing.’” 

Ellie Greenwich, along with Carole King and Cynthia Weil, were three influential female songwriters who came of age in New York just after the 45-r.p.m. vinyl record became a standard. As Jim Dwyer writes: 

“She learned her craft in the Brill Building, at 1619 Broadway, near 50th Street, a place teeming with music publishers, arrangers, musicians, composers, promoters. It was as if an entire industry had settled into a high-rise hive…. 

“For those who could not afford space in the building, the phone booths in a restaurant on the street, the Turf, served as a kind of office. Session musicians and writers lingered there. 

“ ‘If a songwriter was doing a demo session and someone hadn’t shown up, they’d run into the restaurant and shout, ‘I need a bass player,’ and he’d get one,’ (Mike) Stoller said.” 

Others in the Brill Building, aside from Stoller and Jerry Leiber, were Hal David and Burt Bacharach, King’s partner Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann, Paul Simon, Neil Sedaka and Neil Diamond. 

Ellie Greenwich started out selling songs for $25 when she was discovered, by accident, by Leiber. He offered her $100 a week in exchange for having the chance to hear her tunes first. Greenwich then teamed up with another writer, Jeff Barry. The two married. Greenwich and Barry specialized in girl groups but, alas, the two separated after three years and Greenwich’s work died. 

But what she produced in that short period of time will live forever, including “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” for Darlene Love.

She was also one of the first female producers, co-producing Neil Diamond’s early hits “Cherry, Cherry,” “Solitary Man,” and “Kentucky Woman.” 

And among the other tunes Greenwich wrote were, “Then He Kissed Me” (The Crystals), “I Can Hear Music” (The Ronettes, Beach Boys), “Hanky Panky” (Tommy James & the Shondells), “Maybe I Know” (Lesley Gore) and the song Phil Spector considered his greatest recording, “River Deep, Mountain High” (Ike and Tina Turner). 

Plus… “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (Manfred Mann) and “Today I Met the Boy I’m Gonna Marry” (Darlene Love)…some 200 in all. 

Brian Wilson called Ellie Greenwich the “greatest melody writer of all time.”   She was 68. 

The Beatles’ Breakup, part deux 

It’s April 1970 and Paul McCartney is preparing to release his debut solo album, but it was delayed due to the fact the Beatles had to allow for the release of Let It Be. Ringo was sent to Paul’s home to break the news and McCartney threw him out. Starr felt bad over what Lennon and Harrison were doing to Paul, and Harrison and Lennon relented, pushing Let It Be to May, but they resented Paul. The feeling was mutual. McCartney told a newspaper at the time, “We’re all talking about peace and love, but really we’re not feeling peaceful at all.” 

But then McCartney did what the others didn’t expect him to do. He announced the band had broken up. “I couldn’t let John control the situation,” Paul said later. So in April, when he released the solo work, McCartney, he issued a self-interview. 

“Long before John Lennon told the world, ‘The dream is over,’ Paul McCartney had already delivered the news. Lennon took his partner’s statement as an unacceptable usurpation. ‘I wanted to do it and I should have done it,’ Lennon said. ‘I was a fool not to do it, not to do what Paul did, which was use it to sell a record.’ But the resentment went deeper than that. The Beatles had originally been John Lennon’s band, and in his heart its fate depended on him. ‘I started the band, I disbanded it. It’s as simple as that,’ he said….At the time, McCartney told a newspaper, ‘Ringo left first, then George, then John. I was the last to leave! It wasn’t me!’” 

But this was just the start. A court ruled that McCartney could dissolve the Beatles, which screwed up the royalties from their new Apple label. The manager was now Allen Klein, the fellow McCartney didn’t like (ditto Mick Jagger) and it took three years for the other boys to recognize Klein was a bad guy, after which George, Ringo and John sued him. In a separate, Apple-related item, Klein would be sentenced to two months in prison in the U.S. for fraud. 

“When the Klein debacle was over, Harrison said he wouldn’t mind re-forming the Beatles. But when the time came for the Beatles to gather and sign the final dissolution to the old partnership, Lennon refused to appear. He was worried that the other Beatles would end up with more money than he would, and somebody close to him at the time said that he panicked, because this meant that the Beatles were truly over with. Maybe he had never really meant to disband the group after all.” 

As Mikal Gilmore adds, Lennon “also vented years worth of self-doubt and discontent, and placed it all at McCartney’s feet. Paul, he felt, had always eclipsed him, taking more time to realize the sounds he wanted in the studio, winning more approval from George Martin for his easy melodicism. Plus, Paul had simply written too damn much, in John’s estimation. By the time they got to the Magical Mystery Tour sessions, Lennon said, ‘You’d already have five or six songs, so I’d think, ‘F— it, I can’t keep up with that.’ So I didn’t bother, you know, and I thought, ‘I don’t really care whether I was in or not.’ I convinced myself it didn’t matter…. 

“It was a remarkable confession. John Lennon – who until Abbey Road and Let It Be had written most of the Beatles’ masterpieces and defined their greatest depths – could no longer bear to divide up his brilliance with Paul McCartney….The Beatles could not survive John Lennon. His anxiety was simply too vast. 

“So the Beatles ended, never to gather again in the lifetimes of these men. Lennon, Harrison and Starr played together in various configurations over the years, though only rarely did they record with McCartney; once, when Eric Clapton married Harrison’s former wife, Pattie Boyd, Paul, George and Ringo played live for a few impromptu minutes. Also, once, John and Paul played music together at somebody’s Los Angeles studio in 1974, and Paul took a significant role in reuniting John and Yoko when they were separated during that same period. Lennon and McCartney, the most important songwriting team in history, repaired their friendship somewhat over the years, though they stayed distant and circumspect, and never wrote together again. 

“Lennon was murdered in 1980. McCartney, Harrison and Starr reunited again as the Beatles in the mid-1990s to play on some unfinished John Lennon tracks for The Beatles Anthology. Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001. Paul McCartney, with the help of Lee and John Eastman, went on to become the richest man in show business, and Linda McCartney died of breast cancer in 1998…. 

“The story of the Beatles was always in some ways bigger than the Beatles, both the band and its individuals: It was the story of a time, of a generation reaching for new possibilities. It was the story of what happens when you reach those possibilities, and what happens when your best hopes come apart…. ‘It was all such a long time ago,’ George Harrison said years later. ‘Sometimes I ask myself if I was really there or whether it was all a dream.’ 

“They were all there, and it was all a dream. It lifted us, it broke our hearts, it goes on, and perhaps nothing quite like it will ever change the times again.” 

—Rick Pitino stupidly called a press conference to refute the media’s portrayal of the sex and extortion scandal, saying it has been “pure hell” for his wife and family. Pitino said he was speaking against the wishes of his attorney after Louisville police released video and audio recordings of phone calls and an interview with Karen Sypher, the other woman. She has pleaded not guilty to trying to extort money from Pitino and lying to the FBI. 

“Everything that’s been printed, everything that’s been reported and everything that you’re showing and breaking in with on a day when Ted Kennedy died is 100% a lie,” said Pitino. “A lie. All of this has been a lie and a total fabrication of the truth, except for what I told you, the mistake that I made.” 

Yoh, Rick. 99% of us agree Sypher is a nut case, but you already admitted to having sex with her, in a freakin’ booth, for crying out loud, and that\’s a story.  Don’t blame the media for your reckless behavior, you hypocritical jerk. 

It’s clear Pitino should have kept his mouth shut, at least until the trial. Rick Bozick of The (Louisville) Courier-Journal wrote: 

“The next time that news airs about the Pitino-Karen Sypher encounter, Pitino and his family members should change the channel quicker than the coach changes point guards. The time to firmly dispute Sypher will come in the federal courtroom, under oath, with prison time looming as a backdrop for Sypher. Pitino is on trial in the court of public opinion. Sypher is on trial in federal court. 

“What Pitino accomplished was to recycle the story into another news cycle. He got everybody talking about something that he doesn’t want anybody talking about. Air ball.” 

Mike Lupica / New York Daily News 

“Pitino must have thought he could help himself by going on the offense this way, apparently under the impression that he was as dazzling as his own defense attorney as his players often are on a basketball court. 

“Only he was not. He was a control freak coach trying to contain a situation that has been out of control for some time. The way he was out of control that night in the restaurant. It is why for all the games he has won at Louisville and will continue to win, Pitino is through there, sooner rather than later.” 

1. Roger Federer 2. Andy Murray 3. Rafael Nadal 4. Novak Djokovic 5. Andy Roddick 6. Juan Martin del Potro (yikes, don’t know him) 7. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (ditto) 8. Nikolay Davydenko 21. James Blake 

—College football gets cranking this week with South Carolina-North Carolina State on Thursday. And yet another preseason poll, this one by the New York Times. 

And according to the Detroit Free Press, several Michigan players said the football program there violates all manner of NCAA rules such as in the amount of time they spend on football activities during the season and in the offseason, greatly exceeding allowable limits. Coach Rich Rodriguez said, “We know the practice and offseason rules, and we stay within the guidelines.” But by all accounts the reports are accurate, including that of one former player, a starter last season, who said players were required to attend football related activities for 11 hours on in-season Sundays, when the NCAA limit is four; and in the offseason, required to do lifting and speed work 13 hours a week when the limit is 8. 

–The investigation into Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable’s actions in busting up assistant Randy Hanson’s face is ongoing. Cable has insisted “nothing happened,” but Hanson was hospitalized Aug. 5 and as of this writing hasn’t been seen at Raiders camp, which tells you everything. Hanson, and a newly hired attorney, are trying to figure out how much money they can extract from owner Al Davis. Good, take the dirtball for everything he’s got and here’s hoping Tom Cable, himself a “Dirtball of the Year” candidate for his actions, is booted from the sport by the NFL. 

–A federal appeals court said drug-test records taken of more than 100 Major League Baseball players seized in the steroids investigation must be returned by the government, saying federal agents “callously disregarded the affected players’ constitutional rights.” This issue could actually be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

—The Mets are utterly depressing as they play out the string on what has been a truly disastrous season. And the reports are growing that ownership may be forced to sell as the Wilpon family took a huge hit in the Bernie Madoff scandal. Owner Fred Wilpon is disputing that the family lost $700 million, but call it $300 million, if you wish; it’s still a most sizable amount. Wilpon says the stories are simply not true and that he and his children and grandchildren will continue to own the team. 

No way. He’s putting the team up for sale right after the season ends, which will of course severely hurt the Mets’ ability to go after free agents, not that they have the cash to do so these days anyway. 

Actually, I’m more concerned for Sandy Koufax, a boyhood friend of Wilpon’s, who was another victim of Madoff. 

As for the Mets’ injury report, this week we learned pitcher Oliver Perez needs knee surgery and that shortstop Jose Reyes, out since May with a hamstring issue, may also require surgery. So I’m like, why couldn’t you have made this decision in late May or early June? Why wait until now? To which Johnny Mac correctly observed, “If they want to reform health care in this country, I suggest they start with the Mets.” 

–But for us Mets fans that bemoan our fate, including such items as a $36 million, 3-year contract for Perez, there’s always the Cubs.  As the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell pointed out the other day, the Cubs spent $136 million on Alfonso Soriano, over seven years, and now he’s been reduced to a guy who hits .240 and doesn’t steal bases anymore because of balky knees that will clearly require surgery. The Cubs are paying the bum $17 million each of the next five years!  And they’re paying pitcher Carlos Zambrano, who is hopelessly out of shape, $91 million. The guy has back problems, which Boswell correctly notes could be cured by doing a few sit-ups.  

“Generation after generation, the Cubs offer the same redundant cautionary tales. Don’t give huge contracts to fat pitchers who won’t do sit-ups or leadoff men who never walk. Don’t hire a manager, famous for his fire, after he’s mellowed. Don’t do this; don’t do that. But the Cubs keep doing it, yet sell out every game anyway. 

“In Wrigley Field these days, the bile is so deep in the aisles that the cleanup crews need HAZMAT suits. At what point do Cubs fans, and the rest of us, say, ‘This just isn’t interesting anymore.’ 

“Is it something we said? You hate our golf course, which only cost $250 million and took 14 years to build. You seem to hate that you even had to come to Jersey City for this event, arriving at the very last minute. 

“Since then, you have walked around Liberty National wearing an expression of perpetual constipation. You look like a man who spent four hours stuck in Shore traffic on the Parkway. 

“ ‘UGGGGHHH!!’ is your most memorable quote from the week – at least one we can print – when you nearly used your driver to ‘redesign’ the tee-box marker on the 16th hole. 

“We tried to ask for more insight about your hard-to-watch 1-over-par round, one that left you eight strokes off the lead at The Barclays. But for the second straight day…you gave the media the old thanks-but-no-thanks. 

“You stormed off the 18th green, through a tunnel under the grandstands and into the locker room. You rushed into a bathroom and then a massage room before finally slipping out a backdoor and into the night…. 

“Forgive us if we have a bit of a complex here in New Jersey, but the last time you visited, it didn’t exactly end well. That was the PGA Championship at Baltusrol in 2005, the last major we’ve hosted. 

“You did not play well but were in position, if the leaders stumbled when they finished the final round, to make a playoff.  It wasn’t likely, but it was far from impossible, either. 

“So what did you do? You got out of our state faster than Vito did in the sixth season of ‘The Sopranos.’ You were literally in your private jet before the leaders finished their round. 

“If you’re taking one for the team, trying to help the PGA Tour by adding an event to the schedule, you’re not exactly doing a great job of it, blowing off reporters in the media capital of the world and stomping around like you’d rather be anyplace else in the world. 

“We have thick skin here in Jersey, so we’ll do our best not to take it personally.” 

Saturday, Tiger was a little better and at least talked to CBS’ Peter Kostis after his round.

“Tiger Woods, who generally does not react to shouts from the gallery or allow anything to break his focus during a round, stepped out of character briefly as he walked from the 12th green to the 13th tee. 

“A boy about 6 or 7 years old announced, ‘Today’s my birthday, Tiger,’ as Woods came near. 

“Without breaking stride, Woods shot a quick glance to his right and said to the beaming child, ‘Happy birthday, bud.’ 

“He was given a fairly generous round of applause by the cluster of spectators hanging on the gallery ropes that stretched from the green to the tee.” 

As for the tournament itself, the first round of the FedEx Cup playoffs, I have to give the PGA Tour a ton of credit for tweaking the format so that you can’t take one of the three weeks off heading into the Tour Championship and still win it, as Tiger once did.  Now, even those seeded in the top five need to win at least one of the events. And this week, No. 124 (of 125 eligible), Heath Slocum, pulled off a huge upset by one shot over Tiger, Ernie Els, Steve Stricker and Padraig Harrington. Not bad…not bad at all. 

So thanks to the new scoring system, Slocum moved from 124 to No. 3. Yes, the guy can win it all from here, which is the way the fans wanted it to be.  

–Interesting local story in the golf world, that being Andrew Giuliani’s triumph in the 94th Met Open, the biggest non-PGA Tour event in these parts and a tourney won by the likes of Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Byron Nelson. Giuliani, Rudy’s son, of course, is the same chap who was booted off Duke’s golf team last year, after which he turned pro, and he’s now headed to Q School. Andrew picked up a cool $27,500 with his 3-under par, 54-hole effort at historic Ridgewood Country Club. 

—Golf haters, especially Democrats, are having a field day that President Obama has a new passion. Bill Maher, for example, has been ripping him, but us golfers have to admire Obama’s enthusiasm for the game. According to Richard Wolf in USA TODAY, the president has played at least ten times during the past four months, including Memorial Day, Father’s Day and the Fourth of July, and this was before his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, where the local pro estimates Obama would be playing to a 14-handicap if he had one. Heck, he’s been spanking his drives 235 yards, not too shabby. And, unlike Bill Clinton, he’s a stickler for the rules. Good for you, Mr. President. And don’t let the a-holes who hate the sport (because they’ve never played it) convince you that it doesn’t look good for you to be taking a break in this fashion. 

–Perhaps the coolest looking car of all time is the Shelby Daytona Cobra, circa early- to mid-sixties. I saw in the Financial Times that a 1965 model, driven to victory by Bob Bondurant in Reims, sold in Monterey for a record $7.25 million, the highest price ever paid for an American car at a public auction. Goodness gracious! Growing up, my brother, six years older, would painstakingly work on models of cars like this. Remember those Revell car kits? [Actually, just looked it up…they’re still around.] 

–Some New Jersey politicians are urging that Gov. Corzine reinstate the bear hunt as complaints continue to rise, up 26 percent over last year alone. 

–Speaking of bears, it’s been a peaceful season for the bruins that call the Russian and Kenai rivers of Alaska home. Last season, nine were killed that had threatened life and property in this area. This year, zero. 

–Meanwhile, outside Resurrection Bay, in the Gulf of Alaska, over the last week two halibut weighing more than 300 pounds were taken in. Then there was the the 450-pounder taken by Faye and Mark Manning in July. It was 93 inches in length. But, it didn’t qualify for any derby contests because the couple took turns reeling it in. 

–Holy Cow! From Todd Venezia / New York Post: 

“Dozens of dairy cows and bulls in the mountainous Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen are killing themselves by jumping into a deep crevasse. 

“No one knows why the cattle, which are allowed to wander loose, are committing suicide. But in just three days this week, 28 beasts decided to end it all and walk off the several-hundred-foot-high cliff, according to the Daily Mail of London.” 

I think the Elsie-wannabes are just depressed over the new competition from Soy. I know I would be, seeing as how I made the switch myself this year. 

–The remastered Beatles catalog is getting rave reviews as the 1987 transfer to CD, that many say was deeply flawed, is finally rectified. The full slate of 14 albums becomes available Sept. 9. 

–It’s true…it’s really true…Bob Dylan is doing a Christmas album, titled “Christmas in The Heart” and available October 13. Evidently it’s his takes on traditional anthems of the season. All proceeds will go to the charity, Feeding America. This I’ve got to get. I’m guessing it’s a huge hit. 

Top 3 songs for the week of 9/2/72: #1 “Alone Again (Naturally)” (Gilbert O’Sullivan… the most depressing song of all time) #2 “Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)” (The Hollies) #3 “I’m Still In Love With You” (Al Green)…and…#4 “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” (Looking Glass) #5 “Hold Your Head Up” (Argent) #6 “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me” (Mac Davis) #7 “Goodbye To Love” (Carpenters) #8 “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” (Jim Croce) #9 “Rock And Roll Part 2” (Gary Glitter) #10 “Back Stabbers” (O’Jays) 

NFL Quiz Answer: Top ten in receptions. 

*active…though Harrison hasn’t been signed as of today.