Ellie Greenwich
Looking at Ellie's life first, she was one of the first songwriters I ever heard about as a young teenager starting to buy records in the early sixties. Her songwriting credits, jointly with her then husband, Jeff Barry, and sometimes, Phil Spector, read like a catalogue of some of the greatest pop records ever written. Can you believe this list:
Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and "Baby I Love You,"
Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me" and "Da Do Ron Ron,"
Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love,"
Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy,"
Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep Mountain High,"
Leslie Gore's "Maybe I Know",
Tommy James & The Shondells' "Hanky Panky,"
Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack," "Out in the Streets" and "Train from Kansas City."
Utterly unbelievable. And it didn't end there - in early 1966, Ellie and Jeff were responsiblle for providing Neil Diamond with his first major break, forming a joint publishing company with him and producing his earliest hits, such as "Solitary Man," "Cherry Cherry" and "I'll Come Running."
Ellie did some recordings of her own material, indeed a few of her tracks are revered on the Northern Soul circuit - although she didn't achieve commercial success as a solo artist, she will be remembered as one of the Teen Queens of Pop, during the era when the Brill Building produced such superb songwriters as Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield - the only duo missing in that list is Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. It was an era when life was simpler and emotions displayed basically and honestly. Ellie was a prime shaker and mover in those innocent times.
Eleanor Louise Greenwich, known as Ellie Greenwich, born October 23, 1940, Brooklyn, New York. Died August 26, 2009. RIP dear Ellie.
Larry Knechtel
Larry's name first came to my attention when listening to the title track of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel's classic 1970 album "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Reading the album cover, I realised that it was his fingers that played piano on that track and that deservedly won him a Grammy.
In those pre-internet days, what I hadn't appreciated was that Larry had been on the scene for a number of years, most recently being a member of that elite group of LA session musicians known as the "Wrecking Crew". They provided the backing tracks for the major pop names of the 60s - the Monkees, Mamas and Papas, Bobby Vee, Byrds, Doors, Partridge Family, Carpenters and, of course, Simon and Garfunkel. When Brian Wilson was writing, recording and producing the 1966 Beach Boys magnum opus album "Pet Sounds," Larry played the Hammond B-3 organ. He was on the sessions for probably the best-ever pop Christmas album, Phil Spector's "A Christmas Gift For You", released in late 1963, on such classic tracks as "Frosty The Snowman" (Darlene Love), "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and "Sleigh Ride" (Ronettes) and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (Crystals).
I next noticed Larry when Bread started having hits in the early 70s. He performed keyboards and bass on their first two albums, "Baby I'm A Want You" and "Guitar Man". Remember that fabulour guitar solo in "Guitar Man"? Well, that was Larry again.
For me, his greatest achievement was playing piano on Art Garfunkel's 1973 solo album "Angel Clare". The track that stands out for me is the Jimmy Webb song "All I Know". I once heard a
piece of music described 
as "achingly beautiful" - so beautiful that it just tugs at your heart strings and makes the tears flow helplessly through its sheer beauty. "All I Know" is such a song, that performance is, without a shadow of a doubt "achingly beautiful". I'm not too embarrassed to admit that the artistry and delicacy of the piano work in that track have moved me to tears on more than one occasion.Lawrence William Knechtel, known as Larry Knechtel, born August 4, 1940, Bell, California. Died, August 20, 2009. RIP Larry.
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