Bert Burns

i know of him through his affiliation with early van morrison, but just looked him up on wikipedia--didn't realize how many great classics he wrote--twist and shout, here comes the night, i want candy, cry to me, etc. etc. died very young, unfortunately.

i've been reading "here comes the night," by joel selvin; nominally a biography of bert berns, but more a look at the 50s/60s ny songwriter/production milieu (brill building, atlantic records, etc.). not great literature--there's not a lot of character analysis--but a very comprehensive history of an era. they really don't write songs like these anymore.

i'd love an office job like that--alas, i'm wholly bereft of talent.
unsurprisingly, being in such proximity to to other incredible songwriters created a highly competitive frenzy. per carol king:
"Every day we squeezed into our respective cubby holes with just enough room for a piano, a bench, and maybe a chair for the lyricist if you were lucky. You'd sit there and write and you could hear someone in the next cubby hole composing a song exactly like yours. The pressure in the Brill Building was really terrific—because Donny (Kirshner) would play one songwriter against another. He'd say: "We need a new smash hit"—and we'd all go back and write a song and the next day we'd each audition for Bobby Vee's producer."
a bunch of "modern" masters--lou reed, paul simon, becker/fagen--also started out in that scene.