Brill Building
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The Brill Building in the United States is located at 1619 Broadway, in New York City, New York. It created and defined the influential "Brill Building Sound" and style of popular music songwriting and recording. By 1962 it contained 165 music businesses. A musician could find a publisher and printer, cut a demo, promote the record, and cut a deal with radio promoters.
Carole King described the atmosphere at the Brill Building: "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." - quoted in The Sociology of Rock by Simon Frith (1978, ISBN 0094602204).
Famous Brill Building musical partners include:
- Carole King and Gerry Goffin
- Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
- Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich
- Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman
- Hal David and Burt Bacharach
Famous Brill Building individual songwriters include: