Carole King Remembers ‘Fierce’ Competition With Friend and Fellow Songwriting Great Cynthia Weil: ‘Oh My God, We Have to Do Better!’
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Grammy-winning Songwriters Hall of Fame member Cynthia Weil — who co-wrote “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “On Broadway,” “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” “Walking in the Rain,” “You’re My Soul and Inspiration,” “Uptown,” “He’s So Shy,” “Kicks,” “Here You Come Again,” “Through the Fire,” “Somewhere Out There” and many other hits, mostly with her husband and Brill Building colleague Barry Mann — died earlier this month at the age of 82.
She was one of the top “Brill Building” songwriters that came out of the Midtown Manhattan building of the same name (although much of the work actually was done a couple of blocks uptown at 1650 Broadway) and spawned literally hundreds of hits throughout the 1960s for the Righteous Brothers, the Ronettes, the Drifters, the Monkees, the Animals, multiple Phil Spector productions and many others.
Along with Mann — to whom Weil was married for some 62 years — the coterie included another young married couple, Carole King and the late Gerry Goffin.
Following in full are the remarks King (pictured above, right, in 1959 with Mann and Weil) gave at the celebration of Weil’s life, held on June 11 in Los Angeles, in which she remembers their decades-long friendship, their early years and the friendly yet fierce sense of competition they felt in those days.
Read more on variety.com