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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZBARRY, Jeff(b Joel Adelberg, 3 April 1938, NYC) Producer and songwriter. He studied engineering but really wnted to sing; he recorded for RCA but the music biz was more interested in his songs. His first major hit as writer was the classic 'death' song 'Tell Laura I Love Her' '60. He met and married Ellie Greenwich; they were one of the most successful songwriting teams in pop music (see her entry). They divorced '65 but continued writing together; he disliked performing in public, and she resisted moving to the West Coast when he fell into lucrative work in Don Kirshner's bubblegum world, describing the music as 'ear candy'. He wrote and produced the '69 mega-hit 'Sugar Sugar' for the Archies, a studio creation led by Ron Dante with Barry, Tony Wine, Andy Kim (b Andrew Jouachim, c.1947, Montreal; had top 40 hits on Barry's Steed label '68-70; then no. 1 'Rock Me Gently' '74 on Capitol). Later Barry produced at A&M, worked in film music; wrote good cabaret-rock songs for The Idolmaker '80, based on the teen-idol era. |