[Deathwatch] Ellie Greenwich, songwriter, 68

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Pop songwriter Ellie Greenwich dies in New York
Wed Aug 26

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Songwriter Ellie Greenwich, who helped shape
pop music in the 1960s with such memorable tunes as "Chapel of Love"
and "Da Doo Ron Ron," died of a heart attack at a New York hospital on
Wednesday, her manager said. She was 68.

The Brooklyn-born writer joined forces with producer Phil Spector and
her then-husband Jeff Barry to compose elaborately crafted "Wall of
Sound" tunes for the likes of the Crystals and the Ronettes, just as
the Beatles were about to lead a shift away from outside songwriters.

Working out of New York's famed Brill Building, a haven for
singer/songwriters, she also shepherded a young performer named Neil
Diamond, producing his early hits "Cherry, Cherry" and "Kentucky
Woman."

All told, Greenwich's songs sold tens of millions of copies, and
yielded 25 gold and platinum records, according to the Songwriters Hall
of Fame, into which she was inducted in 1991.

During 1963 alone, a year after she graduated university with an
English degree, the trio hit the top-10 list with such tunes as the
Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me," and the Ronettes'
"Be My Baby." The following year, they hit No. 1 with the Dixie Cups'
"Chapel of Love."

Their 1966 collaboration for Ike and Tina Turner, "River Deep, Mountain
High" was a relative sales disappointment in the United States, but
reached No. 3 on the U.K. charts. Barry and Greenwich also ended their
four-year marriage that year.

Greenwich helped create the play "Leader of the Pack," a show about her
own life in the music industry that had a run on Broadway in 1985.

In addition to Barry, she is survived by her sister, Laura Weiner and
brother-in-law Bob Weiner, who was also her manager.

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary