Cynthia Weil, Songwriter of Many Hits, Dead at 82

Cynthia Weil, a Brill Building songwriter who penned many hits alongside her husband Barry Mann, died on Thursday at the age of 82.

Her daughter, Jenn Mann, confirmed the information with TMZ. “My mother, Cynthia Weil, was the greatest mother, grandmother and wife our family could ever ask for,” she mentioned. “She was my best friend, confidant, and my partner in crime and an idol and trailblazer for women in music.”

Barry Mann added, “I’m a lucky man. I had two for one, my wife and one of the greatest songwriters in the world, my soul and inspiration.”

Weil, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, educated at first as an actress and dancer earlier than pursuing songwriting. She and Mann, additionally a New York native, wed in 1961, and the couple rapidly turned one of essentially the most distinguished writing duos to work within the well-known Brill Building. Together they penned hits like “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “On Broadway,” “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” “Walking within the Rain,” “You’re My Soul and Inspiration,” “Here You Come Again” and dozens more.

Their songs were recorded by the likes of the Righteous Brothers, Cass Elliot, the Crystals, the Animals, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, Dolly Parton, the Monkees and Chaka Kahn, among others.

Listen to the Righteous Brothers’ ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin”

“We labored nonstop,” Weil told Songwriter Universe in 2006. “We wrote and lower demos, six days every week, for a three-year interval. It appeared like the one associates we had have been [Gerry] Goffin and [Carole] King as a result of they have been the one individuals we knew who had the identical schedule as we did.”

Weil and Mann were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987; in 2010, they were the recipients of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Ahmet Ertegun Award, making Weil the first woman to receive the honor.

Listen to Dolly Parton’s ‘Here You Come Again’

“You know, I do not know the place it comes from,” Weil said of her songwriting in an interview with writer Gary James. “When we’re writing, we do not assume in phrases of hits. We assume in phrases of songs and good songs that make us be ok with writing. If they occur to be hits, that is nice. At the very starting after we have been with all of the music after we have been children in New York within the ’60s, there was an incredible camaraderie and an incredible competitors up there, so it was rather more than excited about hits and there was extra [than] residing your life by the charts.”