In the liner notes to Up on the Roof: Songs From the Brill Building, Neil Diamond writes about how he got started in the music business. He sold songs for $50, sang backup on dozens of records, and he hung out with the top songwriters of that era. Diamond includes stories about Carol King and Gerry Goffin, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and, of course, Neil Sedaka. Diamond learned about record production from Phil Spector and Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and all the talented artists working in or near the Brill Building.
Up on the Roof is a tribute to the songwriters and producers who worked at the hit-making machine that was the Brill Building. But, as earnest as Diamond is, the result is a bit mixed. Surprisingly, Diamond does a nice job with “Love Potion Number Nine” and the Bacharach/David songs “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and “Don’t Make Me Over.”
Diamond is less successful with “Don’t Be Cruel” (who can surpass Elvis!) and “River Deep.” Still, it’s great to hear these wonderful songs. I have reviewed Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era by Ken Emerson (you can read my review here). And I have a couple Brill Building collections around here somewhere. But, until then, I’ll play Diamond’s Up on the Roof again. Do you remember these songs? Do you have any favorites? GRADE: B
All of them!
I remember all of these songs, loved the Brill style and of course Phil Spector’s Wall of sound, heard them every day but only got the background info much, much later.
Carole King was one of my absolute favourites but the No1 was of course:
River deep mountain high …
I was so happy when Tina performed this on her 1980’s European tour in Frankfurt, a fantastic show. She was already in her late forties but sang and danced like a teenager – fond memories.
And when Dave Bowie joined her for “Tonight” the whole auditorium went crazy.
My other favourite Brill Building story, don’t know if it’s true:
One day one the producers heard a woman playing the piano and singing in an office – he went in and told the girl:
That’ll be a hit record!
When she said: But who will sing it?
He answered:
You, of course!
That was the beginning of composer Carole King’s career as a singer …
Wolf, Diane and I have seen Carole King in concert both on the screen and in-person. Carol King performed at the Fallsview Casino in a sold-out show. Wonderful!
No, not true…King didn’t come out of the composer’s studio for about a decade…
Todd, but Carole King did sing backup on a number of records while she worked in the Brill Building.
I like most of these songs but am not a big fan of Diamond’s singing. Not a fan of either Neil Sedaka or Carole Bayer Sager. The only song I don’t remember is Ten Lonely Guys.
Because she performed Carole King got most of the credit for her songs but her husband wrote the lyrics. She did the music.
Steve, the story of Carole King and Gerry Goffin and their music has been captured by BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL. You can read my review here.
A bit OT:
Browsing through that list of singers and writers I was reminded that many of them were young Jews whose parents or grandparents had emigrated from all over Europe to the USA. And they wrote many songs for those young black groups – male and female.
Maybe they had something in common?
Wolf, you might be right.
I’ve never much cared for Neil Diamond, but I’m familiar with ten of the songs and like them all, much better than the dismal score I usually rack up on these things. My favorites would be “Up On the Roof” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”.
Michael, I grew up listening to these songs from the Brill Building. And, these songs hold up 60 years later!
I remember all of these. My parents loved Neil Diamond and went to hear him sing once. I was never much of a fan though. Once my parents like him that doomed him for me.
Patti, one of our friends considers Neil Diamond his favorite performer. He’s seen Neil Diamond in concert 14 times! Now, Diamond is not touring because he has Parkinson’s disease.
That’s no damned good. But I always found Diamond smarmy and smug as a performer, and not too much better as a composer…perhaps the least of those writing songs for the Monkees, for example. But even he is preferable to Sedaka, even or perhaps in large part due to the earworms some of Sedaka’s songs are.
I know all of them except “Ten Lonely Guys” too. I’ve seen musicals based on several of the writers – King & Goffin, of course, but also Leiber & Stoller (SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE, which had a great rendition of “I (Who Have Nothing)”), Ellie Greenwich (LEADER OF THE PACK). Of course, we’ve seen Carole King in concert, alone and with James Taylor. Also Neil Sedaka (Free concert), one of Jackie’s favorites. Years ago we saw a show with music in London called UP ON THE ROOF.
“Up On the Roof” is my favorite here, though I like several others – but in their original, not Neil Diamond, version.
Jeff, I love “Up On the Roof,” too! Classic song! In most cases, the original artist version of these songs is preferable to Neil Diamond’s version. But you have to admire the guy for doing a tribute album to celebrate the songwriters and producers who launched his musical career.
Dave Barry once made the mistake of making fun of a Neil Diamond song (“I Am…I Said”) and got a lot of hate mail from Neil’s rabid fans.
Jeff, my friend who has seen Neil Diamond in concert 14 times also has all of Neil Diamond’s albums! Yes, there are a lot of rabid fans out there.
Not a mistake. But it might’ve been a surprise, and maybe an unwelcome one. to learn of how much their audiences overlapped…
I always prefer the originals, so I’d rather listen to those than Diamond’s version.
Rick, I bought UP ON THE ROOF mostly for the liner notes, although Diamond does a nice job on a few of the songs on this CD.
Wasn’t “Up on the Roof” the song performed in the men’s room on Saturday Night Live? That was a great bit.
I always think of “Up on the Roof” and “Under the Boardwalk” as a great pairing.
Jeff, “Up on the Roof,” “Under the Boardwalk,” and “In the Still of the Nite” are referred to as “Preposition Songs.”
Oh yeah. Neil Diamond. We saw him once, about the time of his live album Hot August Night. I did like that album.
Jeff, I agree with you on HOT AUGUST NIGHT. Very good for a concert CD.
One LP I kept meaning to get, but unlike the majority of the Atlantic catalogue albums, Tower Records didn’t price it at $3.99 (at opening in 1980 in Honolulu, some CBS, WEA and other back-cat items were $2.99), so there were always jazz albums, Vox and Nonesuch albums, Vanguard and Bach Guild. CBS and WEA rock and folk albums to Pick Up First at the lower price point, so I never did pick up THE DRIFTERS’ GREATEST HITS, with a good chunk of this album’s repertoire represented. It’s pretty hard to screw up “Up on the Roof”, much less “Love Potion #9” (if I had to name a single favorite among these songs, though only by a thin margin), and getting fellow songwriter Parton to duet with him was a smart move…the notion that rock and roll was all R&B sung by white guys, period, has always been an odd but understandable Crow Jim knee-jerk, when it was hard to ignore Brill Building pop’s, “purer” blues, and country music’s, inspiration and that of gospel music (of various sorts, including the doo wop choruses’ inspiration) and all their core contribution to rock and roll in its earliest years. Diamond’s contribution considerably less, but it’s both a nice note to his old mentors and colleagues and an easy commercial move.
Todd, I too found Neil Diamond a bit too smug for my tastes. But, Diamond had a long and lucrative career. He managed to build a loyal group of fans who attended his concerts even when his “hit song” days were over.