I love reading obituaries -- and edit pre-written ones of famous people as part of my day job. So I suppose I shouldn't have been that taken aback that the Times obit for Beverly Ross -- who found success as a youth writing songs for the likes of Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Lesley Gore and Bill Haley & His Comets -- took me by surprise. That a teenage girl not named Carole King was writing hit songs 60 years ago was news enough to me. But that Ross also alleges that a then-obscure Phil Spector befriended her and then stole "Spanish Harlem" from her -- which sent her into a suicidal depression and eventually out of the music business, inspiring her to write a revenge memoir tastelessly titled "I Was the First Woman Phil Spector Killed" -- had me wondering where she had been all my life! In memory of her talents, today I give you her biggest song: "Lollipop," which was a No. 2 hit for the Chordettes and has become "an enduring pop-culture earworm."
Thursday, February 17, 2022
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1 comment:
Wow! I have never heard the story about the songwriter before- thank you for sharing!
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