Cynthia Weil And Barry Mann: The Songwriters Behind The Most-Played Song Of The 20th Century

Summary: At the turn of the millennium, the performing rights organization BMI ranked the top 100 songs of the 20th Century, based on how often they were heard on radio and TV. The No. 1 song on that list? The Righteous Brothers’ recording of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'," one of countless hit songs written by songwriting team Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann.      The Grammy-winning husband and wife duo has been writing songs together for more than 50 years, and they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. Now Weil and Mann are depicted in the new Broadway show Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The musical focuses on Carole King's early years during the so-called "Brill Building Era," and her partnership with her then-husband and songwriting partner Gerry Goffin. It mostly takes place in the Aldon Music offices in New York City's Midtown, where King and Goffin worked literally in the next office over from songwriters Weil and Mann. It's there that their lasting friendship began -- one that continues to this day.  In an interview with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Weil and Mann reflect on those early years of collaboration and share the backstory about some of the most popular -- and some of the least known -- songs from their huge catalog.  Interview Highlights Cynthia Weil, on why there were so many married couples writing hits in the early '60s: There was us and Carole [King] and Gerry [Goffin] and Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. I don’t know. I just think when you put the opposite sexes in a room to write a song, there’s something very sexy about it. Things happen. And they lead to marriage. Weil, on Aldon Music's reputation for being a "songwriting factory":  More than a factory, it was a school. It was like going to rock and roll university. We learned from each other, we learned from [Don] Kirschner, we learned from the radio. We were sponges, just soaking up everything we could learn about writing lyrics. As Barry has always put it, we were the bridge between Tin Pan Alley and rock and roll. Barry Mann, on adapting to the "British invasion" and bands writing their own songs: When the English sound came in — The Beatles, and everybody else — all the songwriters were worried about it, including Cynthia and myself. But if you look at our catalog, we wrote “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” during that period. We wrote “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration” during that period. We wrote “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.” So with all our fears, it didn’t matter. We just kept going straight ahead, and we did great.