Think of Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl, think of Baby Please Don’t Go or Here Comes The Night by Them featuring Jimmy Page, Piece Of My Heart, or Under The Boardwalk by the Drifters and the name of New York songwriter, producer and record company exec Bert Berns probably won’t spring to mind, but he had a hand in every one of them and many many more.His impact on music was extraordinary and widely unknown.
I first came across his name in a Radio 2 programme about producers presented by Charlie Gillett, a man with impeccable taste in r’n’b, soul and reggae.Any album he recommended was a risk free purchase, it would be great. I duly purchased The Heart and Soul of Bert Berns and the only thing less than perfect about it was the sub 30 minute running time. It includes the Isley Brothers Twist and Shout ad Solomon Burke’s Cry To Me, covered by the Beatles and the Stones respectively.
He worked with songwriters Goffin and King. And co-wrote with Lieber and Stoller I’d be interested to read the book Ivylander mentioned in the Carole King thread to find out more. In Lieber and Stollers auotobiography Hound Dog he gets a single mention. Atlantic boss Jerry Wexler said about him “if I knew where he was buried I’d piss on his grave” so I suspect he didn’t win any popularity contests. My copies of Charlie Gillett’s books The Sound Of The City and Making Tracks
Atlantic Records and the Making of a Multi-billion-dollar Industry have been on “loan” for the last 6 years so I can’t refer to them.
When I discovered that he produced blind Cuban tres player Arsenio Rodriguez – who may have come on some AW’ers radar when Elvis Costello and Tom Waits guitarist Marc Ribot released a couple of albums covering his songs. – I was surprised to put it mildly. Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense. While Lieber and Stoller were spicing their R’n’B with Brazilian rhythms, Bert Berns was adding Arsenio’s Afro Cuban fire to his.
If anyone has knowledge of Bert Berns and any favourites please post away.
Some examples:
Erma Franklin – Piece Of My Heart
Solomon Burke – Cry To Me
Arsenio – Hang On Sloopy
The Bang label springs to mind when I think of Bert Berns.
Van Morrison was signed to Bang when he first moved to America and it’s haunted him ever since. Van’s Brown-Eyed Girl appeared alongside records by The McCoys (Hang On Sloopy) and the early Neil Diamond hits, all of which have been endlessly licenced and re-issued.
It should be noted that Bert Berns penned songs under several names including Bert Russell, the name he used to co-write Twist and Shout in 1961.
Never mind Blowin Your Mind and Brown Eyed Girl, TB Sheets which was also on Bert Berns’ label Bang is a really interesting record. Early versions of Astral Weeks, the long,l yrically dense TB sheets a fairly morbid topic with a morbid refrain “I know your dying baby…” and it also included another song indicating his future style and with a lovely groove. He Ain’t Give you None. Cant find it on youtube but here’s a live version by Jerry Garcia- such great taste….
https://youtu.be/kkYszSv7UcI
A brief expedition to London saw him producing this, as well as Baby Please Don’t Go.
In the instance of this song, Berns actually competed against himself in the charts. he also cut this very different version of ‘Here Comes the Night’ with Lulu, then released them both simultaneously to see which one did better. (No surprise that Them prevailed.) It’s one way of increasing the odds that your song is a hit…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zm7RDGo_Dw
Another peculiar tidbit regarding ‘Here Comes the Night’ – the guitar line was pinched from an earlier Bert Berns production, Marv Johnson’s ‘Come On and Stop’…
Bert who indeed? Never heard of him.
But a quick google tells me he co-wrote Twist and Shout with Phil Medley. So he’s well worthy of our attention.
The first version by the Top Notes was not a hit. Despite being produced by Phil Spector.
The Isleys did a lot better.
This Bert Berns website is well worth a browse.
http://bertberns.com/
Lots of useful info.
I bought a copy of this absolute belter by Bert (as Russell Byrd) a few months back for very little after hearing it on a cd compilation that Mrs Batlord purchased…
I borrowed her car a week or so later and she had another cd compilation in the player with this storming version by the Isleys… So I had track down a copy of this as well.
Batlord! What a wonderful nom de AW @BasilBatlord. What’s Mrs B’s first name?
Belladonna? Bellatrix?
I do so wish I knew a couple called the Batlords. I would invite them over for blood pudding.
Jasmine?????
I bet Basil is a Brigadier. Brigadier Batlord.
From Bromley.
Brigadier Basil Batlord III of Bromley.
I’m beginning to wish I’d made a name up now…
Me too.
Interesting stuff – particularly his website – Bert also produced this gem, the original version of the Isley’s “That Lady”.
I wonder who is behind that website. Not the Berns estate anyway.
I suspect it’s the film company who have just made a film with the same title as this off Broadway show with the same name: Piece of my heart.
This review has some more info about BB’s life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/theater/piece-of-my-heart-tells-the-story-of-bert-berns.html?_r=0
A pedant writes: It’s Leiber (not Lieber) & Stoller (as in Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller).
Thank you for kleering that up.
Thanks for this lovely thread. Always great to explore these hidden threads and rabbit holes in rock and roll history.
I am surprise and disappoint that no-one has mentioned the infamous Berns-Morrison feud that led to His Vansomeness recording an album’s-worth of the worst shit he could come up with to get out of his contract. Later humourously released as “The Best Of Van Morrison” (amongst other “iterations”). Poor old Van. How he’s suffered from unscrupulous producers.
Van and Janet Planet allegedly fled his bouncer/enforcer as well. Not a particular pleasant character by the sounds of it, Mr Berns. Probably the type who would have ‘My Way’ played at his funeral, the dirge of choice for all hoodlums and sociopathic narcissists.
What is wrong with it? Sounds wonderful to my ears.
https://youtu.be/BgkvlSsZiLQ
Proof of music’s transformative power.
According to this, Bert’s kids are behind the musical
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/07/18/musical-piece-of-my-heart-examines-bert-berns-songwriting-career/
And BB had a very eventful life and some very dodgy friends.
He ran guns and drugs in Castro’s Cuba, which may explain his interest in latin music.
This has just been added to my to read list.
http://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/here-comes-the-night/
Here’s Joel Selvin talking about Bert Berns and some other stuff.
Great find, I enjoyed that. Oh to have local radio with items that interesting. I think Scorcese could make a film of the scene in New York in the 60s.
Amazing what one can discover once one starts digging about!
I see that your favourites, Ace Records. have really done their bit for boosting knowledge about BB.
That musical certainly got a lot of attention. Even the Torygraph. My picture of the man is becoming a lot clearer.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/10903536/Bert-Berns-the-man-behind-51-pop-hits.html
(Incidentally, I found that by Googling for images of BB and then going to the site. It seems to be rather a good way of finding stuff rather than just searching for words. It seems some sites are pushed to the top of the list if you search for words.)