Narrated by Joel Peresman, President & CEO of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Transcript

The story of the Brill Building shares its story with the rise of American popular music in the mid-1900s. When music publishers began moving into the building at 1619 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan during the 1930s and ‘40s, recordings had risen to become the primary source of American music publishing. The building’s corridors saw the best in the music industry joining forces daily to write, arrange, perform, and record new hits for an adoring public. Writers like Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Doc Pomus, Ellie Greenwich, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, and Neil Sedaka came together to write some of the biggest hits of their generation. Songs like “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “Leader of the Pack,” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” were massive hits at the time and still resonate today. These and many other hits from the style of assembly line pop music were written quickly and efficiently, sometimes over the course of a single day. These kids from the streets of New York defined the sound of young America and helped define a generation’s music, and provided the foundation for all types of rock and roll that followed. And it all happened right here in Midtown Manhattan’s Brill Building.

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