Songwriter/Producer Jeff Barry

Wheels Off with Rhett Miller

Rhett Miller

Music, Performing Arts, Arts

4.9 • 609 Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2021

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week’s episode of Wheels Off, legendary songwriter and record producer Jeff Barry joins Rhett from his home in Laurel Canyon for a captivating conversation filled with wonderful nuggets of songwriting advice. Jeff and Rhett discuss Jeff’s simplified songwriting formula, the early days of his career as a songwriter, how he learned to write great material, the sky-high success of Red Bird Records, and much more. Jeff shares the riveting story of providing the music for Sam Cooke’s first single with RCA, and reveals fantastic tips for songwriters that only a master could articulate. Jeff Barry is a singer, songwriter, and record producer from Brooklyn, best known for his songwriting and production work with all-time great acts including The Monkees, The Shangri-Las, and Neil Diamond. He has written timeless classics with his former wife Ellie Greenwich and fellow songwriting partner Phil Spector, and together the three helped define the “Girl Group” sound. They produced hits like “Be My Baby,” “Da Doo Ron Ron,” "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," "River Deep - Mountain High," and many other chart-topping tunes. Jeff went on to compose for T.V. and movies, and wrote the theme songs for One Day at a Time and The Jeffersons, as well as the score for the movie The Idolmaker. Wheels Off is brought to you by Osiris Media. Hosted and produced by Rhett Miller. Co-produced by Kirsten Cluthe in partnership with Nick Ruffini (Revoice Media). Editing by Justin Thomas. Production Assistance by Matt Bavuso. Music by OLD 97’s. Episode artwork by Katherine Boils. Show logo by Tim Skirven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	O'SIRUS
0:02.0	Welcome to Wheels Off, a show about the messy reality of the creative life.
0:08.7	I'm Rhett Miller.
0:10.4	That's when it got wheels off.
0:13.0	We started up and we ain't gonna stop us.
0:16.0	Like you like it or not.
0:19.0	That's when they got wheels off.
0:21.6	You guys, I am so excited about this wheels off.
0:27.6	It's crazy.
0:29.6	You know that in these wheels off interviews, I don't just speak with songwriters.
0:34.6	By any means, I'll speak with musicians, play-by-play
0:39.0	sportscasters, painters, novelists, actors. But I do speak with songwriters. And because I have
0:48.2	devoted my life to the discipline of songwriting, sometimes I get a little extra jazzed when I do speak with a songwriter. I've never
0:58.3	spoken with a songwriter like this. There isn't another songwriter like this. This week's
1:05.9	episode of Wheels Off is a conversation with Jeff Barry, a Brooklyn-born songwriter, producer, record label
1:16.8	owner. I can't even begin to name off the dozens and dozens of hit songs that he wrote.
1:26.3	Do I Didi, Dido Run Run, Then He Kissed Me, Be My Baby, Chapel of Love, River Deep, Mountain
1:31.6	High, Leader of the Pack, Sugar, Sugar, and on, and on, I'm a believer for the monkeys.
1:42.9	Yeah, Jeff Berry has been around the block and lived to tell the tale. He
1:50.6	holds forth during this conversation about songwriting in a way that I don't think I've ever
1:57.0	really kind of gotten into the weeds of it like this in any of my other
2:01.6	wheels off interviews. We get a little bit wonky. I hope everybody's cool with that. God knows
	...

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