Little Trouble Girl: Ellie Greenwich
Posted by: zac | From: May 10, 2004
Ellie Greenwich spent the better part of her twenties writing the most memorable (and occasionally infuriating) songs of the second half of the twentieth century, and for some reason, you've probably never heard of her.
Beginning her recording career as Ellie Gaye at the age of 18, Greenwich produced a single for RCA in 1958 entitled "Cha-Cha-Charming," which failed to chart. After graduating from college she met songwriter Jeff Barry, and the two soon married.
The couple quickly went on to spend the bulk of the 1960s penning a daunting percentage of the Girl Group era's Gold and Platinum records (among them "Be My Baby," "And Then He Kissed Me," "The Leader Of the Pack," "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Do Wa Diddy Diddy," "River Deep, Mountain High," etc, ad infinitum) as intrigal figures of the original Brill Building set.
The two also recorded a number of factory singles as the Raindrops (and alternately as the Butterflies)--a studio concoction that would tour the country with lip-syncing stand-ins--and would later go on to comprise a good deal of the Archies ("Sugar, Sugar," and all that). In 1965 Greenwich wrote and recorded the gorgeous Shadow Morton-produced single "You Don't Know," releasing a record under her own name for the first time. It's a brilliant example of understated Brill Pop, and deserved considerably more attention than it was ever afforded.
During this time she also began to produce records, becoming one of the first women to do so professionally for major labels, working with the likes of Neil Diamond and the Dixie Cups. In 1968 she released her first album, Ellie Greenwich Composes, Produces & Sings, which quickly disappeared at the end of the Girl Pop era. Five years later, with the success of Brill Building contemporary Carole King, Greenwich made the unfortunate decision to volley her career as a songwriter into one of a "singer-songwriter," re-recording some of her greatest compositions made famous by other artists just a few years too late as Let it Be Written, Let it Be Sung... something of a disaster.
And as this is beginning to sound like something of a book report, let me digress from this clunky history lesson to explain exactly what moves me to tout the spotty recording career of a less-than-one hit wonder who probably shouldn't have stepped in front of the velvet curtain to begin with. though there are literally dozens of Girl Groups whose singles deserve to be celebrated, the medium was so SONG based that it's difficult to pick one group for specific exploration--and with The Greatest Band Of All Time blog meant as a means of exposure of some kind of depth, those groups' limited discographies don't really offer a wealth of music to explore. So for all of her misfortune as a performer, the sprawl of Ellie Greenwich's career acts as sort of a reasonable glue for so much of the medium's disparate brilliance. For this, and for one of the era's greatest forgotten singles, we logically afford Ellie Greenwich the title of The Greatest Band Of All Time.
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