Jeff Barry
Jeff Barry (born Joel Adelberg; April 3, 1938) is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer. Among the most successful songs that he has co-written in his career are "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Then He Kissed Me", "Be My Baby", "Chapel of Love", and "River Deep - Mountain High" (all written with his then-wife Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector); "Leader of the Pack" (written with Greenwich and Shadow Morton); "Sugar, Sugar" (written with Andy Kim); "Without Us" (written with Tom Scott), and "I Honestly Love You" (written with Peter Allen).
For the baseball player, see Jeff Barry (baseball).
Jeff Barry
Joel Adelberg
April 3, 1938
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Rock and roll, pop music
- Songwriter
- singer
- record producer
1958–present
RCA, United Artists, Bell, A&M
Production and film work[edit]
In 1971 Barry moved from New York to California, where he had a production and administration deal with A&M Records for several years. Between 1972 and 1975, he produced hit singles for Nino Tempo and April Stevens (together and separately) and the a cappella vocal group the Persuasions. In subsequent years he shifted his focus to television (writing the theme songs for One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, and Family Ties) and movies (the score for 1980's The Idolmaker), although he continued his work in the pop music field. "I Honestly Love You", written by Barry with Peter Allen, became a 1974 No. 1 for Olivia Newton-John; and, in 1984, Jeffrey Osborne and Joyce Kennedy hit the Top 40 with another Barry composition, "The Last Time I Made Love", written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
During the 1970s and 1980s Barry also scored numerous hit songs on the country charts, among them "Out of Hand" by Gary Stewart, "Sayin' Hello, Sayin' I Love You, Sayin' Goodbye" by Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius, "Lie to You for Your Love" by The Bellamy Brothers, a remake of "Chip Chip" (originally a 1962 Gene McDaniels pop smash) by Patsy Sledd, and "Walkin' in the Sun" by Glen Campbell.
In 1990, Barry co-produced the theme song for the television series based on Where's Waldo? with media executive Richard Goldsmith. Barry and Goldsmith would collaborate throughout the 90s on a number of projects, including children's albums based on The Babysitter's Club and Clifford the Big Red Dog, songs for the interstitial series Nounou Time, the Spanish language series Mi casita, theme songs for The Slow Norris and Someday School, and would executive produce the 1998 film Jack Frost.[5]
In May 1991, Barry and Greenwich were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest rock songs included six Greenwich-Barry compositions, more than by any other non-performing songwriting team.[6]
During the mid-1990s, Barry served as president of the National Academy of Songwriters, and in December 1998 he was a recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award. In March 2000, Barry filmed a music special for the PBS television network, Chapel of Love: Jeff Barry and Friends. The show featured performances of Barry tunes by several of the artists who made them famous, including the Dixie Cups, the Crystals, Ronnie Spector, Andy Kim, Ray Peterson, and Ron Dante of the Archies.
In recent years, Barry has been involved in several projects, among them the stage musical "The Girl Who Would Be King", written by the husband-and-wife team of Prudence Fraser and Robert Sternin, best known for their writing and production work on the CBS series The Nanny. The musical had its official world premiere in Vero Beach, Florida.
In 2016, Barry composed songs for the musical theater show "Jambalaya the Musical"[7] along with his production partner, Clarence Jey, a US Billboard and viral record producer. Jeff Barry was involved in part of the music in the Hallmark Channel movie titled "My Christmas Love".[8]
In 2019, Barry and his writing partner Clarence Jey composed and wrote songs for Lego City Adventures,[9] a computer-animated television series, produced by The Lego Group, for Nickelodeon television.[10][11][12]
Awards and honors[edit]
Barry and Greenwich were among the 2010 recipients of the Ahmet Ertegün Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[13] As he was unable to attend the ceremony, Steven Van Zandt accepted the award on Barry's behalf. Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991.[14] [15]