(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOU’VE LOST THAT LOVIN’ FEELIN'”) THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS: (Singing) You’ve lost that loving feeling. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” was one of the most played songs of the 20th century. It was written by Cynthia Weil with her husband and songwriting partner Barry Mann and producer Phil Spector. Alongside contemporaries like Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Weil changed the sound of popular music in the 1960s. She’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. And her writing has helped sell an estimated 200 million records. Weil died this month at the age of 82. In 2019, Meredith Ochs profiled her for our series The Women Behind The Songs. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ON BROADWAY”) THE COOKIES: (Singing) I hear the neon lights are bright on Broadway. MEREDITH OCHS, BYLINE: Cynthia Weil wrote big-sounding songs in a tiny office on Broadway. She’d grown up just a few blocks north on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, dreaming that one day she’d work as a playwright and director on the city’s most infamous stretch of asphalt. She studied theater in college but was encouraged by a family friend to try her hand at writing song lyrics. When she met musician Barry Mann, he immediately recognized her unique amalgam of sophistication and empathy. You can hear it in the original version of the duo’s song “On Broadway,” written for the all-girl group The Cookies. A native New Yorker, Weil had the ability to perceive the city’s wonder through the eyes of an outsider. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ON BROADWAY”) THE COOKIES: (Singing) They say that you can be someone, and it don’t matter where you are from. I swear I’ve got to get there, or I’ll die. OCHS: Weil is one of the architects of the Brill Building sound, an era of urbane teenage pop by writers who were barely out of their teens themselves. She didn’t just write about young love and broken hearts. Weil’s lyrics also reflected her social conscience. When she and Mann teamed up with famed songwriting duo Jerry […]

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