25-657: 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 " Tell Laura I Love Her " (written with Ben Raleigh and a #1 hit in the UK Singles Chart when it was recorded by Ricky Valance in 1960), " 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
50-401: A stock car race , despite being the youngest and most inexperienced driver, hoping to win and use the prize money to buy Laura a wedding ring. The second verse tells how his car overturns and bursts into flames, although nobody knows what had happened. Tommy is fatally injured and his last words are "Tell Laura I love her... My love for her will never die". In the final verse, Laura prays inside
75-465: A Laura che l'amo", by Michele), Swedish ("Jag Älskar Min Laura", by Carli Tornehave), Mandarin ("告訴羅娜我愛她") and Vietnamese ("Trưng Vương Khung Cửa Mùa Thu", by Nam Lộc). An answer song , "Tell Tommy I Miss Him" was released by Marilyn Michaels in 1960. It was originally released by RCA Victor Records as a single and is included on the 2007 compilation album The Answer to Everything - Girl Answer Songs of
100-642: 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
125-576: The Billboard Hot 100 chart . Later that same year, it was recorded and released by Ricky Valance in the United Kingdom, where it went to the No. 1 spot on the UK Singles Chart . The song has been a hit in 14 countries, and has sold over seven million copies. The song tells the tragic story from a witness' perspective of a young man named Tommy who is in love with Laura and wants to marry her, so he enters
150-619: The Columbia label, was No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks. Valance's version was initially banned by the BBC ; it was considered to be in "bad taste" and expressed concern for copycat activity. The Peterson single was re-released in 1962, following the success of Valance's recording. In the U.S. a recording by Johnny T. Angel (a.k.a. Bill Gilliland) on Bell Records peaked at No. 94 on June 22, 1974. In 1973, Dutch singer Albert West released his 7" version which reached No. 8 on
175-1320: The Dutch Top 40 and No. 1 in Austria. In 1973, New Zealand band Creation released a rendering which peaked at No. 3 on the New Zealand charts and at No. 20 in the Australian charts the following year. The story of the song was adapted for stage and turned into Tell Laura I Love Her (The Musical) in 2007 by Richard C. Hague. Spanish versions were recorded ("Dile a Laura que la quiero") by Chilean singer Ray Palaviccino in 1962, by Mexican singer César Costa ("Dile que la quiero" / "La historia de Tommy"), and Spanish group Los HH in 1963. There were also versions in Czech ("Když dozrálo víno", by Petr Spálený , in 1967), Serbian ("Lora, ja te volim", by Miodrag Jevremović), Danish ("Hils Lillian kærligt", by Heaven and "Si' til Lis hun er min tøs", by Dick Kaysø and Peter Thorup), Dutch ("Ik blijf van Laura houden", by Charles Tuinenburg and The Melody Strings), Finnish ("Laura (sua kauheesti kaipaan)" by Hector ), French ("Dis à Laura", by Richard Anthony ), German ("Das Ende der Liebe", by Rex Gildo ), Italian ("Dite
200-735: The RIAA Record of the Year for 1969, and earned the group a gold record . In 1970, Barry wrote and produced singles and albums for Archies lead singer Ron Dante , Bobby Bloom (" Montego Bay "), and Robin McNamara (" Lay a Little Lovin' on Me "), among others. In addition, Barry penned his first music for motion pictures ( Hello Down There (1969) and Where It's At ) and wrote the music for and produced Tom Eyen 's hit off-Broadway revue The Dirtiest Show in Town . In 1975 he produced "Ooh, I'm Satisfied" for
225-599: The '60's . In 1961, country singer Skeeter Davis released the same song on her album Here's the Answer . British singer Laura Lee with orchestra directed by Johnny Keating also recorded a version, released by Triumph Records as a single in the UK in August 1960. Montego Bay (song) " Montego Bay " is a song co-written and performed by Bobby Bloom about the city in Jamaica of
250-475: 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
275-641: The 1998 film Jack Frost . 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. 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
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#1732901792010300-502: The Monkees again until 1970's Changes , which contained many songs co-written by Barry, and their 1971 single Do It in the Name of Love . Having been removed from the Monkees project, Kirshner became music supervisor for a new Saturday morning cartoon, The Archie Show , in 1968, and enlisted Barry as producer and main songwriter. During the next three years, Barry composed dozens of songs for
325-694: 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 ). Barry was born in Brooklyn to a Jewish family. His parents divorced when he was seven, and his mother moved him and his sister to Plainfield , New Jersey, where they resided for several years before returning to New York. In 1964, Leiber and Stoller brought Barry and Greenwich on board their new label, Red Bird Records , as songwriter-producers. Of Red Bird's first 20 releases, 15 hit
350-507: The briefly successful mid-'70s pop singer and later session vocalist, Polly Cutter. 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
375-433: The chapel, where a church organ is heard, and where she can still hear Tommy's voice intoning the title one more time, before it fades out. The lyrics of "Tell Laura I Love Her" originally concerned a rodeo , not an automobile race, as composer Jeff Barry was an aficionado of cowboy culture. However, at RCA's instigation, Barry rewrote the song, in order to more closely resemble the No. 1 hit " Teen Angel ". The personnel on
400-557: The charts; all were written and/or produced by the Barry-Greenwich team, including " Chapel of Love ", " People Say ", and " Iko Iko " by The Dixie Cups , and " Remember (Walkin' in the Sand) " (co-produced by Artie Ripp ) and " Leader of the Pack " by The Shangri-Las . In late 1966, Barry was asked to produce tracks for the Monkees , a music group put together specifically as the stars of an NBC sitcom, also called The Monkees . Drafted by
425-579: The fictional Archies group, including the show's theme, "Everything's Archie", and the "Dance of the Week" (a staple of the show's first season). Barry had also recently founded his own label, Steed Records , and one of his most successful recording artists was Montreal native Andy Kim , who had hits with remakes of Barry's Ronettes tunes "Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You". Barry and Kim collaborated on several tunes for The Archies to record, including their best-known single, " Sugar, Sugar ", which hit No. 1, became
450-553: 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" along with his production partner, Clarence Jey , a US Billboard and viral record producer. Jeff Barry
475-495: The original recording included Al Chernet, Charles Macy, and Sebastian Mure on guitars; Lloyd Trotman on bass; Andrew Ackers on organ; Bob Burns on sax; and Bunny Shawker on drums. Decca Records in England decided not to release Ray Peterson's 1960 recording on the grounds that it was "too tasteless and vulgar" and destroyed about twenty-five thousand copies that had already been pressed. A cover by Ricky Valance, released by EMI on
500-697: The same name . The song was a top ten hit for Bloom in the Fall of 1970 on both sides of the Atlantic. It reached No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart , No. 5 on the Canadian RPM 100 Singles Chart, No. 7 on the Australian Go-Set Singles Chart and No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 . The song was co-written and produced by Jeff Barry . In the master tape of the song, Bloom breaks into a chorus of " Oh, What
525-508: The show's musical supervisor, Don Kirshner , Barry brought with him a few tunes penned by Neil Diamond for the group to record. One among them, " I'm a Believer ", under Barry's production, would sail up the U.S. charts to No. 1 and become one of the biggest-selling records of all time. The group also had a hit with another single composed by Diamond and produced by Barry, " A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You ". After Kirshner's dismissal from Colgems Records, however, Barry would not produce songs for
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#1732901792010550-571: 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
575-526: 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
600-586: Was involved in part of the music in the Hallmark Channel movie titled "My Christmas Love". In 2019, Barry and his writing partner Clarence Jey composed and wrote songs for Lego City Adventures , an animated television series, produced by The Lego Group , for Nickelodeon television. Barry and Greenwich were among the 2010 recipients of the Ahmet Ertegün Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . As he
625-489: 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. Tell Laura I Love Her " Tell Laura I Love Her " is a teenage tragedy song written by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh . It was a US top ten popular music hit for singer Ray Peterson in 1960 on RCA Victor Records , reaching No. 7 on
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