• Who, in 1958 at the age of 14, joined the Royal Teens (Top Five hitmakers with "Short Shorts")?


• Who, in 1960, began his career as a BMI songwriter with a number called "My Kinda Love," which was recorded by Anastasia?


• Who has written hundreds of songs, all part of his BMI catalog?


• Who co-wrote "This Diamond Ring," the 1965 pop chart-topper for Gary Lewis and the Playboys? The song, incidentally, is approaching four million radio performances.


• Who, also in '65, helped create Bob Dylan's hard, radically new rock & roll sound (and, by extension, what came to be known as “folk rock") when he played the organ — for his very first time on a released recording — on Dylan's epochal single, "Like a Rolling Stone"?

• Who, in the mid-'60s, was a member of the Blues Project, the New York-based band that was among the first in this country to spread the joy (and pain) of black-influenced white electric blues?


• Who, in 1967, founded Blood, Sweat & Tears, the pioneering ensemble that melded rock with the hippest horn arrangements?


• Who, in 1968, came up with the concept of "Super Session," and produced the hit LP on which he co-starred with guitarists Michael Bloomfield and Stephen Stills?


• Who has recorded as a sideman with, among many others and in addition to Dylan ("Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde"): the Rolling Stones (piano, organ and French horn on "You Can't Always Get What You Want"); Jimi Hendrix (piano on "Long, Hot Summer Night"; The Who (on the LP "The Who Sell Out"); George Harrison (arranged and played keys on the hit "All Those Years Ago"); Simon & Garfunkel; Alice Cooper; the Butterfield Blues Band; Moby Grape; Taj Mahal; B.B. King; Lynyrd Skynyrd; Judy Collins; Joan Baez; Phil Ochs; Roger McGuinn; Tom Petty; Joe Cocker; Betty Wright; Rita Coolidge; ex-Rolling Stone Bill Wyman; and Trisha Yearwood? In an issue devoted to the 500 Greatest Recordings of All Time, Rolling Stone magazine included 12 albums with serious participation by our mystery man.


• Who has produced commercially successful and publicly acclaimed discs by Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd (he discovered them and produced their first three albums, which spawned the mega-hits "Sweet Home Alabama," "Free Bird," and "Saturday Night Special"), B.B. King, Rick Nelson, the Tubes (who gave the world the timeless "White Punks On Dope"), Shuggie Otis, Don Ellis, Nils Lofgren, and Joe Ely?


• Who has written original soundtrack music for films like Hal Ashby's The Landlord and John Waters's Cry Baby, as well as Michael Mann's television series Crime Story, and was music director for the 1991 cable TV special "Ray Charles: 50 Years in Music"?


• Whose songs have been recorded by a diverse roster of artists that includes Freddie Cannon; Lorraine Ellison; Keely Smith; "Gene Pitney ("I Must Be Seeing Things"); Bobby Vee; Lulu; Billy Fury; the Rockin' Berries; the Blues Project ("Flute Thing" and "Wake Me, Shake Me"); Ten Years After ("I Can't Keep from Cryin' Sometimes"); the Staple Singers and Rufus; Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Mississippi Kid" and "Cheatin' Woman"); Roger McGuinn; the Beastie Boys; Jay-Z; Alchemist; Dakota Staton; and Betty Wright? Then there is "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know," the heart-tugging soul ballad that was recorded by more than 25 artists, including Donny Hathaway, Kenny Lattimore, and Carmen McRae).

Answer: Al Kooper.

Any way one looks at it, Brooklyn-born (in 1944) Al Kooper has had an unusually variegated, extraordinary career. He credits Bob Gaudio for giving him his start. Gaudio later found international fame as a member and chief songwriter for the Four Seasons before producing LPs (including Frank Sinatra's Watertown, the songs for which he also co-composed) and, more recently, for writing the music for the smash Broadway, multi-Tony-winning, Jersey Boys. "He was the Royal Teens," recalls Kooper of Gaudio, "and without him hiring me I never would have begun as early as I did."

In 2008, as he celebrates his first half-century in music, that career is still moving forward. Kooper is the consummately versatile music business pro. He is, of course, a singer/songwriter. He's a multi-instrumentalist (keyboards, guitars, mandolin, synthesizers, French horn), and a producer and an engineer. Kooper also has nearly 20 albums as leader to his credit, including the excellent two-disc retrospective from Sony Music, Rare and Well Done.

Further, he warrants induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a sideman, if only for the instantly recognizable approach to the organ he created during Dylan's paradigm-shattering work of the mid-1960s. And changing the subject slightly, he's hosted and imaginatively programmed his own spot on Britain's Radio Caroline.

Kooper continues to tour with two different bands, as well as presenting a one-man show that is by turns, affecting and witty, surveying his life in music through song and anecdote. First and foremost, though is the Funky Faculty, at which he's been at the helm for the past decade. The Faculty, a sextet, is made up of veteran instructors at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, and their specialty is an engaging mix of rock, blues and jazz. Kooper himself formerly taught at Berklee and in 2001 he received, along with the late, innovative drummer Elvin Jones, a Doctorate of Music. (He also holds a doctorate from Long Island's Five Towns College.) When in New York, he often fronts an all-star foursome that also features guitarist Jimmy Vivino and bassist Mike Merritt (both from Conan O'Brien's house band) and drummer Anton Fig, from Late Show with David Letterman.

Though a debilitating condition permanently robbed him in 2001 of two-thirds of his sight, it's not stopped Kooper from taking the Funky Faculty to Norway, Denmark, Italy, England, Spain and all sorts of faraway places; late in 2007 the Faculty played for enthusiastic audiences in the Czech Republic and Japan, and more travels are in the works. Also planned for 2008: an updated edition of Dr. Kooper's autobiography, "Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards," which is a fresh, funny, and compelling read. Then there is his forthcoming disc, tentatively titled White Chocolate, due from A Minor Record Company, for which Kooper is CEO. The album is highlighted by two new songs on which he collaborated with the legendary lyricist Gerry Goffin.

During 2007 Kooper also garnered two individual honors: he was honored in New York by the Mix Foundation with the Les Paul Award, receiving an autographed Les Paul guitar from the great man, who was present for the ceremonies. Shortly thereafter, on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, Kooper dipped his hands in cement in the Rock Walk of Fame during festivities that also honored Otis Redding and the Mamas & the Papas.

Perhaps closest to Kooper's heart, however, is the scholarship that Berklee formed in his name: The Al Kooper It Can Happen Fund assists handicapped students in overcoming any difficulties that would prevent them from attending Berklee. "They do a great job," says Kooper, "and I'm very proud of what has been accomplished thus far."

As he prepares to embark on his sixth musical decade, Kooper reflects with typical straightforwardness, and speaks of BMI's significance in his career: "I've been ripped off voluminously by record companies, managers, etc. I always thought of BMI as the cavalry, coming to rescue me from a hand-to-mouth existence. When times were really tight, and it seemed as if the end might be around the corner, that BMI check would come crashing through the mail slot and bring me back to the real world. To this day, I could not exist without it."

FOUR AWARDS
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Best Rock Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal
Best Rock Song
Best Rock Album
Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package

TWO AWARDS
George Benson
Best Pop Instrumental Performance
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance

Michael Brecker
Best Jazz Instrumental Solo
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

Chick Corea
Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group
Best Instrumental Arrangement

The Flaming Lips
Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

Kirk Franklin
Best Gospel Song
Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album

Gnarls Barkley
Best Alternative Music Album
Best Urban/Alternative Performance

John Legend
Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals

T.I.
Best Rap Solo Performance
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration

Carrie Underwood
Best New Artist
Best Female Country Vocal Performance

John Williams
Best Score Soundtrack Album
Best Instrumental Composition

OTHER WINNERS
Yolanda Adams
Best Gospel Performance

Pepe Aguilar
Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album

Christina Aguilera
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

Chente Barrera y Taconazo
Best Tejano Album

The Black Eyed Peas
Best Pop Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal

Randy Brecker
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

T Bone Burnett
Best Compilation Soundtrack Album

Enya (PRS)
Best New Age Album

Peter Erskine
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

Béla Fleck & the Flecktones
Best Contemporary Jazz Album

Dave Fridmann
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

Bob Gaudio
Best Musical Show Album

Vince Gill
Best Male Country Vocal Performance

Osvaldo Golijov
Best Classical Contemporary Composition

Bill Harley
Best Spoken Word Album for Children

Van Hunt
Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals

Israel & New Breed
Best Traditional Gospel Album

Al Jarreau
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance

Klezmatics
Best Contemporary World Music Album

Krayzie Bone
Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group

Will Lee
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

The Bryan Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project
Best Latin Jazz Album

Maná
Best Latin Rock, Alternative or Urban Album

OK Go
Best Short Form Music Video

Joss Stone (PRS)
Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals

Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra
Best Polka Album

Irma Thomas
Best Contemporary Blues

Los Tigres Del Norte
Best Norteño Album

Ike Turner
Best Traditional Blues Album

Julieta Venegas
Best Latin Pop Album

Doc Watson
Best Country Collaboration with Vocals

Pharrell Williams
Best Rap Song

Wolfmother (APRA)
Best Hard Rock Performance

The current Broadway season has theatre-goers scrambling for seats to shows from BMI’s ever-growing list of writers from the Tony-honored BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

A CHORUS LINE
A revival of A Chorus Line opened Oct. 5, 2006, at the Schoenfeld Theatre in New York. The ground-breaking and record-breaking musical features lyrics by BMI writer Edward Kleban, who won the 1975 Tony, Drama Desk, Olivier Awards and the Pulitzer Prize in Music for the show’s lyrics. Kleban was a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Workshop for over 20 years.

A Chorus Line begins on a bare stage, where casting for a new Broadway musical is almost complete. The competition has been narrowed down to just 17 dancers. During the show we find out the dancers’ dreams and disappointments. By the show’s finale, the final chorus line of eight is chosen.

In 2001, a musical biography of Kleban, A Class Act, was produced on Broadway. The show features Kleban’s music and lyrics and has scenes set in the BMI Workshop. Mr. Kleban, who died in 1987 at the age of 48, posthumously won an Obie for his score for A Class Act, and was nominated for a Tony and a Drama Desk Award. Linda Kline, Kleban’s literary executor and a BMI Workshop member, is co-writer. The Kleban Foundation, created according to his will, awards grants to aspiring theatre lyricists and bookwriters so that they may carry on the tradition of the American musical theatre, which he loved so dearly.

Joel Siegel of ABC-TV wrote, “This proves you can be a singular sensation twice. The choreography, the staging, the set and the score are still magic. You’ll dance out humming the score. The music moved me to tears twice. And something I’ve never done, during the finale, I whispered wow under my breath.”

Jon Lahr in The New Yorker described A Chorus Line’s score “full of wit and fun. Edward Kleban’s shrewd lyrics sit easily on Marvin Hamlisch’s inspired score.”

Entertainment Weekly proclaimed, “This sensational revival blows the sequins off most Broadway musicals. It’s thrilling!”

Michael Sommers of the Star-Ledger wrote, “Welcome back, you beautiful thing! The show glows with dynamic and dazzling songs by composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Edward Kleban,” and Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News asserted, “There’s nothing better. The score sounds fantastic, too. As long as ‘A Chorus Line’ is kicking on Broadway, audiences have somewhere exciting to go.”

MARY POPPINS
Based on P.L. Travers’ cherished stories and the classic 1964 Walt Disney film, Mary Poppins features the Sherman Brothers’ original Academy Award-winning songs, bringing to life the story of the Banks family and their magical nanny.

Mary Poppins marks the first collaboration between Disney, producer of the The Lion King (BMI’s Elton John and Tim Rice) and Beauty and the Beast (BMI’s Alan Menken) with Cameron Mackintosh, legendary producer of the record-breaking Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Les Miserables. The Cameron MackIntosh Foundation provides underwriting for the annual BMI Workshop Musical Theatre Showcase at Manhattan Theatre Club.

Mary Poppins, with classic songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, and new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, opened Nov. 16, 2006, at the historic New Amsterdam Theatre in New York.

The Sherman Brothers are leading composer/lyricists in family entertainment. Among their many hits is the most translated and performed song on earth: “It’s a Small World (After All).” Robert Sherman endows the BMI Foundation’s Robert B. Sherman Scholarship, which is given annually to a college student who is a musical theatre composer/lyricist.

The Shermans’ career spans almost 50 years and includes two Academy Awards for Best Score and Best Song for “Chim Chim Cher-ee” from Mary Poppins. Their other Broadway credits include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Over Here, which is being prepared for a lavish West End revival.

Additional songs are by composer/lyricists George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, Olivier Award winners for the musical Honk and founders of London’s Mercury Musicals.

Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press wrote, “All the big, classic Sherman Brothers songs are here, and new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe fit seamlessly into the proceedings. In fact, one or two of them, including Mary’s opening number, ‘Practically Perfect,’ possess an instant hypnotic quality.”

Terry Teachout wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t run for at least a century!”

SPRING AWAKENING
Based on the scandalous 1891 play about troubled teens, Spring Awakening opened off-Broadway last summer and opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Dec. 10, 2006. This ground-breaking show is by BMI writers Duncan Sheik (music) and Steven Sater (book and lyrics).

Christopher Isherwood of the The New York Times called Sheik and Sater’s score “ravishing” and declared that “Broadway would never be the same. The music, spare in its simple orchestrations, lush in the lapping reach of its seductive choruses, embodies the shadowy air of longing that infuses the show, the excitement shading into fear, the joy that comes with a chaser of despair. The singing throughout is impassioned and affecting, giving powerful voice to the blend of melancholy and hope in the songs.”

Grammy Award-nominated singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik’s self-titled debut album, both a popular and critical success, introduced the hit singles “Barely Breathing” and “She Runs Away,” and spent 30 weeks on the Billboard 200. Other albums include Humming, Daylight, Phantom Moon with lyrics by Steven Sater and his latest, White Limousine.

Sheik’s film soundtracks include Great Expectations, The Saint, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Three to Tango, What a Girl Wants, Transamerica and A Body Goes Down. Sheik and Sater recently wrote original songs for the feature film A Home at the End of the World. For the stage, their Nightingale workshopped both at the O’Neill Musical Theatre Conference and La Jolla Playhouse, and is announced for La Jolla’s 2007 season.

Sater’s plays include the long-running Carbondale Dreams, Perfect for You and Doll (Rosenthal Prize, Cincinnati Playhouse).

HIGH FIDELITY
The romantic musical comedy High Fidelity follows the adventures of Rob, a record store owner who knows almost everything about pop music, but almost nothing about how to hang on to a girlfriend. This new musical adaptation of Nick Hornby’s best-selling novel marks the first-time collaboration of fast-rising songwriters Tom Kitt and Amanda Green (daughter of actress Phyllis Newman and legendary Broadway lyricist Adolph Green) and book writer David Lindsay-Abaire (a Tony nominee last season for his play Rabbit Hole).

Kitt and Green first met and collaborated in 2006 in the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, and songs from High Fidelity have been featured in BMI Workshop showcases. Tom’s work has been heard in film (The Two Ninas), television (Dawson’s Creek), and original recordings (Julia Murney, The Tom Kitt Band). Amanda’s shows include Hallelujah Baby (Arena Stage 2004; additional lyrics) directed by Arthur Laurents, For The Love of Tiffany (NY Fringe Festival 2003) and Up the Week Without a Paddle (L.A. Drama Critics Circle nomination, Garland Award, Best Score).

Frank Rizzo in Variety wrote, “This is a musical that celebrates the power of pop culture with wit, verve and a killer beat. Nailing the music in all its varied forms is Tom Kitt’s tuneful score and the sharp, funny and telling lyrics of Amanda Green.”

Terry Teachout proclaimed Green “a master of the craft of packing everything you need to know about a character into a neatly wrapped, deftly rhymed package.”

The Philadelphia Enquirer calls the musical numbers the show’s “mother lode. Act II bubbles over with so many show-stealers that you begin to wonder whether it has anything left to plunder. Indeed, it keeps bringing out the treasure.”

And Entertainment Weekly declared that High Fidelity is “the unique show that charms both your college drinking buddy and your mother.”

THE APPLE TREE
A revival of The Apple Tree, which opened Dec. 14, 2006, at the Roundabout’s Studio 54 Theatre, features a score by BMI writers Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics). The original production, which opened at the Shubert Theatre in 1966, was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Bock and Harnick are the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning writing team responsible for Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me, The Rothschilds and Fiorello.

The Apple Tree contains three short musicals, all pertaining to the subject of temptation. The first is based on Mark Twain’s interpretation of Adam and Eve, the second, Frank Stockton’s classic fable of The Lady or the Tiger, and the third, Passionella, Jules Pfeiffer’s delicious look at a chimney sweep who is transformed into a glamorous movie star.

Composer Jerry Bock personally selects and endows the BMI Foundation’s Jerry Bock Award, which is given bi-annually to a composer/lyricist team from the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote that The Apple Tree “is somewhere you should definitely spend time if you need reassurance that musicals can still float next door to heaven,” and praised Bock and Harnick’s “remarkably fresh comic and musical stylings, which speak slyly in an assortment of musical tongues.”

Terry Teachout declared, “musical comedy fans, rejoice!” and Broadway.com wrote, “With a lovely score and witty book by the legendary Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, ‘The Apple Tree’ is a must-see revival for lovers of musical theater.”

BMI Broadway blockbusters from earlier seasons include:

Avenue Q
2004 Best Musical and Best Score Tony Award by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who met and first wrote together in the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop; plays nightly at New York’s Golden Theatre and in London at the Noel Coward Theatre.

Beauty and the Beast
Now in its 12th year at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, has music by Alan Menken, who also honed his craft at BMI’s Musical Theatre Workshop; he is currently a member of the Workshop’s Steering Committee. Menken’s Sister Act is currently breaking box office records on its pre-Broadway tour, and his Little Mermaid is in preparation for Broadway next season.

Chicago
1997 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, by John Kander and Fred Ebb, celebrates its tenth year at the Ambassador Theatre. Kander and Ebb’s Curtains opens on Broadway March 22 at the Hirschfeld Theatre.

The Color Purple
2006 Tony nominee featuring a score by BMI writers Brenda Russell and Allee Willis plays at the Broadway Theatre.

Jersey Boys
With music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe, the 2006 Tony Award winner for Best Musical celebrates its 500th performance at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre.

The Lion King
Music by Sir Elton John (PRS) and lyrics by Tim Rice (PRS), winner of the 1998 Best Musical Tony, is in its ninth year at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre.

Mama Mia!
With songs by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, Mama Mia! has been playing at the Winter Garden Theatre since 2001.

Monty Python’s Spamalot
2005 Tony Award for Best Musical with book and lyrics by Eric Idle and music by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, directed by BMI writer Mike Nichols, continues its run at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre.

The Producers
Won an unprecedented 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Score for Mel Brooks‘ music and lyrics, plays at the St. James Theatre.

Tarzan
With music and lyrics by Phil Collins, continues at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre.

Tarzan, The Lion King, Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast are all Disney Broadway productions.

A true rock and roll biography, Jersey Boys features the original music of BMI Award-winning songwriters Bob Gaudio, a founder and full-time member of the Four Seasons who wrote the music, and Bob Crewe, who wrote the lyrics and produced many of the group's records. Gaudio, who is a member of both the Songwriters and Rock and Roll halls of fame, took the stage with the show's producers, which included fellow Newark native Joe Pesci.

Duplicating the harmonies of Valli, Gaudio, Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito, the show soars on the quartet's biggest hits, including "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)."

Other BMI-represented Broadway shows in the Tony spotlight included The Color Purple, which earned its lead actress the top female performer prize, and Best Revival of a Musical winner, The Pajama Game, starring BMI songwriter/actor Harry Connick Jr.

The Tony Awards, which honor the best of Broadway, are presented by Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the League of American Theatres and Producers and the American Theatre Wing.]]> 2006-06-11T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/334814 Artists, Cerveris, Michael, Connick Jr., Harry, Gaudio, Bob, Jersey Boys, Russell, Brenda, Willis, Allee The Color Purple and Jersey Boys lead the list of BMI-represented Broadway shows nominated for the 60th Annual Tony Awards, announced May 16 from New York's Lincoln Center. Both are up for Best Musical.

With a total of 11 nominations that also includes Best Original Score for BMI songwriters Allee Willis and Brenda Russell, the Pulitzer-winning-novel-turned-Oscar-nominated-film-turned-Tony-nominated musical is produced by Oprah Winfrey.

Runaway hit Jersey Boys, about the lives and music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, nabbed eight Tony nominations, including Best Book of a Musical for BMI composer Marshall Brickman. A true crowd-pleaser, the show features the original music of Bob Gaudio, a founder and full-time member of the Four Seasons who wrote the music, and Bob Crewe, who wrote the lyrics and produced many of the group's records.

Also earning Tony nominations were BMI songwriters/actors Michael Cerveris and Harry Connick, Jr., who will compete in the Best Performance by a Leading Actor category for Sweeney Todd and The Pajama Game, respectively.

The 60th Annual Tony Awards will take place on Sunday, June 11 at Radio City Music Hall and will be broadcast live on CBS starting at 8 p.m.

Whatever, it sure worked to the advantage of four teenagers from Newark who turned doo-wop on its ear and eventually achieved international fame.

Jersey Boys began its life with more than a few advantages. First, the original songwriters Bob Gaudio (a founder and full-time member of the Four Seasons who wrote the music) and Bob Crewe, who wrote the lyrics and produced many of the records, contributed their songs. Second, Des McAnuff, who turned Pete Townshend’s generational “rock opera” Tommy into a Tony Award-winning Broadway production for all ages, signed on as director, while fellow Newark native Joe Pesci served as a producer. Add four largely unknown actors with voices that eerily replicate the then-unique Seasons’ harmonies and you get a production that defies the simple “jukebox musical” definition.

Despite the soiled roots of the Four Seasons story, the evening soars on the exuberance of the songs. This musical offers audience participation at its highest. How can one resist singing — or shrieking — along to “Sherry,” and what’s more poignant than seeing 20-somethings mouthing “it was late December 1963” as if they remembered it well.

Jersey Boys is that rare phenomenon that can cross radio airwaves, generations and the Hudson River with its joy, integrity and attitude intact.]]> 2006-03-09T17:00:01-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/533086 Gaudio, Bob, Jersey Boys, Townshend, Pete, Musical Theatre, Pop, Hitmaker They could have called it “Big Girls Don’t Cry” or “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” or “Oh What a Night.” But, instead, the new hit Broadway musical about the tortured rise of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons honors their roots, not their records. Why? Some would call it an attitude, that irrepressible Jersey something that has a lot to do with survival. Some would call it just plain stubbornness.
Whatever, it sure worked to the advantage of four teenagers from Newark who turned doo-wop on its ear and eventually achieved international fame.
Jersey Boys began its life with more than a few advantages. First, the original songwriters Bob Gaudio (a founder and full-time member of the Four Seasons who wrote the music) and Bob Crewe, who wrote the lyrics and produced many of the records, contributed their songs. Second, Des McAnuff, who turned Pete Townshend’s generational “rock opera” Tommy into a Tony Award-winning Broadway production for all ages, signed on as director, while fellow Newark native Joe Pesci served as a producer. Add four largely unknown actors with voices that eerily replicate the then-unique Seasons’ harmonies and you get a production that defies the simple “jukebox musical” definition.
Despite the soiled roots of the Four Seasons story, the evening soars on the exuberance of the songs. This musical offers audience participation at its highest. How can one resist singing — or shrieking — along to “Sherry,” and what’s more poignant than seeing 20-somethings mouthing “it was late December 1963” as if they remembered it well.
Jersey Boys is that rare phenomenon that can cross radio airwaves, generations and the Hudson River with its joy, integrity and attitude intact.

BMI's Joyce Rice presents songwriter/producer Bob Gaudio with three Million-Air certificates. Photo by Brian Tipton

Inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with the Four Seasons, Gaudio is currently preparing for the Broadway launch of "Jersey Boys," a musical based loosely on the history of the legendary chart-topping quartet. Already gaining rave reviews from its record run at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California, the show's Broadway debut is slated for November 6 at the Virginia Theatre.

BMI today announced the Top 100 Songs of the Century, listing the most played songs on American radio and television. Leading the list is the anthemic "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," written by Barry Mann, Phil Spector and Cynthia Weil, which recently passed the historic 8 million performance plateau. It was originally recorded by The Righteous Brothers and produced by Spector.

The second, third and fourth place songs have all attained more than 7 million airplays. They are: "Never My Love," written by Donald and Richard Addrisi; "Yesterday" by John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney; and "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Rounding out the Top 10 are the six-million-plateau performers: "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio; "Sitting On the Dock Of the Bay" by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper; Paul Simon's "Mrs. Robinson"; "Baby I Need Your Loving" by the legendary Motown writers Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland; John Gummoe's "Rhythm Of The Rain"; and the evergreen "Georgia On My Mind" written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell.

John Lennon and Paul Simon each have four songs in the Top 100. Lennon's contributions are his Beatles's classics "Yesterday," "Michelle" (#42), and "Let It Be" (#89), all co-written by McCartney, as well as his solo outing "Imagine" (#96). In addition to "Mrs. Robinson," Simon is represented on the list with "The Sound of Silence" (# 18), "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (#19), and "Scarborough Fair" (#31), co-written by his long-time partner Art Garfunkel. Other songwriters with multiple listings include, with three songs each, Norman Gimbel, Mark James, Barry Mann, McCartney and Roy Orbison, as well as the teams of Holland-Dozier-Holland and Sir Elton John-Bernie Taupin (PRS). Mann, co-writer of the #1 song, is also co-writer (with Dan Hill-SOCAN) of the #100 song, "Sometimes When We Touch." With two songs each, Sam Cooke, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Kris Kristofferson, Joe Melson, J.D. Souther, Jimmy Webb and Cynthia Weil made the list, along with the teams of Leiber-Stoller and Bert Kaempfert (GEMA)-Eddie Snyder-Charles Singleton.

Most of the songs became hits several times over when they were "covered" by various artists. However, as performers of the Top 100, The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel scored the most spots with four original versions of the songs. The Association was responsible for three ("Never My Love," "Cherish" #22 and "Windy" #61), as were The Drifters ("On Broadway" #45, "Save the Last Dance for Me" #49 and "Up On the Roof" #92), Elton John ("Your Song" #37, "Daniel" #66 and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" #76), and Roy Orbison ("Oh Pretty Woman" #26, "Crying" #74 and "Blue Bayou" #85).

BMI is a performing rights organization that represents more than 250,000 songwriters, composers and publishers with a repertoire of more than 3 million songs and compositions from around the world and in all genres of music. The company annually monitors approximately 450,000 hours of commercial and non-commercial radio airplay and more than 6,000,000 hours of television programming. BMI collects license fees from the commercial users of music and, after deducting operating costs, distributes those fees to its affiliates as royalties.

One million continuous performances of a song of the average length of 3 minutes represents 5.7 years of continuos airplay. The 8 million performances of "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling' " equals more than 45 years of back-to-back play.

Letters appearing in parentheses connote original membership in a foreign performing rights organization.