Howard Greenfield (March 15, 1936 – March 4, 1986) was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building. He is best known for his successful songwriting collaborations, including one with Neil Sedaka from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, and near-simultaneous (and equally successful) songwriting partnerships with Jack Keller and Helen Miller throughout most of the 1960s.
In 2005, "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo", a song Greenfield had written with Sedaka in the early 1970s, reached #1 on the UK charts in the original 1971 version by Tony Christie. The video featured an all-star celebrity line-up lip-synching the track, and the proceeds went to charity. The record stayed at #1 for 7 weeks, and became the UK's best-selling record of the millennium to that time.
Born in Brooklyn, New York City, by his late teens Greenfield formed a songwriting partnership with Neil Sedaka, a friend whom he had first met as a teenager when they both lived in the same apartment building, in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn.[1] Greenfield was educated at Abraham Lincoln High School.[2]
Their first recorded compositions took up both sides of the 1956 non-charting debut single by the Tokens, of which Sedaka (but not Greenfield) was briefly a member.[3] They then went on to supply the song "Passing Time" to the Cookies,[4] as well as other non-hit singles to vocal groups the Clovers and the Cardinals.[5] At this point, though their songs were being recorded, the income derived from these songs was minimal, and Greenfield worked as a messenger for National Cash Register.[6]
In 1958, Greenfield and Sedaka signed to Al Nevins and Don Kirshner's Aldon Music as songwriters, which had offices at 1650 Broadway in New York. (The company later moved to the Brill Building.) In their first year there, Greenfield and Sedaka wrote material for Jimmy Clanton and Bobby Darin,[7] and scored their first major pop hit single with Connie Francis' "Stupid Cupid", which hit #14 on the US pop charts in September 1958. They also wrote Francis' later hits, "Fallin'", "Frankie", and the "Theme to Where the Boys Are," the film in which she starred.[8]
As Sedaka's promotional and touring commitments began taking up more and more of his time, Kirshner encouraged Greenfield to collaborate with other Aldon writers. Beginning in 1960, Greenfield began a regular collaboration with Jack Keller; they would write songs together every Monday and Wednesday for six straight years.[10]
Greenfield also collaborated with other Aldon songwriters, including Helen Miller, with whom he co-wrote "Foolish Little Girl" (the Shirelles' final Top Ten hit), "It Hurts to Be in Love", originally intended for Neil Sedaka but ultimately recorded by Gene Pitney, as well as a new theme for the TV series Hazel for its fourth season.[13] He also collaborated with Bill Buchanan recording a novelty record called "The Invasion" as Buchanan and Greenfield in 1964.
As well, Greenfield's one and only collaboration with Aldon songwriter Carole King resulted in "Crying in the Rain", a top ten hit for the Everly Brothers in 1962. The collaboration came about when, on a whim, two Aldon songwriting partnerships decided to switch partners for a day—Gerry Goffin (who normally worked with King) partnered with Jack Keller, leaving King and Greenfield to work as a pair for the day. Despite the commercial success of their collaboration, King and Greenfield never wrote another song together.[14]
Sedaka and Greenfield also continued to work together as Sedaka's schedule allowed. After Sedaka's singing career cooled in 1963, they kept writing hits for other artists, including the 5th Dimension's and Tom Jones' "Puppet Man".
Greenfield moved to Los Angeles in 1966,[15] but still continued to collaborate with Sedaka and Keller, both of whom moved to California within a year or two of Greenfield.
Sedaka began working with other lyricists in 1970 (most prominently Phil Cody, who wrote most of the songs for Sedaka's 1970s comeback), though he and Greenfield still occasionally worked together after this time. Sedaka and Greenfield were increasingly argumentative near the end of their collaboration[16] and ended their songwriting partnership in 1973. Their last collaboration, appropriately named "Our Last Song Together", would be a minor hit for Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods. In 1975, their song "Love Will Keep Us Together" (originally recorded by Sedaka in 1973) topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in a cover version by Captain & Tennille, as well as earning a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. This version of "Love..." was the best-selling single of the year.
Sedaka had a substantial hit in 1975 with a drastically re-arranged version of the Greenfield/Sedaka composition "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". As well, a re-release of the Greenfield/Sedaka song "Is This The Way To Amarillo" (originally a UK hit for Tony Christie in 1971) became the UK's best-selling record of 2005.
Sedaka and Greenfield would reunite in the late 1970s for Sedaka's Elektra Records albums; only one of these collaborations, "Should've Never Let You Go," was a hit, reaching the top 40 as a duet between Sedaka and his daughter Dara.
Personal life
Greenfield was openly gay[17] and was in a domestic partnership with cabaret singer Tory Damon (September 29, 1939 – March 30, 1986) from the early 1960s until his death; the two lived together in an apartment on East 63rd Street in Manhattan before moving to California in 1966.[18]
Death and legacy
Greenfield died in Los Angeles in 1986 from complications from AIDS, eleven days before his 50th birthday. He was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills). Damon died from AIDS complications a few weeks later and is buried next to Greenfield.[19]
"After Howie's mother Ella had seen me, he came ringing my doorbell. I was playing Chopin, and he said, My mother heard you play and thought we could write a song together". – Neil Sedaka, in Goldmine magazine, recalling this event.[4]
References
^Berger, Joseph. "Vintage Pop Star With the Soul of a Bar Mitzvah Boy", The New York Times, May 24, 2004; accessed September 23, 2009. "Several years before enrolling in Juilliard, he had been introduced to a neighbor with a touch of the poet, Howard Greenfield, and they became a songwriting team for the next 20 years."
^Staff. "HOWARD GREENFIELD", The New York Times, March 14, 1986; accessed September 23, 2009. "Mr. Greenfield was born in New York City on March 15, 1936, and began his songwriting career with Neil Sedaka, a classmate at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn."
^Emerson, Ken (2005) Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era, Viking, New York, ISBN0-670-03456-8, p. 70.
