As guests filed into Sunday’s (June 11) music-filled memorial for Cynthia Weil, they smiled in recognition and sang along to a string of hit songs she co-wrote that were played on speakers in a lush courtyard of the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Weil, the Grammy-winning lyricist who enjoyed a decades-long partnership with husband Barry Mann and helped compose “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “On Broadway,” “Walking in the Rain” and dozens of other timeless tunes, died last week at age 82.
Singer Tony Orlando, who hosted the private event from a small stage with a grand piano, admonished attendees that despite the cloudy skies the day was not to be mournful, but a sunny celebration.
“I want the applause to be loud!” he said. Orlando performed “Bless You,” the 1961 ballad that gave Weil and Mann their first top 20 hit. They were married within months of the song’s release.
White-coated waiters distributed trays of bright green apple martinis, Weil’s favorite cocktail, to her friends, family members and show business contemporaries. Among those raising their glasses were Mann, record producer Lou Adler, singer Carol Bayer Sager and songwriters Carole King, Jeff Barry, Mike Stoller and Diane Warren.
Weil and Mann were one of popular music’s most successful teams, part of a crew of young songwriters based in Manhattan’s Brill Building neighborhood, near Times Square. With such hit-making duos as King and Gerry Goffin and Barry and Ellie Greenwich, the Brill Building hit factory turned out many of the biggest singles of the ’60s and beyond.
The couple was collaborators with producer Phil Spector on songs for the Ronettes (“Walking in the Rain”), the Crystals (“He’s Sure the Boy I Love”) and other singers, and also provided hits for everyone from Lionel Richie to Leo Sayer.
Their most famous collaboration, a song that would become historic, was “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,”…
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