Ellie Greenwich biography

Greenwich also discovered Neil Diamond during these sessions and produced his early hits like "Cherry Cherry" and "Kentucky Woman." As Greenwich later recalled, "I opened up a jingle production company, and was doing fairly well with jingles. That can be healthy money, when you are writing jingles and singing on them. The residuals can be kinda nice. I thought, 'Let me get away from records, and start a whole new thing.'" For a while,

this new thing was a refreshing break for her, but the respite did not last forever.

In 1971, following the enormous success of fellow Brill Building alumna Carole King's Tapestry, which went on to become one of the highest-selling albums of all time, Ellie Greenwich began feeling pressure to follow with her own record. In 1973, Greenwich released Let It Be Written, Let It Be Sung, but her heart wasn't really in it. The album performed reasonably well in Europe but not as well in the United States. Greenwich was so scared to sing live on stage, in fact, that she lip-synched during the tour. "Towards the end of '72, into '73, I fell apart," she said. "I guess you could say I had a nervous breakdown. I left the business for a little over two years. When I came back into the industry, I thought, 'Let me get back into background singing; I'm so happy on microphone.' I could pretend I was in a girl group, get a couple of other girls, have a good time. I inched my way back into the things I wanted to do. Then I started writing again. I had some records with Ellen Foley, then got involved with Cyndi Lauper. Slowly, I found my way in."

Broadway in the '80s

In the early 1980s, Greenwich happened to stop by a New York club called the Bottom Line one night to see her friends, songwriter Ellen Foley and R&B singer Nona Hendryx, perform. This led to an auspicious meeting with the club's owner, leading to plans for an off-Broadway show, "Leader of the Pack," based on her life and music. The production opened at The Bottom Line in 1984. "We had two shows a night. The response was phenomenal. Some people from Broadway came down and thought it might be a great idea to take to Broadway," Greenwich recalls. "We re-ran the show for a month… to wonderful reviews. We were sold out all the time. It was terrific." After moving to Broadway in 1985, the show enjoyed an impressive run, garnering a Grammy nomination for Best Cast Album, a Tony nomination for Best Musical, and a New York Music Award for Best Broadway Musical.

Six years later, in 1991, Greenwich and Barry were jointly inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.

Through the 1990s and into the 21st century, Ellie Greenwich continued to explore new creative avenues: writing a sitcom, drafting an original Broadway musical, writing the song "Christmas, Baby Please Come Home," which became a holiday fixture on Late Night With David Letterman. In 2004, Greenwich and Barry learned that six of their songs made the list of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Best Songs. Her songs have been covered by myriad artists, including Mariah Carey, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Elton John, Death Cab for Cutie, Melissa Etheridge, and Meatloaf.