NEW YORK — Grammy-winning songwriter Cynthia Weil, who co-wrote dozens of popular songs with her husband, Barry Mann, including “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “On Broadway,” “Walking in the Rain,” and many others, has passed away at age 82.

Weil passed away on Thursday at her home in Beverly Hills, California, “surrounded by her family,” according to Weil’s daughter Dr. Jenn Mann. The couple’s sole child, Mann, chose not to give a cause of death.

Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil married in 1961 and were among the most popular music-successful duos. They were part of a unique group assembled by music moguls Don Kirshner and Al Nevins and based in Manhattan’s Brill Building district, close to Times Square. The Brill Building song factory produced many of the biggest singles of the 1960s and beyond with hit-making pairings like Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich.

Jenn Mann remarked, “I grew up around a lot of music and two wonderful, smart, creative geniuses. “My parents were each other’s greatest musical influences. When things were wonderful, people had each other, and when things weren’t so good, people had their music, according to my mother.

On songs for the Ronettes (“Walking in the Rain”), the Crystals (“He’s Sure the Boy I Love”), and other acts, Weil and Mann worked closely with producer Phil Spector. They also wrote hits for everyone from Dolly Parton to Hanson. James Horner and his team’s song “Somewhere Out There,” created for the “An American Tail” soundtrack, won Grammy Awards in 1987 for best song and best song for a Movie or Television and received nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. They collaborated on writing the Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville duet “Don’t Know Much,” which peaked at number five and won the Grammy for best pop performance in 1990.

“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” an anthem of “blue-eyed soul” composed by Spector as if scoring a tragedy and performed by the Righteous Brothers with frantic passion, is their most well-known song and a piece of history in general. In 1965, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” was the number-one song on the charts and was covered by several other musicians. No other song was played more frequently on radio and Television in the 20th century, according to Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI).

Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield’s reactions to Weil and Mann’s debut performance of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” for the Righteous Brothers were “dead silence.”

She said to Parade Magazine 2015 that Bill had responded, “Sounds good for The Everly Brothers, not the Righteous Brothers.” “We said, ‘Oh, God.’ What should I do while the large guy is singing? Bobby then asked. Spector’s Phil said, “You can go to the bank.”

When the Beatles became popular in the middle of the 1960s, many of Weil’s contemporaries struggled, but she persisted in scoring hits, occasionally with Mann or with collaborators like Michael Masser, David Foster, and John Williams, with whom she co-wrote “For Always” for the soundtrack to Steven Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.” Weil contributed to the songs “Here You Come Again,” Parton’s pop breakthrough, “If Ever You’re In My Arms Again” by Peabo Bryson, “Just Once” by James Ingram, “He’s So Shy” by the Pointer Sisters, and “Running With the Night” by Lionel Richie. She again made the top 10 in 1997 with Hanson’s “I Will Come to You.”

“When songs are successful, they’re like little stories. They have an introduction, a middle, and a conclusion. Weil, who eventually published the novel “I’m Glad I Did,” told Parade that the song “paints a picture of the human condition” and makes you feel how the person singing it is feeling.

Her abilities extended far beyond love songs. She and Mann co-wrote “Kicks,” a success for Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1966, one of rock’s earliest anti-drug songs. She also had a talent for writing lyrics full of desire and aspiration, as evidenced by the song “On Broadway” and its iconic opening line, “They say the neon lights are bright/on Broadway.” With their account of working-class angst, “We’ve Got to Get Out of This Place,” The Animals enjoyed success. The 1961 hit song “Uptown” by The Crystals dealt with race and class in a way that wasn’t frequently heard in the early days of rock.

____

He is simply one of a million males downtown.

He receives no breaks.

And he takes everything they have to offer.

Because he needs to live.

He then moves uptown, nevertheless.

Where he can proudly raise his head

He is aware that I am nearby in Uptown.

_____

Weil and Mann were introduced by King at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 2010.

Weil and Mann were introduced by King at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 2010, and they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987. Mann and Weil played minor roles in the popular King musical “Beautiful,” which debuted on Broadway in 2013 and chronicled the passionate camaraderie and competition between the two married couples. “They Wrote That?” by Mann and Weil was performed for a limited time in 2004.

“Cynthia’s high level of professionalism improved all of us as songwriters. The line “Just a little lovin’ early in the mornin’ beats a cup of coffee for startin’ out the day” is one of my favorite Cynthia lyrics; King posted on her social media pages on Friday, quoting the Mann-Weil song “Just a Little Lovin’,” which has been performed by Dusty Springfield and others.

If we’re lucky, we’ll know this to be true, but she composed it — and in the following line, she made the words “morning” and “yawning” rhyme. I hope Cynthia Weil’s lyrics will live on and communicate to future generations.

Weil, a native of New York City and the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe was trained in dance and piano as a young girl. At Sarah Lawrence College, she concentrated on theatre, but an agent persuaded her to attempt music. At age 20, she began working for the publishing house of “Guys and Dolls” composer Frank Loesser, where she met the man who would become her husband.

Barry walked in to play Teddy Randazzo a song as she was writing it, she said to the Los Angeles Times in 2016. Teddy Randazzo was a young Italian boy singer who was the Frankie Avalon of his time. “I questioned the front desk clerk, ‘Who is this guy? Has he ever been with a girl? ‘He’s signed to a friend of mine, Don Kirshner, and if I call Donny, maybe you can go up there to show him your songs and meet Barry again,’ she suggested. So she took that action. That’s what I did as well. He had no chance at all.

SOURCE – (AP)

Brad Pitt and ex-Angelina Jolie are still embroiled in a contentious argument over a winery amid their custody case.

The Maleficent actress allegedly carried out a “vindictive and unlawful sale” of her part of their French estate and vineyard, Château Miraval, according to fresh records filed in Los Angeles on June 1 and obtained by E! News. The actor from Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood makes this claim.

Pitt, referring to his ex’s company, said in his amended complaint that “Jolie went forward with the vindictive putative sale in breach of her and Nouvel’s contractual obligations,” preferring to sell her stake in Miraval to a designated Russian oligarch and prevent Pitt from continuing to pursue his successful vision and strategy in developing the property and business that was intended to be their children’s legacy.

The purchase of 50% of Chateau Miraval and the Miraval trademark from Angelina Jolie was revealed in a press release by Tenute del Mondo, a division of the alcohol manufacturer Stoli Group, in October 2021. The statement continued, “We are thrilled to have a position alongside Brad Pitt as curators of their extraordinary vintages.”

Brad Pitt and ex-Angelina Jolie are still embroiled in a contentious argument over a winery amid their custody case.

And in his most recent filing, the actor claims that he learned about “Jolie’s putative sale” to Stoli from the press release and that she “collaborated in secret” with the company’s founder, Russian-born billionaire Yuri Shefler, and his associates to “pursue and then consummate the purported sale, ensuring that Pitt would be kept in the dark.” Pitt also mentioned that he rejected Shefler’s offer to purchase Miraval.

According to CNN, the billionaire was exiled from Russia in 2000 due to his opposition to President Vladimir Putin. The Oscar winner also claimed in his paperwork that the U.S. Treasury Department had branded Shefler as an “oligarch in the Russian Federation.”

In addition, the actor claims that Jolie changed her mind about giving him her interest after a temporary custody decision went in his favor. About four months before the announcement, in late May 2021, Pitt was given joint custody of the former couple’s children by a retired judge who had been retained to resolve the dispute.

The actress for Eternals, who has seven children with her ex—Maddox, now 21; Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 14—later filed a lawsuit, and a California appeals court agreed with her that the judge who issued the decision should be removed from the case because he failed to adequately disclose his professional relationships with Pitt’s attorneys. The custody dispute is still pending.

Despite her contractual duties and years of pledges to Pitt, the actor claims in his amended complaint that “in the wake of the adverse custody ruling, she no longer wanted to sell to Pitt.”

Jolie had stated in court records from 2022 that she was not required to sell her stake to her ex, but she has yet to react to Pitt’s most recent filing. Her lawyer was contacted by E! News for comment, but no response was received.

The conflict between the ex-couple and the winery began in 2022. Pitt filed a lawsuit against Jolie in February of that year for allegedly selling her shares in Chateau Miraval without his permission. In 2008, the two invested together to purchase the winery. In front of their six children, they married in 2014 on the vineyard’s property.

Brad Pitt and ex-Angelina Jolie are still embroiled in a contentious argument over a winery amid their custody case.

After that, in September 2022, Jolie’s business filed a $250 million countersuit against Pitt, claiming that he had organized an effort to “seize control” of Chateau Miraval “in retaliation for the divorce and custody proceedings.” Although a judge pronounced the couple legally separated in 2019, the divorce between the Girl, Interrupted actress and the actor has not yet been finalized. The actress filed paperwork to break her marriage to the actor in 2016.

According to Jolie’s petition, the Babylon star allegedly “ignored” a “final offer to sell her interest in the winery,” thus, Jolie sold Nouvel to a global beverage corporation in 2021.

Jolie offered to sell Pitt her investment despite not being required to do so and engaged in months-long negotiations with him, according to her declaration. “Pitt’s hubris got the better of him, and as a deal was about to be struck, he made an eleventh-hour demand for onerous and irrelevant conditions, including a clause designed to prevent Jolie from publicly speaking about the circumstances that had caused their marriage to end.”

Pitt responded to Jolie’s countersuit on June 1 by stating that he vigorously refutes all of the charges and requests that the court dismiss Jolie’s cross-complaint with prejudice.

Pitt is suing Jolie for punitive and exemplary damages and a statement that her alleged sale of Nouvel was invalid. Pitt is also demanding a jury trial.

SOURCE – (AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Tommy Prine spoke about his father’s passing in front of a crowded audience in The Basement, one of Nashville’s most intimate music venues.

During a recent sold-out performance, he observed, “It stinks to lose a parent at any age — in my case, when he was the world’s greatest songwriter.”

Singer-songwriter John Prine, Prine’s father, passed away in April 2020 at 73 due to coronavirus complications. Even for a period when grieving had grown commonplace, his death sparked a flood of global mourning.

In the music industry, the heartbreak was especially severe. The bonds John Prine formed with his music were only strengthened by his generosity to budding musicians. Many others tried to digest the unthinkable by expressing their sadness through memorial songs.

It turns out that Prine’s own family was experiencing a similar situation.

Last year, Tommy Prine published “Ships in the Harbour,” a song about his father that is as heartfelt and open-hearted as ever. It resists the urge to curl up in the fetal position rather than flee from what he lost. It gets the closest of any song to properly expressing the immense weight of grief brought on by the pandemic.

Tommy Prine, now 27 years old, is set to release a whole album of songs that deal with growing up, love, and grief. The film “This Far South,” which will be released on June 23, is daring in how it faces his father’s passing head-on and how the son of a legend handles the inevitable concerns that arise from working in the same field.

Tommy Prine keeps going and works hard on a risky project. He created a unique album, and it is captivating.

According to Prine, “honestly, even if my Dad wasn’t who he was, I feel like I would’ve made the same record,” he stated in an interview with The Associated Press. Because of who he is, “I didn’t include these songs, but I also didn’t shy away from them.”

Writing songs enabled Prine to process everything he had lost. His father’s legendary position feels almost incidental to the intimacy of that journey.

“I’m Tommy Prine, and I lost my Dad in the pandemic, and that’s going to be the focal point of what I’m trying to get across,” he said. And while I am aware that it was a fairly public event and that most people will be aware of the background, I believe that they are optional.

I believe people may just listen to it from the viewpoint of a young man who lost his father unexpectedly.

The few allusions, such as the card games and talks they avoid, are vivid without ever becoming cloying. In a lovely song called “By the Way,” he discusses the singular sensation of occasionally hearing his father’s voice.

Prine sings, “I don’t want to talk about the day you slipped away.” The tunes we used to sing still make it difficult to hear your voice.

But Tommy also has other weaknesses and is more or less influenced by those who aren’t his biological father. For instance, the anthemic flourishes and introspective lyrics on the album show co-producer Ruston Kelly’s influence. The song “Reach the Sun” begins with a manic episode in the middle of the night but eventually soars to resemble Kelly’s best work, including the excellent album he recently published.

In an interview conducted after Kelly’s performance with Prine at The Basement, Sufjan Stevens was named another artist who influenced both. Prine heard a sound that matched the wistful desperation he wanted to express while listening to Stevens’ “Carrie & Lowell” album, which Kelly had directed him towards.

Tommy spoke about his father’s passing in front of a crowded audience in The Basement, one of Nashville’s most intimate music venues.

It was “probably the last thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” according to Prine, but it ended up being a “saving grace” for him as he dealt with the hardship of losing his father.

Listeners would do well to consider how they would react if they weren’t aware that this album was produced by the legendary John Prine’s son, given the darkness that hangs over anyone named Prine who dares to try his hand at making original music. Social media and other modern methods of music distribution make it plausible, if not probable, that Prine’s music will reach a brand-new audience. His father may not be well-known to some listeners his age or younger, but these songs will draw comparisons on their own.

But everyone who pays attention will hear the promise of a creative person who bravely followed his heart. Fans of John Prine may recognize elements of the album’s disarming honesty, but they will also hear a new voice presenting intense music that crackles.

Tommy claims that although having considered it, he rarely worries about the legacy issue. But that’s simply another thing he has arranged in its appropriate position.

“I’m just making the music I want to make, and music that is a representation of who I am as a person,” he stated. I have my tale to share because I had quite different childhood experiences than my father.

SOURCE – (AP)