Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil

One of the most successful songwriting teams in history, Mann and Weil created a body of work so significant it has often been described as “a soundtrack to our lives.”

Together, this husband and wife team wrote songs like You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling (with Phil Spector), On Broadway (with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller), Saturday Night At The Movies (a hit for The Drifters), Walking In The Rain, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, I Just Can’t Help Believing, and Here You Come Again (the first crossover hit for Dolly Parton) to name just a few.

The list of their chart hits spans the decades from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman) and Cynthia Weil began their careers in the ’60s at Aldon Music, the legendary music publishing company founded by Don Kirshner and Al Nevins.

They were members of a teen writing staff which included Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield and Carole Bayer Sager. Among their other Brill Building colleagues were Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich.

Early Mann/Weil successes like He’s Sure The Boy I Love, Blame It On The Bossa Nova and Walking In The Rain established them as writers with the ability to create catchy songs. But soon, they were producing words and music that had an impact far beyond that of the average hit.

You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling launched The Righteous Brothers and defined the genre we call “blue-eyed soul”. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place – a hit for The Animals – is considered not only one of the classic rock songs of all time, but became an anthem for soldiers and protesters alike during the Vietnam War.

Mann and Weil were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2011, they received the Johnny Mercer Award, the highest honour from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Cynthia Weil died at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on 1 June 2023, aged 82.