April 3: Jeff Barry (and Ellie Greenwich)

Jeff Barry (Joel Adelberg), who teamed with Ellie Greenwich to write dozens of rock and roll hits, was born in Brooklyn on this day in 1938. Their songs included (with Phil Spector) “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Then He Kissed Me,” and “Be My Baby,” as well as “Hanky Panky,” “Doo Wah Diddy,” “Remember (Walking in the Sand),” “Leader of the Pack,” and “Chapel of Love” (sung by the Dixie Cups, pictured here with Barry and Greenwich). In 1964 alone, Barry and Greenwich wrote seventeen songs that reached Billboard’s top 100 chart. The couple divorced the following year, however, and Barry went on to collaborate with Spector, Don Kirshner, and several other hitmakers. In 1991, Barry and Greenwich were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Among the performers who recorded hits by Jeff Barry were Ike and TIna Turner, Manfred Mann, the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes, the Chiffons, Tommy James and the Shondells, the Beach Boys, and, God help us, the Monkees. “Before I knew it, she was walking next to me/ singing Doo-Wah-Diddy-Diddy-Dum-Diddy-Doo/ Holding my hand just as natural as can be.” -Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich