Ellie Greenwich: We All Wanted To Be Her Baby

A contemporary of Carole King, a Jewish Brooklynite, a Brill Building graduate and one of the single most gifted songwriters of the early 60s, Ellie Greenwich died of a heart attack last month, she was 68.


Among the many hit singles she wrote was Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” -the single greatest Christmas song of all time (Lennon’s “Merry Christmas (War Is Over If You Want It” is number two), she wrote “Be My Baby,” she wrote “Leader Of The Pack” all with Jeff Barry.



These are all tightly packed pop symphonys with a blues edge to the vocals. “River Deep, Mountain High” is one of hers. “Then He Kissed Me,” “Baby I Love You”… where would the Beatles have been without these songs? Where would you and I have been. Seductive, teen romances as timeless as possible, Greenwich wrote em all.