Remembering Gerry Goffin, the ’60s Poet of Teen Heartbreak

Such wonderful songs. How many great songs are we missing because of the current state of the music business. It surely helped Goffin to be married to Carole King, but at that time, it was more possible than today to be a successful non-performing songwriter. You could get a few songs recorded and send them to a bunch of music publishers. You might not need a great recording, the people in the music business were musically inclined and could hear the potential, not like today, where it's all about profits. Today, most music publishers no longer accept unsolicited work. For one thing, profits in the music business are so low, publishers and record companies can no longer risk a lot on undiscovered talent, the way they could when they made enough from their big stars to pay for taking a chance on new talent. Plus, they would be overwhelmed with submissions from songwriters who believe their songs are as good as what is on the radio. Which is true. Many people can write at the ok level of what is on the radio, which is uninteresting and not memorable.

http://time.com/2905068/remembering-gerry-goffin-the-60s-poet-of-teen-heartbreak/

Richard Corliss June 20, 2014

In the 1960s, before the Beatles made singer-songwriters fashionable, few people cared who wrote the songs they loved. The composers’ names were just part of the small print on a 45 r.p.m. disc. And if people know the writer behind such girl-group classics as “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “One Fine Day” and “I’m Into Something Good,” or The Drifters’ “Up on the Roof” or Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” it’s probably because their composer, Carole King, eventually became a pop star — permanent brand for her songs about love, longing and romantic renewal.

King wrote the music for all those perennials, but Gerry Goffin, her husband in the ’60s, wrote the words. Goffin, who died at his Los Angeles home June 19, at 75, never achieved his ex-wife’s renown. His triumph was almost private: the accomplishment of giving performers such as the Monkees (“Pleasant Valley Sunday”) and balladeer Steve Lawrence (“Go Away, Little Girl”) lyrics that expanded the pop lexicon and often reached a plainspoken profundity. After he and King parted professionally and maritally, Goffin teamed with Michael Masser to write poignant hits for Diana Ross (“Do You Know Where You’re Going To”) and Whitney Houston (“Saving All My Love for You”).

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