Brill Building

Brill Building refers to a type of composition and arrangement style within Pop music, associated with the songwriting teams at the eponymous estate in New York City during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Brill Building itself was a block of music publishing houses where teams of professional writers worked to create the music, including Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka and Gerry Goffin + Carole King, usually for teen idols or Girl Groups. However, the label has been used for music originating from other places, referring to the general template rather than solely being produced in the Brill Building itself. The subsequent sound associated with the building displayed a variety of influences including Rock & Roll, Doo-Wop, Rhythm & Blues and Tin Pan Alley, though its arrangements were more elaborate and polished with a typically melodramatic flair, often featuring orchestras, piano/keyboard hooks and large accompanying bands. Popular hits of the period include Sedaka's "Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen", Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion", Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover", Curtis Lee's "Pretty Little Angel Eyes", Paul Anka's "Diana" and Gene Pitney's "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa", several of which go to show that a separate songwriter is not necessarily required. The traditional Brill Building song template fell out of favour when the first British Invasion began in the mid-1960s, but it continues to influence popular music to this day, including the inception of Pop Rock.