I can remember Stipe, in an interview with either CREEM or Rolling Stone, at the time, saying that he remembered an old TV Public Service Announcement on which a radio announcer is introducing a song "on Broadway" in an eastern European tongue, and he wondered why anyone in that part of the world would care about anything on Broadway.
Since i, too, remembered that TV spot, plugging Radio Free Europe, i remember that. He also commented something like it being a "friendly" way to spread Imperialism.
i had a completely different take on the lyrics at the time. One person told me that he had heard the song was about getting nukes ("radio_-activity) out of Europe. Since the lyrics were as murky as they were, i guessed this was possible.
Actually, that 1971 Radio Free Europe Public Service Announcement (PSA) to which you refer incorporated The Drifters' recording of "On Broadway," as being played by a youngish Hungarian disc jockey on RFE to appeal to younger listeners behind "The Iron Curtain."
Actually, that 1971 Radio Free Europe Public Service Announcement (PSA) to which you refer incorporated The Drifters' recording of "On Broadway," as being played by a youngish Hungarian disc jockey on RFE to appeal to younger listeners behind "The Iron Curtain."
That song, which featured legendary producer Phil Spector on the lead guitar solo, was co-written by the husband & wife songwriting team of Barry Marry Mann & Cynthia Weil (whose most famous composition is undoubtedly The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," as produced by Spector), with rewriting assistance from Atlantic rhythm & blues songwriters...
That song, which featured legendary producer Phil Spector on the lead guitar solo, was co-written by the husband & wife songwriting team of Barry Marry Mann & Cynthia Weil (whose most famous composition is undoubtedly The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," as produced by Spector), with rewriting assistance from Atlantic rhythm & blues songwriters Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller (writers of Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" and Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," among many others), the latter two who also produced the record, which was a #9 hit on the Billboard charts in 1963.
Leiber & Stoller guided The Drifters through its most commercially successful incarnation on Atlantic, which featured, variously, Ben E. King, Rudy Lewis, and Johnny Moore on lead vocals, although the group's original line-up was headed by Clyde McPhatter, who sang in Billy Ward & The Dominoes. The original Drifters' best known record was "Money Honey." It is Lewis who sang the lead vocals on "On Broadway."
"On Broadway," with its urban soul styling and conflictive lyrics about troubles surviving on the streets but ultimately "making it" from the ability to play music (with "this here guitar"), was certainly aimed at a younger, rock & roll demographic, and thus was perfect for idealistic Eastern European satellite denizens dreaming of life in front of "The Iron Curtain," of which New York's legendary "Great White Way" was a symbolic part.
But the song's composers were not writing so much about the theater world of that internationally-renowned by-way as about their own experiences as song hucksters in rock & roll's Tin Pan Alley known as "Brill Building Pop," the actual home of which was Aldon Music, which was located at 1650 Broadway in New York City.
The original recording of "On Broadway" was by The Cookies, the original line-up of which evolved into Ray Charles' back-up group The Raelettes, and whose later incarnation inspired cover hits by British beat groups The Beatles ("Chains") and Herman's Hermits ("I'm Into Something Good"). But Spector's girl group, The Crystals, beat The Cookies version of "On Broadway" to release. The Crystals (on their early records, and not the hits recorded by Darlene Love using only The Crystals' name) were, in a way, Spector's distaff response to The Drifters, as both groups shared heavily Latin-influenced production stylings, on such tunes as "Up On The Roof" and "Uptown." Indeed, The Crystals' "Uptown" may be viewed as a complement to The Drifters' version of "On Broadway," both songs about dreams in a better part of town. But Leiber & Stoller, along with arranger Garry Sherman, produced a more bluesy, modulated version of the tune for The Drifters than the more urgent styling of The Crystals' recording of the song.
The most well-known cover of "On Broadway" was George Benson's 1978 smooth jazz version, which actually charted higher than The Drifters' cover, reaching #7 on Billboard.
I can remember Stipe, in an interview with either CREEM or Rolling Stone, at the time, saying that he remembered an old TV Public Service Announcement on which a radio announcer is introducing a song "on Broadway" in an eastern European tongue, and he wondered why anyone in that part of the world would care about anything on Broadway. Since i, too, remembered that TV spot, plugging Radio Free Europe, i remember that. He also commented something like it being a "friendly" way to spread Imperialism. i had a completely different take on the lyrics at the time. One person told me that he had heard the song was about getting nukes ("radio_-activity) out of Europe. Since the lyrics were as murky as they were, i guessed this was possible.
Actually, that 1971 Radio Free Europe Public Service Announcement (PSA) to which you refer incorporated The Drifters' recording of "On Broadway," as being played by a youngish Hungarian disc jockey on RFE to appeal to younger listeners behind "The Iron Curtain."
Actually, that 1971 Radio Free Europe Public Service Announcement (PSA) to which you refer incorporated The Drifters' recording of "On Broadway," as being played by a youngish Hungarian disc jockey on RFE to appeal to younger listeners behind "The Iron Curtain."
That song, which featured legendary producer Phil Spector on the lead guitar solo, was co-written by the husband & wife songwriting team of Barry Marry Mann & Cynthia Weil (whose most famous composition is undoubtedly The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," as produced by Spector), with rewriting assistance from Atlantic rhythm & blues songwriters...
That song, which featured legendary producer Phil Spector on the lead guitar solo, was co-written by the husband & wife songwriting team of Barry Marry Mann & Cynthia Weil (whose most famous composition is undoubtedly The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," as produced by Spector), with rewriting assistance from Atlantic rhythm & blues songwriters Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller (writers of Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" and Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," among many others), the latter two who also produced the record, which was a #9 hit on the Billboard charts in 1963.
Leiber & Stoller guided The Drifters through its most commercially successful incarnation on Atlantic, which featured, variously, Ben E. King, Rudy Lewis, and Johnny Moore on lead vocals, although the group's original line-up was headed by Clyde McPhatter, who sang in Billy Ward & The Dominoes. The original Drifters' best known record was "Money Honey." It is Lewis who sang the lead vocals on "On Broadway."
"On Broadway," with its urban soul styling and conflictive lyrics about troubles surviving on the streets but ultimately "making it" from the ability to play music (with "this here guitar"), was certainly aimed at a younger, rock & roll demographic, and thus was perfect for idealistic Eastern European satellite denizens dreaming of life in front of "The Iron Curtain," of which New York's legendary "Great White Way" was a symbolic part.
But the song's composers were not writing so much about the theater world of that internationally-renowned by-way as about their own experiences as song hucksters in rock & roll's Tin Pan Alley known as "Brill Building Pop," the actual home of which was Aldon Music, which was located at 1650 Broadway in New York City.
The original recording of "On Broadway" was by The Cookies, the original line-up of which evolved into Ray Charles' back-up group The Raelettes, and whose later incarnation inspired cover hits by British beat groups The Beatles ("Chains") and Herman's Hermits ("I'm Into Something Good"). But Spector's girl group, The Crystals, beat The Cookies version of "On Broadway" to release. The Crystals (on their early records, and not the hits recorded by Darlene Love using only The Crystals' name) were, in a way, Spector's distaff response to The Drifters, as both groups shared heavily Latin-influenced production stylings, on such tunes as "Up On The Roof" and "Uptown." Indeed, The Crystals' "Uptown" may be viewed as a complement to The Drifters' version of "On Broadway," both songs about dreams in a better part of town. But Leiber & Stoller, along with arranger Garry Sherman, produced a more bluesy, modulated version of the tune for The Drifters than the more urgent styling of The Crystals' recording of the song.
The most well-known cover of "On Broadway" was George Benson's 1978 smooth jazz version, which actually charted higher than The Drifters' cover, reaching #7 on Billboard.