Brill Building - Definition and Overview

The Brill Building, located at 1619 Broadway, New York, created and defined the influential "Brill Building Sound" and style of popular music songwriting and recording. By 1962 it contained 165 music businesses. A musician could find a publisher and printer, cut a demo, promote the record, and cut a deal with radio promoters.

Famous Brill Building partners include:

• Carole King and Gerry Goffin
• Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
• Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich

Carole King described the atmosphere at the Brill Building: "Every day we squeezed into our respective cubby holes with just enough room for a piano, a bench, and maybe a chair for the lyricist if you were lucky. You'd sit there and write and you could hear someone in the next cubby hole composing a song exactly like yours. The pressure in the Brill Building was really terrific - because Donny would play one song-writer against another. He'd say: 'We need a new smash hit' - and we'd all go back and write a song and the next day we'd each audition for Bobby Vee's producer." quoted in The Sociology of Rock by Simon Frith (1978, ISBN 0094602204).