Jeff Barry - Early Career

Early Career

His parents divorced when he was seven, and his mother moved him and his sister to Plainfield, New Jersey, where they resided for several years before returning to New York.

After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School, Barry served in the Army, then returned to New York where he attended City College. Although he leaned toward a degree in engineering, his main aspiration was to become a singer. He left college in the late '50s to sign with RCA Records, courtesy of music publisher Arnold Shaw. Around this time, he adopted a new name more in tune with show business, borrowing "Jeff" from actor Jeff Chandler and "Barry" from family friends.

Barry recorded several singles for RCA label, including the self-penned "It's Called Rock and Roll", backed with "Hip Couple", released in 1959. The following year, Barry garnered his first significant success as a songwriter with two songs targeting the burgeoning teen market. First, Sam Cooke took Barry's "Teenage Sonata" to No. 22 on the Billboard R&B charts. Later that year, the teen-tragedy ballad "Tell Laura I Love Her", written with lyricist Ben Raleigh, went to No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts for Ray Peterson and to No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for British singer Ricky Valance.

In the '60s, Barry would partner, both professionally and personally, with Ellie Greenwich to form one of the decade's most prolific songwriting and producing teams. The two met in late 1959, although it might not have been for the first time - her maternal uncle was married to his cousin, so they may actually have known each other since childhood. However, their first formal meeting as adults was at a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of mutual relatives. (A few sources erroneously cite the year as 1960.) Fueled by a shared interest in music, a friendship developed that led to romantic involvement some months later, after Barry's first marriage was annulled.

In the summer of 1960, Barry and Greenwich recorded Barry's "Red Corvette", which was released as a single under the name Ellie Gee and The Jets. Greenwich stayed in college at Hofstra (she would graduate in 1962) and commuted to the Brill Building whenever time permitted. Songwriter-producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had offered her a job as a staff writer for Trio Music, their publishing company, after Leiber overheard her singing in an office at the Brill Building. Barry was subsequently signed to Trio as well. At first, Barry and Greenwich continued to write songs with other partners. In addition, both became in-demand demo singers. Some of Barry's demos ended up in the hands of Elvis Presley and other major artists of the day.