Howard Greenfield

Howard Greenfield (March 15, 1936 – March 4, 1986) was an American lyricist and songwriter.

Career

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Greenfield worked out of the famous Brill Building with Neil Sedaka, a friend he had met as a teenager when they both lived in the same apartment building, in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn.^[1] Greenfield was educated at Abraham Lincoln High School.^[2]

After first supplying "Passing Time" to The Cookies^[3], Sedaka and Greenfield scored their first major pop hit single with Connie Francis' "Stupid Cupid". When, in 1959, Sedaka signed to RCA Records as a solo artist, he and Greenfield composed a string of hits - among them "Oh! Carol", "Stairway to Heaven", "Calendar Girl", "Little Devil", "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen", "Next Door to an Angel" and the chart-topping "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" - which sold a combined 25 million records.^[4]

After Sedaka's career cooled in 1963, the duo continued writing hits for other artists, including Patty Drew's, and the The 5th Dimension's "Workin' on a Groovy Thing" and Tom Jones' "Puppet Man". Apart from Sedaka, Greenfield also collaborated with Carole King ("Crying in the Rain"), Helen Miller ("Foolish Little Girl", The Shirelles' final Top Ten hit), and Jack Keller. The latter was his songwriting partner on "Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart", "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" and "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own" (all hits for Connie Francis) and "When Somebody Loves You". In addition Greenfield and Keller supplied the theme music for U.S. television programs such as Bewitched and The Flying Nun. He also collaborated with Bill Buchanan recording a novelty record called "The Invasion" as Buchanan and Greenfield in 1964.

Although Sedaka and Greenfield ended their partnership in 1973, two years later their song "Love Will Keep Us Together" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for Captain & Tennille, as well as earning a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. He and Sedaka later resumed their collaboration, and continued writing together in the years to follow.^[4]

Greenfield died, aged 49 years, 11 months, and 19 days, in Los Angeles, California in 1986 from AIDS. He was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).

In 1991, Howard Greenfield was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Songs

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• "Amarillo"
• "A Woman is a Sentimental Thing"
• "Baby Roo"
• "Bewitched"
• "Birds Do It"
• "Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart"
• "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"
• "Calendar Girl"
• "Call Me Crazy"
• "Candy Heart"
• "Counting Teardrops"
• "Cry a Little Sometimes"
• "Crying in the Rain"
• "Does Goodnight Mean Goodbye?"
• "Don't Hide Your Love"
• "Don't Read the Letter I Wrote You"
• "Eternity"
• "Everybody's Somebody's Fool"
• "Falling"
• "Find Yourself a Rainbow"
• "Foolish Little Girl"
• "Funny Thing About Time"
• "Get Rid of Him"
• "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen"
• "Heartache Named Johnny"
• "High School Girl"
• "I Gotta Find Her"
• "I Think It’s Gonna Rain"
• "I Wish I'd Never Been Born"
• "Is This the Way to Amarillo"
• "It Hurts to Be in Love"
• "King of the Mountain"
• "Let's Go to the Movies"
• "Little Devil"
• "Love Will Keep Us Together"
• "Lovey Kravezit"
• "Lucky in Love with You"
• "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own"
• "Next Door to an Angel"
• "Nobody's Asking Questions (But Everyone Wants To Know)"
• "Oh! Carol"
• "Our Last Song Together"
• "Passing Time"
• "Poor Little Puppet"
• "Puppet Man"
• "Put Yourself in My Place"
• "Rainy Day Bells"
• "She'll Never Be You"
• "Sing Me"
• "Stairway to Heaven"
• "Standing in The Ruins (Of Our Old Love Affair)"
• "Stranger in The World"
• "Stupid Cupid"
• "The Diary"
• "The Doll House Is Empty"
• "The Hungry Years"
• "The Other Side of Me"
• "Two Less Lonely People in The World"
• "Venus in Blue Jeans"
• "(Wait Till You See) My Gidget"
• "Walking in the Footsteps of a Fool"
• "When the Boys Meet the Girls"
• "When Somebody Loves You"
• "Where the Boys Are"
• "Workin' on a Groovy Thing"
• "You Mean Everything to Me"
• "Your Used to Be"

See also

• Inductees of the Songwriters Hall of Fame
• Aldon Music
• List of HIV-positive people

Quotation

"After Howie's mother Ella had seen me, he came ringing my doorbell. I was playing Chopin, and he said, My mother heard you play and thought we could write a song together". - Neil Sedaka, in Goldmine magazine, recalling this event.^[3]

References

External links

• History-of-Rock
• Allmusic
• Songwriters Hall of Fame biography page
• Find-a-Grave