R.I.P. Ellie Greenwich

[Skummy]

Ellie Greenwich, the New York songwriter behind a string of 1960s hits that gave effervescent voice to unbridled teen romance including "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Chapel of Love" and "Be My Baby," many of them in collaboration with producer Phil Spector, died Wednesday of a heart attack, according to her niece, Jessica Weiner. She was 68.

She was being treated for pneumonia and "some other heart issues" at St. Luke's- Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York when she suffered the heart attack, Weiner said.

"She was the greatest melody writer of all time," Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys told The Times on Wednesday.

"Those songs are part of the fabric of forever," said songwriter Diane Warren.

As a shameless fan of '60s girl bands and the whole teenage melodramatic pop that goes with it, I was genuinely saddened to hear of the passing of one of the foundations of that style - Ellie Greenwich - late last night.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the name, I guarantee you know the songs. Along with her husband and Phil Spector, Greenwich wrote some of the biggest and best pop songs of all time - "River Deep, Mountain High", "Be My Baby", "Today I Met The Boy I'm Gonna Marry", "Leader Of The Pack", "The He Kissed Me", "Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Hearts?", "Chapel Of Love", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", "I Can Hear Music"....it's practically a shopping list of every great American pop song of the '60s.

She also recorded some wonderful music and versions of songs she'd composed for other artists, both solo and under the guise of "The Raindrops", and worked as an arranger for Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra and Dusty Springfield among others.

She was not only a phenomenal talent in everything she put her hand to, but also a rare example of a powerful woman in the record industry.

There are precious few people to whom you can point and say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they changed the course of pop music, but along with Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich was largely responsible for recognising it as anything more than a fad, and treated is a genuine craft, marketing to teenagers what Phil Spector called their "little symphonies for the kids".

Without her, pop music as we know it genuinely would not exist, and it's a great loss.