“On Broadway” (The Drifters/George Benson)

Honoring the late Cynthia Weil, today’s classic song of the day is “On Broadway,” which was a hit for both the Drifters in 1963 and George Benson a decade and a half later. This was a unique collaboration between two legendary songwriting teams, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

Here’s how it went down—all at the one-stop music factory at 1650 Broadway in New York City.

Barry and Cynthia composed the song first as an uptempo shuffle with hopeful lyrics. In that original version, the protagonist is on her way to Broadway, with lyrics like “I got to get there soon or I’ll just die.” They wrote it for the Cookies, who’d had previous hits with “Chains” and “Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad (About My Baby),” both written by two of Barry and Cynthia’s friends named Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

Unfortunately, the Cookies’ version didn’t do that well. Shortly after, Leiber and Stoller were producing the Drifters and needed a tune for a recording session scheduled for the next day. Mann and Weil heard this and forwarded Leiber and Stoller “On Broadway.” Jerry and Mike liked the song but didn’t feel it was quite on the money for the Drifters. So the four songwriters got together and, in an all-night session, revamped the song. They turned the shuffle into a straight Latinesque beat and changed the protagonist into a man who’d already made it to Broadway but was having a hard time making it. This led to a new bunch of lyrics that went like this:

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway
They say there’s always magic in the air
But when you’re walking down that street
And you ain’t had enough to eat
The glitter rubs right off and you’re nowhere

For the Drifters’ session, producers Leiber and Stoller called in the usual New York studio cats to put down the backing tracks. That included Billy Butler, Bill Suyker, Everett Barksdale, and a young Phil Spector on guitars; Russ Savakus on bass; and the immortal Gary Chester on drums. Garry Sherman did the arranging and Rudy Lewis sang lead for the Drifters.

The Drifters’ single, released in March of 1963, went to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became an instant classic. It inspired many covers, the most notable of which was by jazz guitarist and singer George Benson. Benson had made a breakthrough from the jazz backwaters into the more profitable mainstream with his 1976 album Breezin’ and its Top Ten single, “This Masquerade.” His version of “On Broadway,” included on his 1978 album Weekend in L.A., went to #7 on the Hot 100 and #2 on Billboard’s R&B/Soul chart. It’s notable for Benson’s guitar/scat solo after the after the lyric that goes, “‘Cause I can play this here guitar.”

This wasn’t the only time that Mann/Weil collaborated with Leiber/Stoller. They also worked together on a song that became a hit for Jay and the Americans called “Only In America.” We’ll cover that one tomorrow.