Featured Artists and Playlists:

   
Bert Berns

Bert Berns

Before becoming one of the era's preeminent songwriter/producers, Bert Berns made a serious attempt at becoming a recording artist in his own right.  Performing under several pseudonyms, Berns loved to get behind the microphone, going so far as to perform under the name Russell Byrd on a lost episode of American Bandstand in the summer of 1961.
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Hoagy Lands

Hoagy Lands

Hoagy Lands was said to have been Bert Berns' personal favorite vocalist, and is the only solo recording artist to work with Berns from his first sessions in 1960 to the last days of his life in 1967. Despite the lack of commercial success and almost total obscurity, many in the know believe that the Bert Berns / Hoagy Lands collaborations made for some of the very best music of the era.
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The Exciters

Freddie Scott

The Exciters hold a special place in the Bert Berns repertoire - and in his heart - as they were the only group to work with Berns from the beginning of his career to the very end. And the Exciters' enduring classic "Tell Him" marked both Berns' arrival as one of the great songwriters of the era and the beginning of an important relationship with Leiber and Stoller (who produced the track). Berns loved the quartet so much that they were the only group to record for both his Bang and Shout record labels, and he made some of his best records with the Exciters in those final days.
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Solomon Burke

Solomon Burke

“He had a dream,” Solomon Burke said of producer Bert Berns,  “And I think he made that dream come true.”  Thus sums up the storied career of Bert Berns, whose dream of making it big in the music business took root during his first Atlantic Records session with the King of Rock & Soul.  Brought into the studio by Atlantic chief Jerry Wexler, Berns seized the opportunity, writing and producing “Cry To Me.”  That seminal session gave birth not only to the legend of Bert Berns, but to the emergence of Solomon Burke and the very beginnings of soul music.
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Isley Brothers

Isley Brothers

Bert Berns’ first session with the Isley Brothers in March of 1962 was a major milestone for both Berns and the Isley Brothers, as “Twist and Shout” put him on the map as a writer/producer and reignited the Isley Brothers’ career.  Brought into Bell Sound studios by Scepter Records’ Luther Dixon, Berns was able to demonstrate his vision for “Twist and Shout” after Phil Spector and Jerry Wexler massacred the song months earlier with The Top Notes.  Bert would go on to record over two dozen tracks with the Isley Brothers, blending Latin and Soul to give the legendary vocal group one of the most distinctive sounds of the genre.
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Garnet Mimms

Freddie Scott

Though not as widely known as many of his contemporaries, Garnet Mimms – with the guidance and direction of Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns – made soul ballads that are as brilliant as any to come from the golden age, best evidenced by the transformational hit “Cry Baby.” And though excellent examples of the Berns / Ragovoy collaboration can be found throughout their respective discographies (such as Erma Franklin's "Piece of My Heart" and Lorraine Ellison's "Heart Be Still"), some of their finest and most consistent work together is found in the music of Garnet Mimms.
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Betty Harris

Betty Harris

“That’s not the way I feel it,” Betty Harris said as she stormed into Bert Berns’ office at 1650 Broadway in the summer of 1963 to tell him that he could have done better with his production of Solomon Burke’s “Cry To Me.” Stunned and amused, Bert sat back in his chair and asked the brash young singer just how she would have done it.  Betty slowed down the tempo and turned up the soul.  Midway through her gut-wrenching gospel-inspired audition, Berns stopped Harris and called to book time at Bell Sound Studios.  The resulting dozen tracks Bert Berns made on Betty Harris for Jubilee are among the best-kept secrets from the golden era.
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Ben E. King

Ben E. King

“You don’t just sing Bert Berns’ songs,” Ben E. King once said.  “You have to feel them.”  And the extraordinary feeling vested in the records King made with Berns is deeply embedded in the grooves of the Atco tracks these two giants made for Atlantic Records between 1963 and 1965.  Though none of the dozen plus sides proved to hit commercially like Ben E. King’s earlier recordings with Leiber and Stoller, King expressed great affection for Berns and their work together.  “Bert’s music had more guts,” he said.  “The writing Bert Berns made back then was perfect.”
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Keetch Records

Linda Laurie

Before Bert Berns established his Bang and Shout record labels, he presided briefly over an independent label called Keetch.  Named after his pet Siamese cat, the Keetch imprint was home to some of Berns' best yet most obscure work in 1964.  All songs written and produced by Bert Berns, these Keetch tracks represent the man's full intention to control his own destiny as songwriter, producer and label chief.


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Bang Records

Bang Records

Few independent labels in rock and roll history emerged with such a bang as Bert Berns’ Bang Records.  Established in 1965 as an outlet for Berns’ unbridled output and ambition, Bert and Bang literally hit the ground running with hit after hit after hit.  In just three short years, Bert Berns established the careers of The Strangeloves, The McCoys, Neil Diamond and Van Morrison – topping the charts with some of the most enduring classics in recorded history.


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Freddie Scott

Freddie Scott

According to soul aficionados, Bert Berns' Freddie Scott LP "Are You Lonely For Me" is one of the greatest albums released during the golden age of soul. Brought to Berns' Shout Records label by close friend and artist manager Carmine "Wassel" DeNoia, Berns took Freddie Scott into the studio and made some of the best work of their lives. The title track "Are You Lonely For Me Baby" went straight to number one on the R&B charts for four weeks, and Freddie Scott was voted Number One Newcomer in Cashbox Magazine. Only the death of Bert Berns prevented the world from truly knowing and appreciating the "distinctive, powerful and extremely soulful tenor" of the great Freddie Scott.
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Erma Franklin

Erma Franklin

Erma Franklin may have spent most of her life in the shadow of her younger sister Aretha, but her original recording of Bert Berns’ “Piece of My Heart” stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the greatest hits of the generation.  And as with so many other of the artists who worked with Berns, one can only imagine the heights to which she would have achieved had Bert Berns lived to further champion her career.


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Rare Gems – Vol. 1 (Male Vocalists)

Rare Gems – Vol. 1 (Male Vocalists)

Bert Berns once said, “I’ll only record a song if I think it’s a hit.”  He then followed by admitting that “some of my favorite songs only sold 30,000 copies or so.”  For whatever reason, usually nothing more than lousy label promotion, a great many of Bert’s best work never made the hit parade.  Several hundred demo 45s would be pressed, shipped and unceremoniously forgotten.  But to fully appreciate the body of work created by Bert Berns, one must dig deeper than the classics.  Therein lies the true essence of the man and his music.
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Rare Gems – Vol. 2 (Female Vocalists)

Rare Gems – Vol. 1 (Male Vocalists)

Bert Berns once said, “I’ll only record a song if I think it’s a hit.”  He then followed by admitting that “some of my favorite songs only sold 30,000 copies or so.”  For whatever reason, usually nothing more than lousy label promotion, a great many of Bert’s best work never made the hit parade.  Several hundred demo 45s would be pressed, shipped and unceremoniously forgotten.  But to fully appreciate the body of work created by Bert Berns, one must dig deeper than the classics.  Therein lies the true essence of the man and his music.
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