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Thursday, June 19, 2014

Gerry Goffin Gone

Very moving, if sad, moment just now--Carole King announced the death of her former husband and writing partner Gerry Goffin on Twitter with this:  "Gerry Goffin 1939-2014 There are no words."  It had just moved over the AP wire so she was announcing it pretty much to the world.  Of course, what most people may know of as "all those Carole King songs" were actually "Goffin-King songs," at least up to Tapestry.   Making Goffin one of the greats.  Yes, that was Goffin with everything from "Locomotion" and "One Fine Day" to "Up on the Roof" and Aretha's "Natural Woman." Not to mention the controversial "He Hit Me (and It Felt Like a Kiss)."

I was a big Gene Pitney fan as a kid and bought this much more obscure single, "Every Breath I Take."  Another song not often associated with the pair:  The Animals' "Don't Bring Me Down."  Also obscure "Goin' Back" for Dusty Springfield and the Byrds.  Then there was another great song from a Byrds album that was long forgotten until it ended up in Easy Rider.  They even wrote the only good Herman's Hermits tune, "Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good."

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