Songwriting ‘sausage factory’
1650 Broadway, that housed Beechwood, was the songwriting ‘sausage factory’ annex to the iconic Brill Building diagonally across the street at 1619. Allegro Studios and its live echo chamber was in the basement where Katz & Kasenetz blew their ‘bubble gum’ blasts, Tommy James warbled “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” Dion sang a tribute to “Abraham, Martin and John,” and literally hundreds of hit records were created. Upstairs Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music was the 60’s songwriting assembly line of Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, Phil Spector, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Jack Keller among others. Tenants also included Scepter Records, with Chuck Jackson, The Shirelles, BJ Thomas, and The Kingsmen, while Roosevelt Music, had the team of Feldman-Goldstein and Gottherer. In fact, as I walked in the front door on 51st Street, “O-o-Child” was on the radio by The Five Stairsteps, on 1650’s Buddah Records and written by Stan Vincent, who I’d come to know years later.