Bert Berns - Biography

Biography

Born in the Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Berns contracted rheumatic fever as a child, an illness that would mark the rest of his life. Turning to music, he found consonance in the sounds of his African American and Latino neighbors. As a young man, Berns danced in mambo nightclubs, and made his way to Havana before the Cuban Revolution.

Shortly after his return from Cuba, Berns began a seven-year run from an obscure Brill Building songwriter to the chief of his own record labels. His first hit record was "A Little Bit of Soap", performed by The Jarmels in 1961. One year later, the Isley Brothers recorded "Twist and Shout", written by Berns and Phil Medley. During these years, Berns wrote and produced records for a wide range of labels, including Wand, United Artists, Capitol, Laurie, MGM, Big Top, Old Town, Roulette, and Atlantic Records. In 1963, Berns would replace Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as the staff producer at Atlantic, where he produced such acts as Solomon Burke ("Cry to Me" and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love"), The Drifters ("Under the Boardwalk" and "Saturday Night at the Movies"), Barbara Lewis ("Baby I'm Yours" and "Make Me Your Baby"), Little Esther Phillips ("Hello Walls"), Wilson Pickett and LaVern Baker. Berns was also one of the few American record producers to travel across the Atlantic to London, where he produced a number of British Decca artists such as Them ("Here Comes the Night", "Baby Please Don't Go") and Lulu.

In 1965, Bert Berns formed his own record labels, Bang Records and Shout Records. Bang Records was founded with the Atlantic Records partners, with the label's name derived from the initials of their first names—Bert Berns, Ahmet Ertegün, Nesuhi Ertegün and Gerald (Jerry) Wexler. Bang was home to such artists as The McCoys ("Hang on Sloopy"), The Strangeloves ("I Want Candy"), Them's ex-lead singer Van Morrison ("Brown Eyed Girl"), and Neil Diamond ("Solitary Man" and "Cherry Cherry"). Berns formed Shout Records as an outlet for his R&B passions, recording Freddie Scott ("Are You Lonely for Me Baby") and Erma Franklin ("Piece of My Heart").

Berns, who had a history of cardiac trouble, died of a heart attack in December 1967.

One of his last songs, "Piece of My Heart", was originally recorded that year by Erma Franklin and covered shortly later by Big Brother and the Holding Company (fronted by then-unknown Janis Joplin). The Led Zeppelin outtake "Baby Come On Home" (originally titled "A Tribute To Bert Berns") was loosely based on a song Berns wrote for Hoagy Lands, and was recorded in Berns' honour. While the Bang/Shout Records catalogue is today owned by Sony Music, the Berns family still owns the music publishing operations originally called Web IV Music. The Web IV name was also derived from the founders with WEB as an acronym for Wexler-Ertegun-Berns and the Roman numeral IV for the four original partners.