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BARRY MANN

“Who Put the Bomp in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp”

ABC-Paramount 10237

(BARRY MANN, Gerry Goffin)

No. 7   September 25, 1961

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Barry Mann’s name is usually whispered with a rever­ence accorded very few.  To mention Mann and not

Cynthia Weil, his wife and songwriting partner of decades, is next to impossible. Together, Mann and Weil

composed some of the greatest rock’n’roll hits of their era. The list is long, and most are commonly known

to even casual 60-plus pop fans: “Blame It on the Bossa Nova,” “Here You Come Again,” “I Love How You

Love Me,” “Kicks,” “Looking Through the Eyes of Love,” “On Broadway,” “Sometimes When We Touch,” “

(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” and

MAX FROST & THE TROOPERS’ “Shapes of Things to Come.”

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He was born Barry Iberman, in Brooklyn, on Feb­ruary 9, 1939.  In grammar school, Barry was introduced

to a ukulele.   He learned a few chords, but only a few–to this day, Barry maintains that he can barely read

or write music.  By age 12, Barry was pickin’ and peckin’ his way through pop songs that he would hear on

the radio.  With time and practice, he began writing his own little tunes.

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After a year of architectural studies at Pratt Institute, Mann went to work for George Paxton’s music­

publishing firm; Paxton headed Coed Records, respon­sible for numerous hits for the Crests, Duprees, and

Adam Wade.  The Diamonds right off had a hit with Barry’s “She Say (Oom, Dooby, Doom),” Steve

Lawrence scored with “Footsteps,” and Barry moved on to Aldon Music, headed by Al Nevins and Don

Kirshn­er; the latter soon to find great fame with psuedo­-groups, the Archies and Monkees.

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“I was with them almost a year when I went to play a song for Teddy Randazzo [a big ballad singer and

later producer of hits for Little Anthony & The Imperials], and I saw this girl who was writing with Teddy,”

Mann recalled to Joe Smith in Off the Record.   “I presumed she was his girlfriend.” She wasn’t; it was

Cynthia Weil, an aspiring actress/dancer/singer/songwriter.  Mann and Wei! married in 1961, and became

an up-and-coming songwriting team.  That year, Kirshner convinced Barry to record some of his own

songs.  An unforgettable novelty record, “Who Put the Bomp” was Barry’s third try.  “I think a lot of people

didn’t get it,” Mann told Gold­mine’s Jeff Tamarkin.   “They bought it because they dug the groove it was a

piece of the times, a put-on of all the doo-wop records.”

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Barry has charted marginally a few times over the years, most recently with “The Princess and the Punk”

(#78, 1976).  His releases are sporadic, and range wildly in quality.  If you get the offer, give a listen to his

“Young Electric Psychedelic Hippy Flippy.”

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As composers, Barry Mann and his wife continued, creating in the late ’60s and ’70s, Dan Hill’s

“Sometimes When We Touch,” Jay & The American’s “Walking in the Rain,” and B. J. Thomas’ “I Just

Can’t Help Be­ lieving.”

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In 1987, Barry and Cynthia won the “Best Song of the Year” Grammy for “Somewhere Out There,” fea­tured

in the animated film An American Tail (1986).