{"id":480777,"date":"2025-12-30T20:10:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/480777\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T20:10:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T20:10:20","slug":"on-this-day-in-1967-the-world-lost-the-songwriter-behind-foundational-hits-from-the-isley-brothers-janis-joplin-and-solomon-burke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/480777\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1967, the World Lost the Songwriter Behind Foundational Hits From the Isley Brothers, Janis Joplin, and Solomon Burke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On this day (December 30) in 1967, songwriter Bert Berns died of heart failure in his New York home. He was 38 years old. During his tragically short life, Berns wrote some of the biggest rock and soul hits of the early 1960s. He also produced multiple landmark records from the era.<\/p>\n<p>Berns suffered rheumatic fever as a teen. As a result, an early death was all but written in stone. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/bertberns.com\/biography\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">his website<\/a>, he dropped out of high school and \u201clived aimlessly\u201d for years. Then, at 30 years old, he landed his first music industry job. He began plugging songs for Robert Mellin Music. He began seeing success as a songwriter almost immediately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/the-double-meaning-of-into-the-mystic-by-van-morrison\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">[RELATED: The Double Meaning of \u201cInto the Mystic\u201d by Van Morrison]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 1961, Berns found his first hit as a songwriter when the Jarmels recorded \u201cA Little Bit of Soap.\u201d The next year, the Exciters gave him his first top 10 hit with \u201cTell Him.\u201d That was the same year that he produced the Isley Brothers\u2019 recording of his song \u201cTwist and Shout.\u201d Their version was a hit on the R&amp;B and pop charts. Then, in 1963, the Beatles released their version, which was an international hit.<\/p>\n<p>Another notable composition in Berns\u2019 catalog is \u201cPiece of My Heart.\u201d Erma Franklin recorded the first version in 1967, and it became a top 10 R&amp;B hit. The next year, Big Brother and the Holding Company, fronted by Janis Joplin, recorded it. Their version went to No. 12 on the Hot 100 and became the best-known rendition of the song.<\/p>\n<p>Bert Berns Goes to Britain<\/p>\n<p>After The Beatles made \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d a major hit, Bert Berns traveled to England to work as a producer at Decca Records. This made him the first American producer to make records in the United Kingdom. While there, he produced sessions for the Irish group, Them, who had a No. 2 hit with \u201cHere Comes the Night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later, Berns formed his own label, Bang Records, and signed Them\u2019s vocalist Van Morrison. Berns produced Morrison\u2019s debut album. Additionally, Berns and his label handled Neil Diamond\u2019s debut album.<\/p>\n<p>In short, Bert Berns\u2019 songwriting and production helped lay the foundations for modern rock and roll.<\/p>\n<p>Featured Image by PoPsie Randolph\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day (December 30) in 1967, songwriter Bert Berns died of heart failure in his New York&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":480778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[20560,171,975,4006,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-480777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1960s","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-pop-music","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115810338815012148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}