Section 3 of 5
Upstairs at 1650 Broadway
Goffin, King and the songwriting factory. Publishers rented cubicles with pianos in them and paid writers by the week.
3 pages in this section
- Goffin and King, upstairs at 1650 Broadway
A married pair of staff writers in a cubicle with a piano, working to a quota.
- The demo, and what changed on the way to the record
The song arrived as a demo in a different tempo and a different key.
- The arithmetic of a songwriting floor
Staff writers, a quota, and a publisher taking the copyright — the system that produced most of the era's hits.
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