Barry Mann

 ( 1939 Births ) 

Despite his success as a singer, Mann chose to channel his creativity into songwriting, forming a prolific partnership with Weil, a lyricist he met while both were staff songwriters at Don Kirshner and Al Nevin's company Aldon Music, whose offices were located in Manhattan, near the composing-and-publishing factory the Brill Building. Mann and Weil, who married in 1961, developed some songs intended to be socially conscious, with successes such as "Uptown" by The Crystals, "We Gotta Get out of This Place" by the Animals, "Magic Town" by The Vogues, and "Kicks" by Paul Revere & the Raiders. Mann and Weil were disturbed when "Only In America", a song they had written with the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and conceived originally for and recorded by the Drifters as a protest against racial prejudice, was re-worked by Leiber and Stoller into an uncontroversial success for Jay & The Americans.

, Mann's song catalog lists 635 songs. He has received 56 popular music, country, and Rhythm & Blues awards from Broadcast Music Inc., and 46 Millionaire Awards for radio performances numbering more than one million plays. The song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", co-written with Weil and Phil Spector, was the most played song of the 20th century, with more than 14 million plays.

Mann has composed songs for movies, most notably "Somewhere Out There", co-written with Weil and James Horner, for the 1986 animated movie An American Tail. Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram performed the song as a duet during the movie's closing credits; their version was released as a single, which scored No. 2 on the Billboard chart and became a "gold"-scoring record. "Somewhere Out There" would win two 1987 , as Song of the Year and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or Television. "Somewhere Out There" was also nominated for a 1986 Oscar as best song, but lost to "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun (a film that featured the Weil-penned "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" in a key scene). Mann's other movie work includes the Film score for I Never Sang for My Father and Muppet Treasure Island, and songs for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Oliver & Company. Mann co-wrote, with Dan Hill, the song "Sometimes When We Touch", which scored No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1987, Mann and Weil were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2011, they received the Johnny Mercer Award, the greatest honor from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Mann and Weil were named among the 2010 recipients of Ahmet Ertegun Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Mann and Weil operated a publishing company named Dyad Music.

• Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil Official website