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Cynthia Weil, an accomplished songwriter who created some of the most memorable hits of the 1960s, passed away at the age of 82.
Weil was born in New York City on October 18, 1940. She was the younger of Morris and Dorothy Weil’s two children. Morris owned a furniture company.
As a child, Weil lived on the Upper East and Upper West sides of Manhattan. She was interested in acting and dancing, and always dreamed of working in theater. She studied theater at Bronxville’s Sarah Lawrence College.
Weil’s childhood passion for the theater later inspired her to write the lyrics for “On Broadway,” a song originally written from the perspective of a small-town girl with big Broadway dreams:
They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway
They say there’s always magic in the air
But when you’re walking down the street
And you ain’t had enough to eat
The glitter rubs right off and you’re nowhere
Weil later changed the song’s protagonist to a man, and the resulting version produced by The Drifters made it to No. 9 on the charts in 1962. George Benson’s jazz-infused cover of the song made it to No. 7, 16 years later.
Cynthia Weil is survived by her husband, Barry Mann, a fellow songwriter, their daughter, Dr. Jenn Mann, a psychologist, and their two granddaughters.
