"I don't know where he's buried, but if I did I'd piss on his grave."
--Jerry Wexler, best friend and mentor
Here Comes the Night: Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and
Blues is both a definitive account of the New York rhythm and blues
world of the early '60s and the harrowing, ultimately tragic story of
songwriter and record producer Bert Berns, whose meteoric career was
fueled by his pending doom. His heart damaged by rheumatic fever as a
youth, doctors told Berns he would not live to see 21. Although his name
is little remembered today, Berns worked alongside all the greats of the
era: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler, Burt
Bacharach, Phil Spector, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and anyone who
was anyone in New York rhythm and blues. In seven quick years, he went
from nobody to the top of the pops producer of monumental r&b classics,
songwriter of "Twist and Shout," "My Girl Sloopy," and others.
His fury to succeed led Berns to use his Mafia associations to muscle
Atlantic Records out of a partnership and intimidate new talents (like
Neil Diamond and Van Morrison) he signed to his record label, only to
drop dead of a long-expected heart attack, just when he was seeing his
grandest plans and life's ambitions frustrated and foiled.
