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The Drifters - On Broadway

The Drifters - On Broadway Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Greatest Hits
Released: 1963

On Broadway Lyrics

They say the neon lights are bright
On Broadway (on Broadway)
They say there's always magic in the air (on Broadway)
But when you're walkin' down that street
And you ain't got enough to eat
The glitter rubs right off and you're nowhere
They say the girls are somethin' else
On Broadway (on Broadway)
But lookin' at them just gives me the blues (on Broadway)
How ya gonna make some time
When all you got is one thin dime
And one thin dime won't even shine your shoes (on Broadway)
They say that I won't last too long on Broadway (on Broadway)
I'll catch a Greyhound bus for home they all say (on Broadway)
But they're wrong, I know they are
I can play this here guitar
And I won't quit till I'm a star
On Broadway (on Broadway)
But they're wrong, I know they are
I can play this here guitar
And I won't quit till I'm a star on Broadway (on Broadway)
On Broadway (on Broadway)
I'm gonna make it, yeah (on Broadway)
I'll be a big, big man (on Broadway)
I'll have my name in lights (on Broadway)
Everybody gonna know me (on Broadway)
All up and down Broadway (on Broadway)
All up and down Broadway (on Broadway)
All up and down Broadway

Writer/s: STOLLER, MIKE / LEIBER, JERRY / MANN, BARRY / WEIL, CYNTHIA
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

On Broadway Song Chart

"On Broadway" was a collaboration between the familiar songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and the also-successful team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. As such, it represents an especially distilled example of the "Brill Building sound." However, as Leiber and Stoller, and even such music scholars as Al Kooper and Ken Emerson, are hasty to remind us, the "Brill Building sound" actually came from 1650 Broadway as much as it did from 1619 Broadway (the address of the actual Brill Building). Weil and Mann worked out of 1650; Leiber and Stoller at 1619.

Pay attention to the instrumentals and vocals here. The Drifters were a cross-over from doo-wop to R&B, with the vocals striking a balance here. The music has a hint of soul with a large production number, and that intrusive guitar kicking in towards the end gives a nod to rockabilly. At this time, Motown was just firing up with its new soul sound, and Mike Stoller reports in Hound Dog: The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography , "Some say Sam Cooke invented soul music in the fifties, and some say Ray Charles. Some say soul didn't come about until later, in the sixties, with the advent of Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin. Others have told us that our productions for the Drifters began it all. Who can say?"

It's no surprise, then, that Berry Gordy came to see Jerry Leiber at his Brill Building office right before this song came out. Explaining that he wanted to make R&B more appealing to whites by softening the sound, he played some demo tapes for Leiber. Gordy then offered him a partnership. But Leiber turned him down, telling him, "You don't need me. You have everything you need. Just go back to Detroit and do it."

Phil Spector was an apprentice to Leiber and Stoller at the time, and he played the guitar solo on this. Spector learned many of his production techniques watching Leiber and Stoller produce The Drifters.

This was one of the last Drifters songs featuring lead singer Rudy Lewis, who replaced Ben E. King in 1961. Lewis died of a heart attack in 1964.

George Benson's cover version was a #7 US hit in 1978.

Gary Numan did a synthesizer-driven cover in 1979. Other artists to cover the song include Neil Young, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Bobby Darin and Sly & the Family Stone.

This song was used in TV commercials for Radio Free Europe in the early '60s. (thanks, Jim - Boston, MA)