Robert Weinstein (July 16, 1939 – March 16, 2022) was an American

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

, singer, and

music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

executive, whose hit songs, mostly co-written with

Teddy Randazzo Alessandro Carmelo "Teddy" Randazzo (May 13, 1935 – November 21, 2003) was an American pop songwriter, singer, arranger and producer, who composed hit songs such as "Goin' Out of My Head", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", "Pretty Blue Eyes", ...

, include "

Goin' Out of My Head "Goin' Out of My Head" is a song written by Teddy Randazzo and Bobby Weinstein, initially recorded by Little Anthony and the Imperials in 1964. Randazzo, a childhood friend of the group, wrote the song especially for them, having also supplied th ...

", "

It's Gonna Take a Miracle "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" is a song written by Teddy Randazzo, Bobby Weinstein, and Lou Stallman. It was first an R&B hit in 1965 for The Royalettes, which reached the Top 30 on the U.S. R&B chart and peaked at number 41 on the ''Billboard'' H ...

" and " I'm on the Outside (Looking In)".

Life and career

Weinstein was born and grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and attended the

School of Industrial Art The High School of Art and Design is a career and technical education high school in Manhattan, New York City, New York State, United States. Founded in 1936 as the School of Industrial Art, the school moved to 1075 Second Avenue in 1960 and more ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. While there, he formed a vocal group, The Legends, with fellow students Marshall Samples, Ron Warwell, Richard "Chico" Brunson, Sampson Reese and Dominick Fleres. The group won a talent contest at the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...

in 1955, and recorded for the small Melba and Hull labels before splitting up. Marv Goldberg, ''The Legends''
/ref> Weinstein's song, "The Legend of Love", was one of those recorded by the group. In 1957, he began writing songs with Teddy Randazzo, who had sung in another vocal group,

The Three Chuckles The Three Chuckles were an early American rock & roll group from Brooklyn, New York, United States. Although designated rock & roll by contemporary observers, the sound of The Three Chuckles is closer to vocal pop, in hindsight. They formed around ...

. Their first major hit as co-writers was "

Pretty Blue Eyes "Pretty Blue Eyes" is a song written by Teddy Randazzo and Bobby Weinstein. In 1959, it was a hit single for Steve Lawrence, and in 1960 for Craig Douglas. Steve Lawrence version In 1959, Steve Lawrence released the song as a single. Lawrence's v ...

", recorded by

Steve Lawrence Steve Lawrence (born Sidney Liebowitz; July 8, 1935) is an American singer, comedian and actor, best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as " Steve and Eydie", and for his performance as Maury Sline, the manager and fr ...

and produced by

Don Costa Dominick P. "Don" Costa (June 10, 1925 – January 19, 1983) was an American conductor and record producer. He discovered singer Paul Anka and worked on several hit albums by Frank Sinatra, including ''Sinatra and Strings'' and '' My Way''. ...

, which reached no. 9 on the pop charts at the start of 1960. Working as part of Costa's production company, Weinstein and Randazzo had some of their biggest successes with comeback hits for

Little Anthony and the Imperials Little Anthony and the Imperials is an American rhythm and blues/soul vocal group from New York City founded by Clarence Collins in the 1950s and named in part for its lead singer, Jerome Anthony "Little Anthony" Gourdine, who was noted for his h ...

in 1964 and 1965, "I'm on the Outside (Looking In)", "Goin' Out of My Head" and "

Hurt So Bad "Hurt So Bad" is a song written by Teddy Randazzo, Bobby Weinstein, and Bobby Hart. It is a classic 1965 Top 10 hit ballad originally recorded by Little Anthony & The Imperials. Linda Ronstadt also had a Top 10 hit with her cover version in 19 ...

", the last of which was also co-written with Bobby Hart. Weinstein and Randazzo also had a hit in 1965 with "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", by

The Royalettes The Royalettes (also credited as Sheila Ross and her Royalettes) were a four-girl group from Baltimore, Maryland who exemplified the "sweet soul" style of the mid-60s. They were originally signed with Philadelphia-based Chancellor Records and lat ...

. Although he mostly wrote with Randazzo, Weinstein also both worked and performed with Hart and his regular collaborator,

Tommy Boyce Sidney Thomas "Tommy" Boyce (September 29, 1939 – November 23, 1994) and Bobby Hart (born Robert Luke Harshman; February 18, 1939) were a prolific American duo of singer-songwriters. In addition to three top-40 hits as artists, the duo is ...

. During the 1960s, he sang, with Boyce, Hart,

Kenny Rankin Kenneth Joseph Rankin (February 10, 1940 – June 7, 2009) was an American singer and songwriter in the folk rock and singer-songwriter genres; he was influenced by jazz. Rankin would often sing notes in a high range to express emotion. Biogr ...

and others, in Randazzo's revue band, performing regular engagements in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

and elsewhere. His songs have been recorded by such musicians as

The Box Tops The Box Tops is an American rock band formed in Memphis in 1967. They are best known for the hits " The Letter", "Cry Like a Baby", "Choo Choo Train," and " Soul Deep" and are considered a major blue-eyed soul group of the period. They perform ...

Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick (; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on ''Billboards Hot 100 pop singles cha ...

Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons The Four Seasons are an American rock and pop band formed in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey. Since 1970, they have also been known at times as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The band evolved out of a previous band called The Four Lovers, with ...

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...

and

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

. He occasionally used the writing pseudonym Robert Wilding. Weinstein later became an executive with the performing rights organization Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI). He also served for 24 years on the board of the

National Academy of Popular Music The National Academy of Popular Music (NAPM) is an American organization which administers the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and sponsors a series of workshops and showcases for the songwriting profession. It was formed in 1988 by Sammy Cahn and Bob Le ...

(NAPM), responsible for the

Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work, represent, and maintain, the her ...

, becoming its president between 1993 and 1999. He was inducted to the Hall of Fame, with Randazzo, in 2007. He died on March 16, 2022, at the age of 82."BMI Remembers Renowned Songwriter and Former BMI Executive Bobby Weinstein", ''BMI'', March 18, 2022
Retrieved March 19, 2022

References

External links

Songwriting credits at BMI
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weinstein, Bobby 1939 births 2022 deaths American male songwriters Musicians from New York City High School of Art and Design alumni