Da Doo Ron Ron: More from the Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry Songbook

Ace's popular songwriter series continues apace with Da Doo Ron Ron, our second volume of numbers penned by the Brill Building-based husband and wife team Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich.

One of the most successful songwriting teams of their time, their insanely catchy melodies, stick-in-your-head lyrics and nonsense syllable refrains were aimed straight at the hearts of teenagers, squarely hitting the bulls-eye more often than not. This compendium of proven classics and lesser-known gems, lovingly compiled and annotated by Mick Patrick, will go a long way toward explaining the special spot the couple occupy in so many hearts, especially those of girl group aficionados.

It was with Greenwich and Barry that Phil Spector co-wrote many of his most famous songs, examples of which by the Ronettes, Darlene Love, the Crystals and Bob B Soxx & the Blue Jeans are featured here. After their initial golden run with Spector, they went on to even greater success at Leiber & Stoller's Red Bird label, where they wrote and produced an incredible string of hits for the Shangri-Las, the Dixie Cups, the Jelly Beans and the Butterflys.

For those who might be wondering, the third person pictured on the CD cover is noted recording engineer Brooks Arthur, who manned the console at New York's Mira Sound Studios, where many of the tracks on this collection were recorded.