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From Gemini

Together, they defined the "Brill Building Sound" of the 1950s and 60s, transitioning the music industry from sheet music to the teen-pop era.
The Relationship: Rivalry and Synergy

The two buildings were the twin pillars of New York’s Tin Pan Alley.
The Brill Building (1619 Broadway): The "classier" establishment. It housed older, more established publishers like Southern Music and Mills Music.

1650 Broadway: Located just a block away at 51st and Broadway, this building was often seen as the "younger, hipper" sibling. It was the hub for Aldon Music (Don Kirshner and Al Nevins), which employed the legendary stable of teenage songwriters.

Who Worked Where

The Brill Building (1619 Broadway)
1650 Broadway
Key Songwriters
Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Lieber & Stoller
Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil
Key Figures
Johnny Mercer, Benny Goodman

1650
Don Kirshner, Al Nevins, Neil Sedaka
Atmosphere
Formal, corporate, established
Fast-paced, competitive, "hit factory" style

20 Hits from Each Building

From 1650 Broadway (Primarily Aldon Music)
Will You Love Me Tomorrow – The Shirelles (Goffin/King)
The Loco-Motion – Little Eva (Goffin/King)
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' – The Righteous Brothers (Mann/Weil)
Up on the Roof – The Drifters (Goffin/King)
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do – Neil Sedaka (Sedaka/Greenfield)
On Broadway – The Drifters (Mann/Weil/Leiber/Stoller)
One Fine Day – The Chiffons (Goffin/King)
Walking in the Rain – The Ronettes (Mann/Weil)
Go Away Little Girl – Steve Lawrence (Goffin/King)
Calendar Girl – Neil Sedaka (Sedaka/Greenfield)
We Gotta Get Out of This Place – The Animals (Mann/Weil)
Take Good Care of My Baby – Bobby Vee (Goffin/King)
Blame It on the Bossa Nova – Eydie Gormé (Mann/Weil)
I'm into Something Good – Herman's Hermits (Goffin/King)
Kicks – Paul Revere & the Raiders (Mann/Weil)
Crying in the Rain – The Everly Brothers (Greenfield/King)
He's So Fine – The Chiffons (Bright Tunes Music - 1650 tenant)
Oh! Carol – Neil Sedaka (Sedaka/Greenfield)
Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby) – The Cookies (Goffin/King)
Only in America – Jay and the Americans (Mann/Weil/Leiber/Stoller)

From The Brill Building (1619 Broadway)
Hound Dog – Elvis Presley (Leiber/Stoller)
Stand By Me – Ben E. King (King/Leiber/Stoller)
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head – B.J. Thomas (Bacharach/David)
Yakety Yak – The Coasters (Leiber/Stoller)
Save the Last Dance for Me – The Drifters (Pomus/Shuman)
Walk On By – Dionne Warwick (Bacharach/David)
Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley (Leiber/Stoller)
Spanish Harlem – Ben E. King (Leiber/Spector)
This Magic Moment – The Drifters (Pomus/Shuman)
Poison Ivy – The Coasters (Leiber/Stoller)
Do Wah Diddy Diddy – Manfred Mann (Barry/Greenwich)
Chapel of Love – The Dixie Cups (Barry/Greenwich/Spector)
Leader of the Pack – The Shangri-Las (Barry/Greenwich/Morton)
Be My Baby – The Ronettes (Barry/Greenwich/Spector)
River Deep – Mountain High – Ike & Tina Turner (Barry/Greenwich/Spector)
Sugar, Sugar – The Archies (Jeff Barry/Andy Kim)
Blue Velvet – Bobby Vinton (1619 house publisher)
A Teenager in Love – Dionne & The Belmonts (Pomus/Shuman)
What the World Needs Now Is Love – Jackie DeShannon (Bacharach/David)
Ruby Baby – The Drifters (Leiber/Stoller)
Management and Distribution
The "Brill Building" model was a vertical integration system. In one building, you had:
Publishers: They owned the songs.
Songwriters: Often worked in pairs in cubicles with pianos.
Demographers: People who tracked what "the kids" were buying.
Promoters: They would take a fresh acetate (demo) to the radio stations immediately.
Don Kirshner (at 1650) was the mastermind of this. He didn't just sell songs; he managed the writers, the publishing, and eventually the TV interests (like The Monkees). Distribution was often handled by independent labels like Atlantic, Philles (Phil Spector), or Dimension Records.

When Did They Cease to Exist?
Technically, both buildings still stand physically, but their era as the "Songwriting Capital of the World" ended around 1964–1966.

The decline was caused by:
The British Invasion: Groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones wrote their own material, making the "hired songwriter" model less relevant.
The Move to LA: The center of the music industry shifted west to Hollywood.
The Singer-Songwriter Movement: Artists like Bob Dylan and Carole King (who left the factory to become a solo star) changed the industry's focus to "authentic" personal expression.

Other Interesting Facts
The "Demo" Singers: Many songwriters sang their own demos. If you listen to early Carole King demos, you can hear the blueprint for her Tapestry album.
Cubicle Life: The rooms were so small that Carole King and Gerry Goffin often had to work in a room that was essentially a closet with a piano.
1650’s Basement: The basement of 1650 Broadway housed the Iridium Jazz Club for years (famous for Les Paul's residency), maintaining the building's musical DNA long after the publishers left.
Phil Spector’s Start: Before his "Wall of Sound" fame, Spector was an apprentice of Leiber and Stoller at the Brill Building, where he co-wrote "Spanish Harlem."