Story of songwriter, label owner a labor of love for co-director son
His songs are famous: “Cry to Me,” “Twist and Shout,” “Under the Boardwalk,” “Cry Baby.”
He also had a hand in writing “Hang On Sloopy.”
The name Bert Berns might mean little to music fans, but for six years the prolific songwriter, record producer and label owner created a flood of hits until his death from heart failure in 1967 at age 38.
“Bert deserves to be elevated to his rightful place in the music industry and respected and honored for it,” former Beatle Paul McCartney said in the documentary “Bang! The Bert Berns Story,” opening Friday at the Gateway Film Center.
The movie, co-directed by Berns’ son, Brett, of Malibu, California, chronicles the meteoric life of a man who rose from a $50-a-week songwriting job to leading Bang Records in just five years.
Bert Berns was born in 1929 in New York City. As a teenager, he suffered rheumatic fever, which damaged his heart. In the days before open-heart surgery, the illness was practically a death sentence; doctors told him that he wouldn’t live past 21.
But Berns cheated death for a while longer, becoming a songwriter in 1960 and scoring his first hit, “Just a Little Bit of Soap” by the Jarmels, in 1961.
“He didn’t have his first hit until age 31,” Brett Berns said, “and he should have been dead at 31.”
By 1963, Berns’ star was rising.
The Beatles had a hit with his song “Twist and Shout”; fellow British Invasion bands the Rolling Stones and the Animals also charted his with songs by Berns. Soon, he caught the eye of Atlantic Records executive Jerry Gateway Film Center, 1550 N. High St. 614-247-4433, www.gatewayfilmcenter.com various, beginning Friday
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Wexler, who hired him as a producer. Two years later, Berns, Wexler and two other Atlantic executives formed Bang Records, with Berns in charge. While at Bang, Berns discovered future stars Van Morrison and Neil Diamond. (Both ended up leaving the label unhappy with their treatment.)
The film also touches on Berns’ association with mob figures. His dealings were mostly social; when Berns had a problem, though, he knew where to turn for help.
The process of making the film began about 10 years ago, when Brett Berns realized that his father’s legacy had almost vanished.
“When I realize how obscure my father was and how he had been written out of history books,” Brett Berns said, “I knew we had to tell the story, to tell his part in music history.”
Berns and his sister, Cassandra, have also created an off-Broadway show of their father’s music and had a biography written.
Among its many anecdotes, the film tells about the recording of “Hang On Sloopy,” written by Berns and Wes Farrell, in 1965 by the McCoys, a Dayton band. Later that year, the Ohio State University marching band began playing the song, and a tradition was born.
“It’s like the greatest source of pride I can think of,” said Berns, who cheers for the Scarlet and Gray. “I watch Ohio State football, and every time it comes on, it makes my family so proud that the university and the state of Ohio have embraced the song.”
While interviewing stars of R&B and rock for the movie, Brett Berns came to realize that much of his dad’s music was autobiographical: “Piece of My Heart,” recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967 and turned into a searing torch song by Janis Joplin in 1968, was literally about his ailing heart.
“The heart condition was the driving force in his life,” Brett Berns said. “He lived every day like it was his last; he wore his heart on his sleeve.”
On Dec. 30, 1967, Berns told his wife, Ilene, that he wasn’t feeling well and was going to bed. Later that day, Ilene Berns found her husband ead.
He left behind three children. Brett was 2; sister Cassandra was 10 months old. Another brother, Russell, was only two weeks old.
Bert Berns was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. But Brett, 52, would just like to have a chance to talk to his father.
“I would say, ‘Why did you have to leave us so soon?’” he said. “I was robbed of knowing the greatest man I ever could have known.”