Launch Of New Songwriters Hall Of Fame Gallery At The Grammy Museum® In LA

Exhibit Opening to Be Marked with Special Events:
10/19 – Ribbon-Cutting and Songwriter Legends-in-the-Round
10/20 – An Evening with Jimmy Webb
10/21 – Master Class with Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil

Los Angeles, October 4, 2010 - Songwriters Hall of Fame Chairman & CEO Hal David, The Recording Academy® President/CEO Neil Portnow and Executive Director of The GRAMMY Museum® Bob Santelli announced jointly today that a new Songwriters Hall of Fame Gallery will debut at The GRAMMY Museum (800 West Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles) this October. The launch of the new SHOF Gallery will be marked by a series of special events highlighting the contributions of songwriters to our nation’s culture and the relationship between the worlds of songwriting and recording. The SHOF Gallery will feature video highlights from annual SHOF Awards & Induction Dinners, as well as information on all SHOF inductees and honorees. There will also be interactive songwriting collaboration kiosks which will permit Gallery visitors to try their luck at writing songs.


The opening activities will commence with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, October 19 at 6:15 pm, hosted by Hal David, Bob Santelli and Neil Portnow, and attended by songwriting and recording dignitaries. The ribbon-cutting ceremony will be followed by a Songwriting Legends-in-the-Round performance at the Museum’s Clive Davis Theater from 7 to 8:45 pm, featuring a stellar gathering of Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees performing their hits: Hal David (“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “What the World Needs Now Is Love”), Lamont Dozier (“I Can’t Help Myself,” “Baby Love”), Mac Davis (“In the Ghetto,” “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me”), Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson (“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing”),  and Paul Williams (“We’ve Only Just Begun,” “The Rainbow Connection”).


On Wednesday, October 20 from 8 to 9:30 pm, Jimmy Webb will be up close and personal at the Clive Davis Theater in a one-on-one interview conducted by journalist Paul Grein. Webb, also a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, and the writer of many hits, including “MacArthur Park,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman” and “Up, Up and Away,” will punctuate the interview with selections from his catalogue.


The GRAMMY Museum’s Clive Davis Theater will also host the final special event of the SHOF launch week on Thursday, October 21 from 8 to 9:30 pm – a Master Class with one of the great songwriting duos in Pop music history, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, also Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductees. Together, the long-married couple have written such hits as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” “On Broadway,” “Soul and Inspiration” and “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” among dozens more.


All three events will be attended by members of the music industry and area high school and college music students. A LIMITED NUMBER OF SEATS FOR EACH EVENT WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC ON A FIRST COME-FIRST SERVED BASIS. REQUESTS FOR TICKETS SHOULD BE MADE VIA EMAIL TO [email protected]. PLEASE INDICATE WHICH EVENT YOU WISH TO ATTEND.

Commenting on the SHOF Gallery at The Grammy Museum, Hal David said: “This is the start of the realization of our longtime dream of a bricks and mortar presence for our Hall of Fame. We are most grateful to our friends at The Recording Academy and The GRAMMY Museum for this opportunity to give physical expression to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in Los Angeles, one of the country’s premier music cities and home to so many SHOF inductees. I know that visitors will find the Gallery to be both enjoyable and educational. Special events like those celebrating our launch are designed to bring the men and women behind the songs before the song-loving public, and we look forward to more in the months and years ahead.


“The Songwriters Hall of Fame has long paid tribute to those creators who have written some of the most iconic and prolific songs of all time and who are one of the foundations of the music industry,” said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. “We are proud to help them realize their dream of a physical presence to recognize these music makers by housing the Songwriters Hall of Fame Gallery in our GRAMMY Museum, and highlighting the contributions of songwriters to our nation’s culture.”


“As an institution that explores all genres of music as well as the creative and recording process, The GRAMMY Museum is a natural home for the Songwriters Hall of Fame Gallery,” said Robert Santelli, Executive Director of The GRAMMY Museum. “We are privileged to showcase the many songwriters that the Songwriters Hall of Fame honors and celebrates who have written the soundtrack of our lives and of history, and this is a perfect addition to our existing exhibit that spotlights songwriters and their writing process.”