Songwriter and producer Bert Berns was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame Tuesday at a ceremony at the 54 Below cabaret club in New York City, recognizing a body of work that helped define 1960s pop, R&B and soul.
The induction ceremony featured video tributes from Paul McCartney and Van Morrison and appearances by rock figures including Steve Miller and Steven Van Zandt. The event was hosted by Paul Shaffer alongside Berns’ son, Brett, and daughter, Cassandra.
Berns, who died in 1967 at age 38, penned and produced a string of hits that have endured on radio and in concert repertoires. Among his credits are co-writing the Isley Brothers’ original version of “Twist and Shout,” writing the plaintive “Piece of My Heart,” later popularized by Janis Joplin, and producing The Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk,” a song that has appeared on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. “Twist and Shout” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2010.
He also co-wrote The McCoys’ “Hang On Sloopy,” co-wrote and produced Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” and “Cry to Me,” and produced Van Morrison’s early solo hit “Brown Eyed Girl.” Berns signed a then-21-year-old Morrison to Bang Records, a label Berns founded in 1965 in partnership with Atlantic Records executives; the label name reflected the partners’ first names — Berns, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun and Gerald Wexler. Bang Records’ roster produced hits including the Strangeloves’ “I Want Candy” and early singles by Neil Diamond such as “Solitary Man” and “Kentucky Woman.” Berns also established the R&B and soul imprint Shout Records.
Berns’ influence extended beyond his own lifetime. He is credited with introducing guitarist Jimmy Page to Atlantic Records executives; Led Zeppelin recorded a tribute titled “Baby Come on Home,” released in 1993. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
Berns’ life and work have been the subject of later retrospectives, including the 2017 documentary "BANG! The Bert Berns Story" and the off-Broadway jukebox musical "Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story," which opened in 2014 with a book by Daniel Goldfarb and production involvement from Van Zandt and Shaffer.
"Bert Berns died so young, so tragically young, that even within the industry, only the insiders know about him. He was a phenomenal talent. The list of songs was remarkable," Van Zandt has said.
Music historian Joel Selvin called Berns "one of the great originals of the golden age of rhythm and blues" in his book that examined Berns’ life and the music business of the era.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame induction adds to a posthumous reassessment of Berns’ role in 1960s popular music, acknowledging both commercial hits and his influence on peers and later generations of musicians.