A star-studded group of musicians and songwriters gathered in Los Angeles last weekend to pay tribute to songwriter Cynthia Weil, who passed away June 1 at the age of 82.
USA Today reports that Carole King, Diane Warren, music producer Lou Adler, Carole Bayer Sager, Tony Orlando and more were on hand at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunday, June 11, for the memorial service for Weil. She and husband Barry Mann wrote such classic tunes as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “On Broadway” and “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.”
King, accompanied on piano by Paul Shaffer, performed “Somewhere Out There” from An American Tail, which was a collaboration between Weil, Mann and James Horner. Orlando, who hosted the memorial, also performed Weil and Mann’s first top 20 hit, 1961’s “Bless You.”
Several artists paid tribute to Weil by video, including Dolly Parton, who had a crossover hit with the songwriting pair’s “Here You Come Again.” She said of Weil, “She left a great body of work.” KISS’ Paul Stanley also paid tribute via video, talking about how Weil wrote many of his favorite songs as a teenager, noting, “Invariably, songs that I loved, I would see her name on it.”
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