Product Details

• Actors: Burt Bacharach, Bobby Darin, Neil Diamond, Connie Francis, Carole King
• Directors: John Griffin, Morgan Neville
• Writers: John Griffin
• Producers: Morgan Neville
• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 4
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 25, 2001
• Run Time: 300 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005O7N5
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,047 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Worthy Addition to Your Music Collection, November 17, 2004

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Songmakers Collection (DVD)

My two favorite sections of the two DVD's include "The Hitmakers" which include sections on girl groups such as The Shirelles and The Ronettes, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Monkees, The Archies, Phil Spector, and others that will be familiar to you. My other favorite section is that of "Leiber and Stoller" and the songs that they wrote for such groups as The Drifters and The Coasters. The sections on Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, Burt Bacharach are also worthy additions. The section on the Brill Building songwriters entitled "The Hitmakers: The Teens Who Stole Pop Music" alone is worth the price of this set. I plan on using parts of these DVD's in my after-school music class with middle school students. I have also purchased extra copies to give for friends.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good stuff!, July 2, 2003

By 

Douglas J Broda - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Songmakers Collection (DVD)

I bought this at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland this weekend. (It's the source, per this DVD, of Don Kirschner's greatest regret, that being that he hasn't been enshrined there. He should be, and would be if he was more popular amongst his peers, but I digress...)

The longest piece on this two-disc set has incisive comments by the greats of the Brill Building songwriters (Goffin and King, Greenwich and Barry, Weill and Mann, etc.), as well as rare comments from Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las and many others. It's in must-see territory.

The rest of the pieces on the discs are Biography-style (this being from A&E's Biography unit, after all) shows on Dionne Warwick, Bobby Darin, Burt Bacharach and Lieber & Stoller. All of them are well done, though not as incisive as the centerpiece.

A&E skimps on extras, and they do so here again. A shame, as with decent extras I'd give this one 5 stars.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good intro Bio for Bobby Darin - for fans or fans to be, January 5, 2006

By 

Darin Fan - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Songmakers Collection (DVD)

One of the two great Bobby Darin bios (the other being PBS's Beyond the Song). This one is totally different, and features more comments from friends and family than Beyond the Song which focuses more on interviews with fellow celebrities.

I especially like the rare footage and photos of BD from his high school days, some as a drummer in a catskills band.

And the high point is an interview with Atlantic engineer extraordinaire Tom Dowd, who give first hand testimony to the fact that BD worked hard for his success for years before he became an "overnight" sensation.