Ellie Greenwich - Composes, Produces And Sings (1968)

Greenwich is a major figure of 1960s pop/rock, but her first solo album must be considered a great disappointment in light of her deep talents. For one thing, although she's a good singer and producer, most would agree without a second's thought that her greatest talent lies in songwriting. That makes it inexcusable that four of the ten songs here are covers of hits by other people, including "Niki Hoeky," Bobby Vee's "Beautiful People," "Oh How Happy," and "The Letter." Her own songs are decent soul-pop-rock tunes that are not, however, up to the best hits she wrote with Jeff Barry in the mid-'60s. For all that, "I Want You to Be My Baby" (actually written not by Greenwich, but by James Hendricks) is a good, rowdy girl group stomper; "Goodnight Goodnight" is like a good, mid-level Ronettes song; "A Long Time Comin'" is a fair, more serious-minded soul-pop outing that's moodier than most of her compositions; and "I'll Never Need More Than This," a collaboration with Barry and Phil Spector, is nice, lightly orchestrated soul-pop. The entire album is included on the Raven compilation Ellie Greenwich, which also includes her entire 1973 LP Let It Be Written, Let It Be Sung..., as well as a few non-LP cuts.