The songs of classic pop songwriter Cynthia Weil

In a career that stretched more than half a century, Cynthia Weil wrote hits for girl groups, rock bands, country acts and soul singers. Her lyrics captured the many facets of love – its euphoric bloom and its agonizing demise – but also pondered family, friendship and the details of urban American life.

Weil, who died Thursday in Beverly Hills at age 82, was best known as half of a songwriting team with her husband, Barry Mann, who handled the melodies and with whom she got her start in the early 1960s as part of the bustling pop-music scene based around New York’s Brill Building. (Among the couple’s friends and competitors were two other married duos: Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich.)

Here, in chronological order, are some of her finest songs.

1. The Drifters, ‘On Broadway’

(1963)

Mann and Weil wrote this tale of showbiz ambition with a fresh-faced girl group in mind, and indeed the Crystals released an early version of “On Broadway” in 1962. But it was the Drifters’ slightly bluesier take – for which the couple tweaked their writing with help from Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller – that became a pop staple. According to legend,

2. The Righteous Brothers, ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’

(1964)

Identified by BMI as the most broadcast song of the 20th century, the Righteous Brothers’ Spector-produced smash is the wailing lost-love lament against which all others have been measured for almost 60 years.

3. The Animals, ‘We Gotta Get Out of This Place’ (1965)

The British Invasion slowed many a career associated with the Brill Building, yet Mann and Weil landed a Top 20 hit when the Animals cut this unflinching proto-garage-rock jam about quitting “this dirty old part of the city.”

4. Dusty Springfield, ‘Just a Little Lovin’ (1969)

Words of sensual wisdom from the opener of Springfield’s famously sultry Dusty in Memphis LP: “Just a little lovin’, early in the morning / Beats a cup of coffee for starting off the day.”

5. Dolly Parton, ‘Here You Come Again’ (1977)

Parton’s bouncy pop-crossover hit is among the most charming singles in her enormous catalog, not least because of the yearning in her vocal performance as she greets an ex who’s returned “looking better than a body has a right to.” What a lyric. (LA Times/TNS)