THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

397-Andy Kim-Rock Me Gently.

1974-Number 2 single.

Best Bit-At 2.23. Nowadays nearly every new song has a remix, but back in 1974 if you got the instrumental on the ‘B’ side, then it was a real treat.

Andy Kim was born Androwis Youakim on December 5th, 1946, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, both of his parents were Lebanese immigrants. He chose to record using the different surname in order to obscure his Lebanese ethnicity. As a teenager Andy Kim moved to New York to pursue a career in music at the world famous ‘Brill Building,’ which was where he first met the legendary song writer Jeff Barry (see also best songs 820-331-262-192 and 127.) Together they wrote ‘Sugar Sugar’ in 1967, which when recorded by the fictional cartoon band ‘The Archies,’ became the best selling single worldwide in 1969, spending four weeks at Number 1 on Billboard in America, and eight weeks at Number 1 in the UK, Kim also sang backing vocals on the track. By 1974 the hits had dried up, and Andy Kim was also without a recording contract, so in an attempt to resurrect his career he formed his own label ‘Ice Records,’ and personally financed the recording of ‘Rock Me Gently.’ After sending promos of the track to various labels, it was ‘Capital Records’ who signed him up. Andy Kim is one of Canada’s most popular and successful musicians. He was inducted into the ‘Canadian Music Hall of Fame’ in 2019, and he was named an ‘Officer of the Order of Canada’ in 2023 ‘OC.’

The discography of Andy Kim includes 10 studio Albums released between 1968-2015, and 28 singles released between 1963-2015, there are also three official compilation Albums available. As well as recording as Andy Kim, his early singles were issued as ‘Andy Kimm.’ He has also released two of his studio Albums, one from 1980, and another from 1984, using the stage name of ‘Baron Longfellow.’ In Canada on the ‘RPM’ singles chart, Andy Kim has had 10 top 40 hits, with ‘Baby, I Love You,’ (1969) and ‘Rock Me Gently, (1974) both reaching Number 1. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, he has had seven top 40 hits, with ‘Rock Me Gently’ peaking the highest at Number 1, while in the UK, ‘Rock Me Gently’ is his only top 40 charting single.

‘Rock Me Gently’ was the first of two singles released from Andy Kim’s self titled fifth studio Album from 1974, the song was written and produced by Andy Kim, and the Album reached Number 21 on the American Billboard 200 Album chart. Some of the top session musicians of the period performed on the track, and it’s parent Album, including Larry Carlton, (see also best songs 356) (guitar) Ed Greene (drums) Max Bennett, (1928-2018) (bass) and Michael Omartian (keyboards.)

Andy Kim moved to New York’s ‘Brill Building’ (see also best songs 740-539 and 331 as a teenager to pursue a career in music. The Brill Building is an office building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square, and farther uptown from the historic musical ‘Tin Pan Alley’ (see also best songs 669-535-443 and 412) neighbourhood. It was built in 1931 as the Alan E. Lefcourt Building, after the son of its builder Abraham E. Lefcourt, (1876-1932) and designed by Victor Bark Jr. The building is 11 stories high and has approximately 175,000 square feet (16,300 m2) of rent-able area. The ‘Brill’ name comes from Maurice Brill, a haberdasher who operated a store at street level and subsequently bought the building. The Brill Building was purchased by 1619 Broadway Realty LLC in June 2013, and underwent renovation during the 2010’s. A CVS Pharmacy opened on the first two floors of the building in 2019.

During the ‘Big Band’ era (1910’s-1940’s) composers and lyricists who worked at the ‘Brill Building’ included Irving Berlin, (1888-1989) (see also best song 731-457-385 and 100) and Johnny Mercer, (1909-1976) (see also best songs 934-281 and 45) and from the 1950’s onward hundreds of writers and musicians have composed there including Burt Bacharach (1928-2023) and Hal David, (1921-2012) (see also best songs 902-740-832-815-644 and 224) Neil Diamond, (see also best songs 536-426 and 13) and Bob Crewe (1930-2014) (see also best songs 914-863-739-499-393-284-164-112 and 83.)

The American singer/songwriter Carole King (see also best songs 1030-1021 and 98) has described the atmosphere at the ‘Brill Building.’ Every day we squeezed into our respective cubby holes with just enough room for a piano, a bench, and maybe a chair for the lyricist if you were lucky. You’d sit there and write and you could hear someone in the next cubby hole composing a song exactly like yours. The pressure in the Brill Building was really terrific because Donny (Kirshner) (1934-2011) would play one songwriter against another. He’d say, ‘We need a new smash hit,’ and we’d all go back and write a song and the next day we’d each audition for Bobby Vee’s producer.

‘Ain’t it good, ain’t it right, that you are with me here tonight. The music playing, our bodies swayin’ in time.’