The Brill Building, located at 1619 Broadway in New York City, was the center of Tin Pan Alley, New York's songwriting and music publishing industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Although changes in the music industry ended the Tin Pan Alley era by 1945, in the late 1950s the Brill Building again emerged as the center of professional songwriting and music publishing when a number of companies gathered there to cater to the new rock and roll market. In the process, they created what has become known as the "Brill Building Sound," a marriage of finely crafted, professional songwriting in the best Tin Pan Alley tradition with the youthful urgency and drive of rock and roll.

The most important and influential of these companies was Aldon Music, founded by Al Nevins and Don Kirschner in 1958 and located across the street from the Brill Building. Nevins and Kirschner sought...