"BANG! The Bert Berns Story" playing in Chicago - most important 60's figure you never heard of

Here's the summary from South by Southwest:

Music meets the Mob in this biographical documentary, narrated by Steven Van Zandt, about the life and career of Bert Berns, the most important songwriter and record producer from the sixties that you never heard of. His hits include "Twist and Shout", "Hang On Sloopy", "Here Comes The Night" and "Piece Of My Heart." He helped launch the careers of Van Morrison and Neil Diamond and produced some of the greatest soul music ever made. Filmmaker Brett Berns brings his late father's story to the screen with interviews with those who knew him best and rare performance footage. Included in the film are interviews with Ronald Isley, Ben E. King, Solomon Burke, Van Morrison and Paul McCartney.
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It played tonight, May 23rd, and will play again the 24th at 6 PM and 25th at 7:45 PM at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

To catch some more attention, here is the introduction to his Wikipedia entry:

Bertrand Russell "Bert" Berns (November 8, 1929 – December 30, 1967), also known as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. A pioneer of 1960s rock and soul, Berns made numerous contributions to popular music, including "Twist and Shout", "Piece of My Heart", "Brown Eyed Girl" (as a producer), "Here Comes the Night", "Hang On Sloopy", "Under the Boardwalk" and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love".​

 

Seriously? Not one reply? This is the guy who wrote Twist and Shout, Hang On Sloopy AND Piece of My Heart! You can't get a whole lot more rock and roll than that!

Here's the official web site, which unlike most official film websites is actually useful.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1234168193371387

 

Great songs that he wrote.

 

I don't think he's as obscure as the thread title implies.

 

I posted this 14 hours ago and got not one reply.

Here.

On the Hoffman Forum.

 

Looks interesting. I think it was shown at the Rock Hall a few months ago. Wish I'd have done to see it.

There should be a documentary on the New York session musicians who on those great records.

 

there was a new Bert Berns thread here just last week.

 

Don't know why it didn't pop up when I searched for his name before posting this.

 

Bang: The Bert Berns Story trailer

Yes, the last thread on this also did not get the attention it should have so I posted it above.

 

Dang this looks good.
Thanks to all that brought this to attention here.

 

Not to divert but Berns and Shadow Morton are overlooked.

 

There's actually two other current 'Berns' threads, although neither is lengthy. The problem may be that few people (or no-one) has seen the doc you referenced. I'm certain quite a few people here recognize the name.

 

I'm waiting for the BluRay or Streaming option since I missed it in my local area.

 

My wife is seeing it tonight at the Gene Siskel in Chicago. I'll try to catch it at the Tivoli in Kansas City.

 

+1

 

You want to see this doc about Bert Berns. You have these artists talking about working with him:
Ronald Isley, Ben E King, Solomon Burke, Betty Harris, Wilson Pickett, Brenda Reid of the Exciters
and Van Morrison. They all thought very highly of him -whether it was his song, his vocal coaching,
the overall production, how "cool" he was. It was sincere, their smiling faces confirming their kind words.
Lots of examples of his songs and productions in the doc, Highly recommended.
However they missed this great song by Patti LaBelle and Bluebelles!

 

Look forward to seeing it.

 

I wish someone would dig up the Jerry Wexler documentary. Apparently some universities have it in their holdings and I would really like to see it. In lieu of that, this 4 part interview is good.

 

My wife just saw it again tonight, she loved it so much.

 

hopefully this can get distributed worldwide somehow. sometimes these things are not made available
to purchase.

 

i hope you guys got the 3 volumes of the Ace songwriter serie dedicated to Bert Berns , its an american music treasure !!

Ace Records

 

Looks amazing.

 

Keith Richards has an instagram post for this doc.
Instagram post by Keith Richards • Nov 19, 2017 at 5:17pm UTC

 

I’m very interested in Bert’s story and have been aware of him for a long time. Bang Records was his label and he penned quite a few classic songs. He has a checkered past like many music business figures. I haven’t seen the film yet but I plan to.

One of the interesting things about this film is Van Morrison’s participation. Bert was to Van what Allen Klein was to the Beatles. I’m many ways helpful to Van’s success and in other ways his nemesis. After years of bitterness over not getting any royalties for Brown Eyed Girl Van seems to have finally reconciled his conflicted feelings about Bert and is willing to give him some respect.

Definitely a fascinating character that was key to the 1960’s music scene.

 

Read the book several yrs ago; saw the movie in Nashville 4-5 mos. back, w/Q&A featuring his son,Brett, and daughter Cassandra--both lovely people.

The movie is great, a labor of love, filled with priceless history.

Getting Van to call him a genius on camera--no small feat!

if I'm not mistaken, up on iTunes recently.