Eleanor Louise Greenwich, known as Ellie Greenwich (born October 23, 1940, Brooklyn, New York), is an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer, who wrote some of the most recognizable songs of the 1960s.
Greenwich (pronounced "GREN-itch") was born to a Catholic father and a Jewish mother. At 11 she moved with her parents and younger sister to Levittown, Long Island, and in time began taking lessons on the accordion. By her teens, she was composing her songs; eventually she taught herself to compose on the piano rather than the accordion. In high school, Greenwich and two friends formed a singing group, The Jivettes, which took on more members and performed at local functions.
At 17, around the time she began attending Queens College, Greenwich recorded her first single for RCA Records, the self-written "Silly Isn't It" b/w "Cha-Cha Charming." The single was issued under the name "Ellie Gaye" (which she chose as a reference to Barbie Gaye, singer of the original version of "My Boy Lollipop").[1] The record was released in 1958 and indirectly led to her decision to transfer from Queens College to Hofstra University after one of her.