The Songmakers Collection
Several of rock and pop music's best and most important early  songwriters, along with some stellar performers, are profiled onThe  Songmakers Collection, a two-DVD set culled from five separate episodes of  the A&E; Network'sBiographyseries. The centerpiece is "Hitmakers: The  Teens Who Stole Pop Music," a 90-minute documentary about the many writers who  worked side-by-side in New York's legendary Brill Building in the '50s and '60s.  It's a fascinating story, featuring duos like Carole King and Gerry Goffin,  Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, and Neil Sedaka and  Howard Greenfield, nearly all of them Jewish kids from Brooklyn who were at ease  writing classic tunes for black and white artists alike. The tale is told in  standard documentary style, via interviews past and present, photos, extensive  film footage, and, of course, lots of music.The remaining programs, all about 40 minutes in length, concentrate on  individual artists or partners (inevitably, some of the same footage appears  several times). Singer Dionne Warwick, best known for her interpretations ofBurt Bacharach-Hal David material(and maybe for the Psychic Friends Network), is profiled in Volume One. The  three features in Volume Two focus on the life and loves of Bacharach, the  classically trained composer of so many pop standards; on Jerry Leiber and Mike  Stoller, dubbed "the fathers of rock & roll songwriting" for their work with  everyone from Big Mama Thornton and the Coasters to Elvis Presley and Peggy Lee;  and on Bobby Darin, the ultra-versatile, swingin' talent who lived with the  prescience of an early death due to heart problems (he died at 37). Great stuff,  all in all--although a few more complete performances would have been nice.- -Sam Graham