Talk:Gerry Goffin

A news item involving Gerry Goffin was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 22 June 2014.

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His wife stated that he died on Wednesday, June 18, 2014. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.237.34.211 (talk) 21:18, 19 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have a source for that claim? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 09:33, 22 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

maybe carole king did state in her autobiography that Gerry goffin suffered from symptoms of mental illness after having ingested lsd. however, I don't think this really happened. bipolar disorder is a brain disorder, essentially a genetically determined ailment. goffin probably had it since the day he was born. taking lsd might have brought out the symptoms of bipolar disorder or maybe even exacerbated the illness. however, this drug did not CAUSE it. I don't think any drug, in and of itself, is capable of causing bipolar disorder. (in fact, goffin's decision to take the drug itself may have been influenced by the disease, since many people who have it engage in unreasonably risky behavior.) we should take carole king's word about these matters with a grain of salt. the notion that "taking lsd causes bipolar disorder" is simplistic and misleading. it's the other way around. people who have bipolar disorder are in fact MORE LIKELY to experiment with lsd and other drugs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:558:6017:53:14F3:98FB:2E8A:8889 (talk) 22:24, 20 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's now been reworded. The fact is that he was hospitalized after he started using drugs, but it's correct that one did not necessarily cause the other. Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:16, 22 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen several references to him having had seven chart-toppers in the US, but according to our

"I'm into Something Good" was a UK Number 1? Martinevans123 (talk) 09:37, 22 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

..as were "

Robson and Jerome, much as you may wish to), and "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You". So that's either six, eight, nine, or eleven. Not seven though. Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:50, 22 June 2014 (UTC)[reply

]

Haha, yes. Maybe US and UK should be separated out somehow? Martinevans123 (talk) 09:54, 22 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I read somewhere that actually counting is

verboten... Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:58, 22 June 2014 (UTC)[reply

]

Oh yes, that's right. But especially if it's a famous song recorded by hundreds of "non-notable" musicians. You just can't trust these songwriters, can you. Martinevans123 (talk) 10:04, 22 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WP:NOR which you cite - "routine calculations do not count as original research".--Launchballer 11:13, 22 June 2014 (UTC)[reply

]

I don't think we should try to be definitive about the number of chart hits Goffin wrote. We can quote what sources say; but actually counting numbers is fraught with difficulty. Some songs reached #1 in different versions; many songs reached the chart(s) in different versions; some songs reached the chart more than once. Should they be counted once or twice? The

list of songs co-written by Gerry Goffin is not completely authoritative - I've added quite a few to it today, but there's no doubt that I've probably missed some. We could give details of the number of songs that reached #1, but other than that I think we should refer to "dozens" of chart hits, rather than trying to identify a single definitive number. Ghmyrtle (talk) 19:50, 23 June 2014 (UTC)[reply

]

Probably wise. Although these are essentially facts. If we can't establish numbers here, then I'm not sure where poor 'tinter-web folks are expected to look. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:03, 23 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Problem is, I'm not aware of a definitive reliable source that cross-relates chart positions to the writers of chart songs. So, it's up to the likes of me to go through various sites and books, and make cross-connections - which won't give a reliable figure (and possibly

shouldn't be done anyway). If a reliable source (like, say, BMI, or Songwriters Hall of Fame) uses a figure, we can use it - but it's not really up to us to establish the numbers - except for the basics like number-ones (I hate that hyphen). Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:00, 23 June 2014 (UTC)[reply

]

I've changed the list of US chart-toppers to eight - that is, the six listed in the lead, two of which went to #1 in two different versions. I've also changed the number of top forty hits to "over 50", which is certainly true - it's probably nearer sixty, but I'm uncomfortable about putting in a specific figure unless we have a good source for it. Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:23, 26 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]