Joseph Brooks (songwriter)

Joseph Brooks
Joseph Brooks in 1978 as he appeared in If Ever I See You Again
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Kaplan
Also known as	Joe Brooks, Joey Brooks
Born	(1938-03-11)March 11, 1938 New York City, United States
Died	May 22, 2011(2011-05-22) (aged 73) New York City, United States
Genres	Pop music
Occupation(s)	Composer, director, producer, screenwriter, musician
Instruments	Piano
Associated acts	Joey Brooks and the Baroque Folk, The Joe Brooks Group, Debby Boone, Kvitka Cisyk

Joseph Brooks, born Joseph Kaplan (March 11, 1938 – May 22, 2011), and also known as Joe Brooks or Joey Brooks, was an American composer, director, producer, and screenwriter. He was a prolific writer of advertising jingles and wrote the hit songs "My Ship Is Comin' In", "If Ever I See You Again", and "You Light Up My Life", the latter being composed for the hit film of the same name that he also wrote, directed, and produced. In his later years he became the subject of an investigation after being accused of a series of casting-couch rapes. He was indicted in 2009, but committed suicide on May 22, 2011, before his trial.

Brooks was born Joseph Kaplan on March 11, 1938 in Manhattan, and grew up in Manhattan and Lawrence, Long Island, New York. In later interviews, he claimed to have started playing piano at age 3 and writing plays at age 5, following his parents' divorce. As a child, he also developed a severe lifelong stutter that, according to his production partner Robert K. Lifton, would disappear when Brooks sang or acted. He later attended five different colleges, including Juilliard, but did not graduate from any.

In the late 1950s, Brooks pursued a career as a singer-songwriter, adopting the name "Joey Brooks" (later changed to "Joe Brooks" or "Joseph Brooks") He released several records on the Canadian-American label as "Joey Brooks", and on Decca as "Joey Brooks and the Baroque Folk". When his singing career failed, he drifted into advertising and occasional songwriting work, although he sporadically released several more records throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 1960s, Brooks composed advertising jingles for clients including Pepsi ("You've Got a Lot to Live") and Maxwell House ("Good to the Last Drop Feeling"). He received numerous Clio Awards for his work, as well as a People's Choice Award. Credited as "Joey Brooks", he also wrote the song "My Ship Is Comin' In", a Top Ten UK hit in 1966 for the Walker Brothers.