Tony Powers

Howard Stanley Puris (born 1938), known as Tony Powers or Anthony Powers, is an American songwriter, recording artist and actor. He was responsible for writing or co-writing the hit songs "Remember Then", "Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Heart", "98.6", "Lazy Day", and many others including "We're The Banana Splits", the Kiss song "Odyssey", and Powers' own "Don't Nobody Move (This is a Heist)".

He was born and grew up in the Bronx, New York City. In the late 1950s he started writing and selling songs, and began working for Trio Music, a music publishing firm established in the Brill Building by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. One of his early songs, "Remember Then", became a hit for The Earls in 1962; some versions, and Powers himself, but not original record labels, state that it was co-written with Beverly Ross. Powers soon established a writing partnership with Ellie Greenwich, co-writing The Exciters' 1963 hit "He's Got The Power" and Jay and the Americans' "This Is It" with her; and then co-writing, with Greenwich and Phil Spector, "Today I Met The Boy I'm Gonna Marry" for Darlene Love, and "Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Heart" for Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans (later also a UK hit for Showaddywaddy).