Songwriter Diane Lampert Dead at 88

Diane Lampert and Buster Keaton on the set of 'Ten Girls Ago.'AP Photo/Rainbow Music Corp., Curt Gunther

Diane Charlotte Lampert, a songwriter who contributed lyrics to a long catalog of pop and rockabilly hits along with the title songs for more than 20 movies, died on Friday in New York City at the age of 88, the Associated Press reports.

Lampert was born in the Bronx, New York in 1924. She made a career in the 1950s and 1960s co-writing songs that were performed by artists including Brenda Lee, Harry Nilsson, George Jones, the Seekers and the Letterman. Her movie credits include the title songs for the films The Snow Queen, I'll Take Sweden, Billie, and Silent Running, as well as songs for The Wild and the Innocent, and Trees Lounge.

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Along with Eddie Fontaine, Cirino Colacrai and John Gluck, Lampert wrote the rockabilly hit, "Nothin' Shakin' (But the Leaves on the Trees)," which the Beatles recorded for a BBC radio show in 1963. The track was released on the 1994 album Live at the BBC. 

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Beyonce Working on New Material With Diane Warren

Jason Merritt/Getty Images For BET; Larry Busacca/Getty Images For The Recording Academy

Diane Warren is working with Beyoncé on new material, The Associated Press reports. The songwriter, who wrote "I Was Here" on Beyoncé's latest album, 4, played a few songs for the singer last week in New York, where Beyoncé was in town performing at the United Nations for World Humanitarian Day.

Comparing the collaboration to working with Meryl Streep or Robert De Niro in film, Warren marveled at how natural it felt to work with Beyoncé. "Some people come in my studio and I'm like, 'Oh God,' and you've got to fix them up and it's just hard," she said. "Some of the people that get deals, you just can't understand. But then when you work with a Beyoncé or so sadly Whitney [Houston]. . . it's so beautiful."

Warren – who counts Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," Celine Dion's "Because You Love Me," Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart," and Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" among her songwriting credits – has also been working with Dion, Kylie Minogue, John Legend, Emeli Sande and former Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland, among others, and has written a song that's "probably going to be Aerosmith's single."

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Beyonce Working on New Material With Diane Warren

Jason Merritt/Getty Images For BET; Larry Busacca/Getty Images For The Recording Academy

Diane Warren is working with Beyoncé on new material, The Associated Press reports. The songwriter, who wrote "I Was Here" on Beyoncé's latest album, 4, played a few songs for the singer last week in New York, where Beyoncé was in town performing at the United Nations for World Humanitarian Day.

Comparing the collaboration to working with Meryl Streep or Robert De Niro in film, Warren marveled at how natural it felt to work with Beyoncé. "Some people come in my studio and I'm like, 'Oh God,' and you've got to fix them up and it's just hard," she said. "Some of the people that get deals, you just can't understand. But then when you work with a Beyoncé or so sadly Whitney [Houston]. . . it's so beautiful."

Warren – who counts Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," Celine Dion's "Because You Love Me," Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart," and Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" among her songwriting credits – has also been working with Dion, Kylie Minogue, John Legend, Emeli Sande and former Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland, among others, and has written a song that's "probably going to be Aerosmith's single."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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