Twyla Herbert
American songwriter (1921–2009)
title: "Twyla Herbert" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["songwriters-from-california", "1921-births", "2009-deaths", "musicians-from-pittsburgh", "clairvoyants", "songwriters-from-pennsylvania", "20th-century-american-pianists", "20th-century-american-women-pianists", "21st-century-american-women", "20th-century-american-songwriters"] description: "American songwriter (1921–2009)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twyla_Herbert" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American songwriter (1921–2009) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Twyla Herbert |
| birth_name | Twila Moody |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Riverside, California, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Phoenix, Arizona |
| genre | Pop |
| occupation | Songwriter |
| instrument | Piano |
| website | |
| :: |
| name = Twyla Herbert | image = | birth_name = Twila Moody | alias = | birth_date = | birth_place = Riverside, California, U.S. | origin = | death_date = | death_place = Phoenix, Arizona | genre = Pop | occupation = Songwriter | instrument = Piano | years_active = | label = | current_member_of = | past_member_of = | website = Twyla Herbert (born Twila Moody; July 27, 1921 – July 11, 2009) was an American songwriter known for her long songwriting partnership with the singer Lou Christie.
Beginnings
Twila Moody was born in Riverside, California, and as a child moved with her parents to Pennsylvania, where she married Earle Herbert (d.1982). In the late 1950s, Lou Christie was 15 years old when he met Herbert, a "bohemian gypsy, psychic, and former concert pianist," at an audition in a church basement in his hometown, Glenwillard, Pennsylvania. Over 20 years older than he was, with flaming red hair, she was a self-described clairvoyant and mystic who allegedly predicted which of their songs would become hits.
Collaboration
The pair co-wrote the great majority of Christie's hits, including "The Gypsy Cried", "Two Faces Have I", "Rhapsody in the Rain", "She Sold Me Magic", and most famously, "Lightnin' Strikes", a song later covered by such artists as Del Shannon and Klaus Nomi. Christie discussed their songwriting relationship: "Twyla is a genius. She was going to be a concert pianist but we started writing rock 'n' roll. The hardest part was that we had too many ideas. If we wanted to write a song, it would never stop."
Herbert and Christie also composed for his backup singers, a girl group named the Tammys, a handful of songs, including the eccentric single, "Egyptian Shumba," which with its over-the-top, savage vocals and faux-Middle Eastern melody, has become a cult classic.
Herbert died in Phoenix, Arizona in 2009, at the age of 87.
References
References
- [http://www.thedeadrockstarsclub.com/2009b.html Thedeadrockstarsclub.com]
- 1930 United States Federal Census; Census Place: Aliquippa, Beaver, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1995; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 9; Image: 386.0
- Marsh, Dave. ''The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made.'' Page 411. Da Capo Press, 1999.
- Bronson, Fred. ''The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits''. Page 193. Billboard Books, 2003.
- [http://keepkey.yochanan.net/tammys.htm Lou Christie & The Tammys: Egyptian Shumba Home Page]
- [{{AllMusic
- [https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/azcentral/name/twyla-herbert-obituary?id=23279995 Twyla Herbert, ''Legacy.com'']. Retrieved September 4, 2022
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::