"You Light Up My Life" Songwriter Charged With Sexual Assaults

Joseph Brooks, the songwriter who won an Oscar for his 1977 hit "You Light Up My Life," was arrested and charged with 91 counts of rape and sexual assault charges yesterday in Manhattan, the New York Times reports. Brooks, now 71, allegedly advertised on Craigslist in Portland and Seattle for aspiring actresses and lured respondents back to his Upper East Side apartment, where District Attorney Robert Morgenthau says he forced them to drink wine and assaulted them. The incidents occurred between 2005 and 2008, but Morgenthau says the DAs office is also investigating other possible attacks dating back to 1970. Brooks' attorney Jeffrey C. Hoffman, said his client would plead not guilty and that the charges "look preposterous," the Times reports. "You Light Up My Life," which was penned for the film of the same name, won an Academy Award in 1978; the platinum Debby Boone cover set a Billboard record for longest time spent at Number One.

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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