Editing Doc Pomus (section)

=== Later life ===
With the advent of [[the Beatles]], the days of the Brill Building type songwriter-for-hire in rock and roll were numbered. While he continued writing and had sporadic success, Pomus' main means of income for years was as a professional gambler, which he left after ten years as it was becoming too violent a world. Late in his life, his income increased from royalty payments when more performers started covering his songs.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /> 

In the 1970s and 1980s, in his eleventh-floor, two-room apartment at the Westover Hotel at 253 West 72nd Street, Pomus wrote songs with [[Dr. John]], [[Ken Hirsch (composer)|Ken Hirsch]], and [[Willy DeVille]] for what he said were "... those people stumbling around in the night out there, uncertain or not always so certain of exactly where they fit in and where they were headed."{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} These later songs ("There Must Be A Better World", "There Is Always One More Time", "That World Outside", "You Just Keep Holding On", and "Something Beautiful Dying")—recorded by [[Willy DeVille]], [[B.B. King]], [[Irma Thomas]], [[Marianne Faithfull]], [[Charlie Rich]], [[Ruth Brown]], [[Dr. John]] (Mac Rebennack), [[James Booker]], [[Jimmy Witherspoon]], and [[Johnny Adams]]—are considered by some, including writer [[Peter Guralnick]], musician and songwriter Dr. John, and producer [[Joel Dorn]], to be signatures of Pomus's best craft. B. B King's recording of "There Must Be A Better World Somewhere" won a [[Grammy Awards|Grammy]] in 1981. Pomus also played an important role with [[John Belushi]] in creating the back-up band for the [[The Blues Brothers|Blues Brothers]] in the 1970s, and was [[Bette Midler]]'s musical advisor, bringing her to national attention.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name="Times Obit" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":8" />

Pomus also focused in later life on helping forgotten R&B artists who had fallen on hard times.<ref name=":1" /> The [[Rhythm and Blues Foundation]] provides artist grants through The Doc Pomus Artist Assistance Fund.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rhythm and Blues Foundation |url=https://www.nmaam.org/rhythm-and-blues-foundation |access-date=2024-11-29 |website=www.nmaam.org}}</ref>