'Party Girl' movie features song by musical U. employee

Terri Jeffries, an administrative assistant in the Department of Physiology, was sitting in a bar when it came to her. Good food, she thought to herself, is soup. And when she reversed the thought, Jeffries became one the co-authors of the well-known Campbell's soup jingle, "Soup is good food." "I was like, how about 'Soup is good food,' " she said. "And that was when 'Soup is good food' was made up. Then I made the right connection with public relations people and that worked out real fine." But slogan-writing for Campbell's is small potatoes compared to the success the 39-year-old West Philadelphia native has had in the music industry. As she walks through the Physiology office with unassuming smiles and waves to, well, everyone, you would never guess that she is the author of the song, "I'll Keep Coming Back," which will debut tonight in the new film from First Look, Party Girl. The song is part of the movie's "house-dance" soundtrack. It is Jeffries' first score. Although she usually writes the music first -- composing on keyboards and synthesizers in her home recording studio -- Jeffries said the creative process for a film score was different from her normal experimental progression. "They show you a segment of the movie," she said. "And throw a pad and a pen in your hand and then they say, 'Terri, what can you come up on for this scene?' " Now in a production room, not a bar, Jeffries once again found a "real fine" combination of music and lyrics. And instead of soup, her song, "I'll Keep Coming Back," will accompany a funny love scene in the film, which producers have dubbed a "romantic comedy." After modestly downplaying her laundry list of musical accomplishments, Jeffries disclosed the romance in her own career. Although she has worked for the University's physiology department for 17 years, Jeffries originally pursued a life behind the microphone as a singer. But Jeffries eventually learned to balance her passion for music with her day job -- despite her workload at the University, she has always been involved in bands. And 25 years ago she broke into the professional music industry after making incessant phone calls to anyone who might hire her as a back-up singer. She said was essentially, "begging for work." After six months, she began to receive offers. Jeffries then worked her way up in the industry, eventually performing with musicians such as Major Harris and Melba Moore. Eventually though, she discovered she enjoyed song writing and publishing more than performing. Since Jeffries started writing, she has achieved success with her hit song, "Better Late than Never," under the pseudonym Lafayette. The song was number four on Billboard Magazine's Club Play for 10 weeks. The next song Jeffries wrote, "Everybody's A Star", was equally successful. It stayed in the top ten of the R&B; charts for 12 weeks -- this time under her real name. When she graduated as a music major from Community College of Philadelphia, Jeffries did not expect to succeed in the business. Or on second thought, maybe she did. "No. No. Yes," she said. "I'll tell you why. Music is universal and it's something we can relate to and that's a success in itself. "And I write good stuff," she continued. "You ever try to make something work and you got four or five different wires and the ground wire doesn't work? That's what I've got when I get that ground wire hooked up. I'm gone -- people like my stuff and I like it." If Jeffries' attitude is any indicator of her future prospects, the University might soon have to say goodbye to the songwriter. "If you're anything like you think you, are you can get that one hit," she said. "And you can go for it. "And I'm working on that, girl." she added.

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